Nigel Kennedy
Feb. 10th, 2008 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranSaturday night saw us at the Opera House, to see Nigel Kennedy playing the Mozart Violin Concerto No.4 and the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony.
Actually, he ended up playing a lot more than that, starting with Bach and ending with Hendrix, with some Bartok and Monti's Csardas thrown in.
The two concertos were well-played for starters, but the real interest lay in Kennedy's cadenzas which were almost like separate pieces in their own right. The cadenzas for the Mozart concerto in particular were quite jazzy and often involved large parts of the orchestra. If The Four Seasons was Kennedy's attempt to bring baroque classical music to the mainstream world, his new thrust seems to be to bring his jazz output to a classical audience. His vehicle is the classical cadenza and the effect was to turn the concertos into something of a dialogue between composers, as well as one between soloist and orchestra. The end result was quite intriguing and I'm going to have to watch out for his recordings of the same concertos with Polish Chamber Orchestra.
As you might expect, Kennedy himself put on a good show and had the almost-full house laughing all night. Definitely an act to watch out for if you get the chance to see him live.
Actually, he ended up playing a lot more than that, starting with Bach and ending with Hendrix, with some Bartok and Monti's Csardas thrown in.
The two concertos were well-played for starters, but the real interest lay in Kennedy's cadenzas which were almost like separate pieces in their own right. The cadenzas for the Mozart concerto in particular were quite jazzy and often involved large parts of the orchestra. If The Four Seasons was Kennedy's attempt to bring baroque classical music to the mainstream world, his new thrust seems to be to bring his jazz output to a classical audience. His vehicle is the classical cadenza and the effect was to turn the concertos into something of a dialogue between composers, as well as one between soloist and orchestra. The end result was quite intriguing and I'm going to have to watch out for his recordings of the same concertos with Polish Chamber Orchestra.
As you might expect, Kennedy himself put on a good show and had the almost-full house laughing all night. Definitely an act to watch out for if you get the chance to see him live.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-10 08:41 am (UTC)The other thing I noticed about Beethoven is that in places he *does* get downright jazzy. You always feel that it won't take much for the music to develop into a jazz style, because most of the elements - the chords, the scales, the style of playing - are _almost_ there.
I've never been that fond of Kennedy's playing - I particularly loathe his Four Seasons which was touted as 'the definite version, now we won't play any other. (I think Anne-Sophie Mutter got fed up with it, too...)'. This, however, sounds very interesting. Sadly, the only concertos he's giving in the UK are Elgar, and I don't think I want to trek into London for that.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-10 07:05 pm (UTC)