Tonight my choir sings the first of three performances of Styx, by Giya Kancheli, the Georgian composer.
The conductor is Alexander Lazarev. His interpretation at rehearsals has been really wonderful. At the same time he has been very precise with all the practical stuff like entries and cutoffs. As an added treat, we also have Yuri Bashmet as the viola soloist.
We get free tickets for the second half of the programme, which is Shostakovich’s Symphony No 7 Leningrad. It should be a great night.
Comesailawaycomesailawaycomesailawaywithmeeeeee!!!
How was it?
It went extremely well and the audience was very appreciative. Maestro Lazarev played around with the tempi a fair bit, so we were all watching him closely. Yuri Bashmet’s viola solos were exquisite. It should be even better tonight and tomorrow night. I’ll be interested to see what the reviewers say.
I stayed for the second half to hear the SSO playing the Shostakovich, which was also great.
For Australian dopers - I’ve just discovered that our performance tonight (Friday) is being broadcast live from the Sydney Opera House on ABC Classic FM beginning at 8.00pm EST.
It’s just as well that it was the Friday night performance that was broadcast live and recorded, because last night’s performance was somewhat less than spectacular. Maestro Lazarev was completely distracted by a women who coughed (very loudly) almost continuously throughout the piece. I’ve never seen a conductor so angry. At one point I thought that he was actually going to stop the performance!
Next performance, in two weeks’ time, is Haydn’s *Die Jahreszeiten * (The Seasons).
I ought to have posted this review of our performance of *Styx * earlier.