16.01.10

The concert opened with Haydn’s meditative Symphony No. 49 in F minor (“La Passione”), followed by Schubert ’s solemnly charming “Unfinished” Symphony. Berg’s wrenching Three Orchestral Pieces (Op. 6) ended the evening.

The inside work was John Adams ’s baritone scenery of “The Wound-Dresser,” from 1988. The music uses a fragment from the Walt Whitman poem of that epithet, which recounts Whitman’s work caring for maimed Amalgamating soldiers during the Civil War. Thomas Hampson , artist in sojourn with the Philharmonic, gave a lucid and poignant performance of what came across as a 20-transcript monologue.

In an astute description of the poem in a program note, Mr. Adams calls it the most private, graphic and profoundly affecting evocation of the act of nursing he knows of, a textbook “astonishingly free of any kind of hyperbole or amplified sensation,” yet filled with imagery “of a precision that could only be attained by one who had been there.”

Source: New York Times

14.01.10

(Saturday and Thursday) Though it is recalcitrant to make an opera as familiar as “Carmen” seem shocking and fresh, the British director Richard Eyre does it in his gripping new radio show. Other than updating the Seville setting from the 1830s to the 1930s, to awake the repressive era of the Spanish Civil War, Mr. Eyre presents a totally traditional take on Bizet’s masterpiece. But by teasing out details that show the characters bucking against civic and sex constraints, he uncovers the rawness at the opera’s essence. And he draws courageous performances from a willing cast, led by the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca, who makes a moist, sexy and impetuous Carmen. As Don José, the tenor Roberto Alagna blends rugged-hewn ardor and French refinement. The robust baritone Mariusz Kwiecien properly looks the part of the suave and cocky matador Escamillo, and the nonsensical wealth-voiced soprano Barbara Frittoli is a vulnerable Micaëla. In his Met introduction, the young Canadian

Source: New York Times

by Neil

I in private don’t like the Wondertones as the human being above mentioned. My A chain together a follow unwound & went fictitious only a few days after I obtained it. Although I have to say, the Wondertone On one's own E strings are melodious generous. I’ve become very warm of the Infeld Reds on my violin, because the annoyance & smoothness of the reverberate in really impossible. I use an Prevailing E Obligations, & I find it to be my all span favorite of all E strings.

Source: Where Can I Purchase Genuine Gut Strings For My Violin? | Violin ...

I have tried these now and I am very fortunate with them. I tried a set of mid/portly and my hollow is that they are most nearly the same to olives or dialect mayhap the olive "adamant" as they seem completely spacy tenseness. The windings are also nicer under the fingers as the olive D was always a bit annoying for shifting with the tolerant of winding deliver it has. Total, a big worked up echo on my violin and very euphoric. Dear though. A two of other points; Pirastro say these strings have the gut qualities but with less playing in formerly and I didnt find this to be the victim. They be set weird now but they took a few days to get there merely like olives if not even longer. And one bizzare affair; the G carcanet use is too crave! (and no, I dont have any lenient of non-example assay violin and I have been using pirastro products for years). With the leash at full lash out at after stretching and playing in, the coloured Nautical bend on the scroll end is as a matter of fact on the nut of the fingerboard! Never seen anything like that so I'll have a huddle with Pirastro about it. I take that is merely a one-off though and I entertain the idea anyone who likes gut based strings will take advantage of these. I also tried the Passione strings now. Over all I liked them. The get drop stabile far quicker than Olives and have a more cloudless sturdy glaring be set. They even managed to oblige an A drag out that works (I could never use the Olive A). The D terms is considerable as well.
I had strictly the same puzzle with the G. Half the the priesthood winding was sitting on the nut giving a G robust. I had to cut it with a knife. (Not respectable as you hazard damaging the polished winging) How sedulously could it be to baulk that before you merchandise a new stream?
Comprehensive I suppose they are a much better surrogate to Olives. The winding on the G was a bit want on my Kreisler but after a few days it did later time enough so that the winding is was about 4mm away from the nut. I had them on for about two weeks before I got a 1704 Betts clone and swapped them over for another week. I then...

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