The Dream Machine at the Bodega in Nottingham.
It’s a beautiful hall with a rich history and interesting acoustics.
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Jess Gillam ensemble at the Newbury Corn Exchange right now (interval).
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This afternoon I attended the opening of Kronos’ Fifty for the Future concert in Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam. This weekend, 50 new string quartet compositions are played here which were commissioned by the Kronos Quartet on the occasion of their 50 year jubileum. Exciting and moving pieces from composers from all around the world, performed by Kronos and various other quartets.
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The Baylor Project at Ronnie Scott’s tonight. Fabulous gig and I have to say that Marcus Baylor is just an astonishingly good drummer
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Death Cab for Cutie at The Ryman in Nashville back in February.
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Having been to 4 or 5 classical concerts at the Symphony Hall in the last six months, Saturday night was a bit of of a culture shock. An audience of over 16,000, at the NIA, or whatever it is called now. Nearly everybody was between 50 and 65 yrs old turning up to see Duran Duran with two support acts. One of who was Jake Shears, lead singer of Scissor Sisters, who camped it up for 40 minutes. Not my thing at all but he went down quite well with a few well known sing alongs. Apparently he played “Comfortably Numb” but I didn’t notice. Lol.
Duran Duran were excellent, but too loud for my taste, perhaps I am getting old. They can roll out a lot of hits but the standouts for me were " Ordinary World", their best song imho, “Come Undone” and a storming version of “White Lines”, originally done by Grandmaster Melle Mel, I think. I saw them in Birmingham in 87, who knew that they could still pull a big audience 36 years later. I don’t like much 80s pop but have always quite liked DD.
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Just came back from Helene with a great program for the evening. A number of encores, so what is not to like.
While I had the feeling that in details it was not her best evening it still was an enjoyable concert….
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That’s some achievement, right there 
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She’s coming around to Chicago next season playing the same program you have heard. I have not decided to book or not yet. It’s been a while she visited here.
Víkingur Ólafsson: Mozart and Contemporaries
The recital Sunday was fantastic! Olafsson is a terrific interpreter with a killer chop to boot. He’s no Horowitz but his Mozart pieces were fresh filled with new ideas yet they all stayed within the right context. He did not do different things just to be different. All these short tunes were played in a chronological order in Mozart’s last 10 years’s life. Galuppi and Cimarossa pieces acted like a prelude to the Mozart pieces. This was his Chicago debut and he seems to be a very nice fellow. His style reminded me a bit of Gieseking. A fine subtlety allied to a precision and fire. A huge dynamics from piano to forte. Interestingly my vinyl records sounded a bit soft and defused comparatively missing all the bass dynamics and some key strokes sounded too soft. In live performance, each note was given the presence and I did not feel at all cheated out of notes.
He is currently touring in the US but he’ll be back in the EU this summer. Give him a try when you have a chance.
Program
Galuppi
Sonata No. 9 in F Minor
Mozart
Rondo in F Major, K. 494
Bach
Rondo in D Minor
Cimarosa, arr. Òlafsson
Sonata No. 42 in D Minor
Mozart
Fantasy in D Minor, K. 397
Mozart
Rondo in D Major, K. 485
Cimarosa, arr. Ólafsson
Sonata No. 55 in A Minor
Haydn
Sonata in B Minor, Hob. XVI:32
Mozart
Kleine Gigue in G Major, K. 574
Mozart
Sonata in C Major, K. 545
Mozart, arr. Ólafsson
Adagio from String Quintet No. 3 in G Minor K. 516
Galuppi
Sonata No. 34 in C Minor
Mozart
Sonata in C Minor, K. 457
Mozart
Adagio in B Minor, K. 540
Mozart, trans. Lizst
Ave verum corpus, K. 618
[Encore]
Bach (trans. Stradal)
Andante from Organ Sonata No. 4, BWV 528
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A great concert, with two piano concertos - quite unique and quite beautiful. He convinced me already on recordings, now also live….
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He’s coming around to Chicago next Sunday but I did not opted for attending since the recital coincides with the Italian F1. 
Hope to catch him some other time.
Don’t miss out on him on your next opportunity, he deserves your attention….
Eric Bibb and band, at the Cheese and Grain in Frome, Saturday 13th. Musically, very, very good, great musicians and his voice is wonderful. I love his politically engaged, angry songs, but his happy-clappy, dewy-eyed Christianity leaves me squirming a little. Guess I just prefer my bluesmen to have at least a hint of midnight deals down at the crossroads about them.
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Vivaldi Gloria
Conductor: Giovani AntoniniSoprano: Amanda Forsythe, Yulia Van Doren
Mezzo Soprano: Sasha Cooke
Usual strings on the left Cello on the right configuration but for some reason he decided to split the violins left and right and celli in the middle. for Kyrie. I wonder why.
Soprano Sasha Cooke had an excellent reach and clarity.
A lovely concert last Tuesday at the usual Orchestra Hall. I wish they would do more of this type of program. I was surprised that Kyrie was actually the first time played in Chicago in their 125 year history! I think Antonini did a good job trying to loosen up Chicago players but those modern fiddles sound rather synthetic lacking natural tone and at times I felt they did not have enough rhythmic pulse. Sort of too sophisticated legato…OTOH, Celli were excellent. Chorus sort of lacked a power for me. I was expecting large powerful chorus but they were more in the background. The Orchestra also was overwhelming the solo vocals except lovely Sasha Cooke. She’s no Sandrine Piau but had a lovely bell like tone.
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We saw him on Friday at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham and he was amazing.
Seen him several times now and he’s always superb, but last Friday was just something even more special than usual. I think it was because he interacted with the audience more than usual, which is rare in my experience.
I met him at the G3 gig in Birmingham in ‘18 as a guest of Planet Rock and he wasn’t very talkative then, although he and John Petrucci were both very nice to chat with😊
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Well, Italian F1 cancelled this weekend but all the good seats are taken for Cho’s recital. Double bummer.
The Maiastra Sting Quintet at Newbury Spring Festival , an afternoon concert by young professional musicians (the cellist was especially good) in their very early days .
Lovely