It’s Spectacularly Difficult to Sound So Effortless – Tuesday, 13 October

WHAT A BARGAIN! I got a 10 euro ticket to sit up in the stratosphere at the new Philharmonie de Paris for a concert by the spectacular Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and clarinetist Martin Fröst under the direction of Riccardo Chailly. I was seated in one of the “clouds” behind the orchestra, so got a good view of the Maestro, of Fröst’s rear end (nice!) and of the musicians & their music. 

This is one of the world’s greatest orchestras, and they performed just brilliantly in big dramatic moments as well as in subtle intensely quiet moments; in the large ensemble and in smaller chamber-size ensembles; as an accompanist for the soloist and as the main deal. Their balance was perfect, their phrasing fluid, the solo lines SPOT ON and natural (yaaay horns! [and all the other principals]) – they made it sound easy (which it is anything but – especially the first horn’s treacherous theme in Til Eulenspiegel sounded as effortless as falling off a log).  Wow, just wow.

We got Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Strauss’ Death & Transfiguration, Metamorphosen and Til Eulenspiegel. After his concerto Martin Fröst played an encore by Poulenc filled with “fireworks” – I didn’t catch the name of it, but there was a recurring theme that sounded a little like the opening theme of Til Eulenspiegel. If any of my clarinet-playing friends know what this is, give me a shout!

I was pretty much eye level with
the center "cloud"

At last Thursday’s concert of the Orchestre de Paris I noticed muddiness and balance problems in my 28-euro seat over in one of the side “clouds.” Of course, that was a different (lower tier) orchestra and conductor, so it probably wasn’t an acoustical problem! In any case, I can assure you that I’ll happily buy a ticket for Porte 5A, seat C167 again!

Happy camper at
intermission

The concert started at 8:30. It ended at 11:00. Good thing I didn’t need to sleep or anything before heading off to the airport early Wednesday morning!

The Hall almost looks like an
alien spaceship at night!

http://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en