Gift to Bartók fans

The other day I blogged about the Bluebeard Castle, one of the most fascinating of all the operas.
I said that the Philharmonia was magnificent, even if Iván Fischer and  Budapest Festival Orchestra [BFO] remain unsurpassed as far as the music by Bartók is concerned.
Bartók is their home specialty, and they really bring it to a new level of skills and interpretation.

If you get a chance to listen to their live performance (Bartók or anything else), it's not to be missed.

I thought I'd share two `Bartóky' videos in this post that I found particularly interesting:

Vasily Petrenko in Paris

Wallin-Sibelius-Tchaikovsky, Salle Pleyel in Paris, November 30 2011

Vass Petrenko

Conductor ..... Vasily Petrenko

 Soloist/Violin ..... Joshua Bell

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

Samson et Dalila in concert

Samson et Dalila, Salle Pleyel in Paris, May 17 2011

Tomas Tomasson and Elena Bocharova (and the members of the orchestra du Capitole - Toulouse)

        Tugan Sokhiev ..... conductor

    Elena Bocharova ..... Dalila
    Ben Heppner ..... Samson
    Tómas Tómasson ..... Le Grand-Prêtre de Dagon
    Nicolas Testé ..... Abimélech
    Alain Gabriel ..... Un messager philistin
    Gudjon Oskársson ..... Un vieillard hébreu
    Charles Ferré ..... Premier Philistin
    Tomislav Lavoie ..... Deuxième Philistin
    Alfonso Caiani ..... choirmaster
   
   
    Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
    Chorus of the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse

Gurre-Lieder in Paris

Gurre-Lieder, La Salle Pleyel in Paris, June 25 2011

Marc Albrecht ..... conductor

Ricarda Merbeth ..... Tove

Lance Ryan ..... Waldemar

Anna Larsson ..... the Dove

Barbara Sukowa ..... Narrator

Albert Dohmen ..... Bauer

Arnold Bezuyen ..... Klaus-Narr

Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg

Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno [Petr Fiala]

SFS - Mahler 2

Symphony no.2 by Mahler, Salle Pleyel in Paris, May 31 2011

Michael Tilson Thomas .... conductor

Laura Claycomb ..... soprano

Katarina Karnéus ..... mezzo

San Francisco Symphony

Chorus of Radio France (Matthias Brauer)

Beyond Lang Lang's Bang-Bang Klang

Lang Lang at La Salle Pleyel in Paris, March 21 2011

Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata no.3 and no.23 "Appassionata"

Isaac Albéniz: Iberia Book 1

Sergey Prokofiev: Sonata no. 7

Budapest Festival Orchestra and Petra Lang

BFO & Petra Lang, Salle Pleyel in Paris, March 5 2011

Iván Fischer and Petra Lang

Iván Fischer, conductor

Petra Lang, soloist

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Salle Pleyel 2011-2012 2012-2013

La Salle Pleyel 2012-2013

Grand Officier Barenboim and Omer Meir Wellber in Paris

Orchestre de Paris, Salle Pleyel, March 1st 2011

Symphony No.4 - F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Piano Concerto No.2 - F. Liszt

Siegfried Idyll - R. Wagner

Piano Concerto No.1 - F. Liszt 

Orchestre de Paris

Omer Meir Wellber, conductor

Daniel Barenboim, piano

Gewand Dvorak: Chailly at La Salle Pleyel

Dvorak Night, Salle Pleyel in Paris, February 28 2011

Maestro Chailly and Leonidas Kavakos

The Carnival Overture

Violin Concerto in A-minor

Symphony no.7

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at Pleyel

Salle Pleyel - Paris, February 14 2011

 You know you are insanely busy when you miss the first half of the year's best concert with the world's best orchestra conducted by the best conductor, accompanying the best pianist -- and the concert occurs in  the city you live...

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maestro Mariss Jansons

So I missed Leif Ove Andsnes, and I'm really sorry for that, but I am still thrilled to be able to listen to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra taking the best of the Beethoven's 7th under his greatness, Mariss Jansons. Blogging from la Salle Pleyel...
--
What they do is just a whole level above any other orchestra today. Only the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra gets close, even if not quite up there.

The only thing that comes to mind after such a great concert is one big Thank you!

Haitink at Pleyel

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Bernard Haitink, Salle Pleyel, January 19 2011

Bernard Haitink after Beethoven's Symphony No.2

Denoke and Mattei sing Zemlinsky

Webern-Berg-Zemlinsky, Salle Pleyel - Paris, December 3 2010

Angela Denoke

Daniel Harding Peter Hirsch ..... conductor

Angela Denoke .... soprano

Peter Mattei ... baritone

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

-check out here-

Bad boys getting tired

Les grandes voix: Bryn Terfel, Salle Pleyel - Paris, November 5 2010

Bryn Terfel - recital "Bad Boys"

Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Canzonetta Chamber Choir
Gareth Jones ..... conductor

Grandissimo Claudio Abbado

Symphony #9 by Gustav Mahler, Salle Pleyel - Paris, October 20 2010

Picture I saw right after I got off the Métro - Etoile

Going to Pleyel I was a bit tired [with all the things I've done at work during the day...] but the moment I came out of the Métro stop Etoile and saw the above scene in front of me, in spite of its automny flavor, a good part of my fatigue was gone. That's that special effect Paris can have on you...

But hey, the night was supposed to be about a huge concert with Maestro Claudio Abbado  --in one of his rare appearances-- performing The Ninth with Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Vadim Repin at Pleyel

Orchestre de Paris conducted by Paavo Järvi and Vadim Repin perform right now at Pleyel and arte LIVE-WEB provides live broadcast on this link (also embedded below)

This concert will be available on the same link during next 6 months for free.

Così fan Freiburger Barockorchester

Così fan tutte (in concert), Salle Pleyel - Paris, September 27 2010

Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Marie-Claude Chappuis, and maestro Jacobs

     René Jacobs ..... conductor

     Alexandrina Pendatchanska ..... Fiordiligi

     Marie-Claude Chappuis ..... Dorabella

     Sunhae Im ..... Despina

     Johannes Weisser ..... Guglielmo

     Magnus Staveland ..... Ferrando

     Marcos Fink ..... Don Alfonso   

    

    

      Coro Gulbenkian

         Freiburger Barockorchester

Tout en douceur

Susan Graham, Orchestre de Paris & Bertrand de Billy, Salle Pleyel, September 23  2010

Susan Graham after Poème de l'amour et de la mer

Genoveva at Pleyel with Anne Schwanewilms, Matthias Goerne...

Genoveva (in concert), Salle Pleyel, Paris, June 7 2010

Anne Schwanewilms as Genoveva

Jun Märkl  conductor

Anne Schwanewilms   Genoveva
Matthias Goerne   Siegfried
Matthias Klink   Golo
Birgit Remmert   Margarethe
Markus Marquardt   Hidulfus / Drago
Gun-Wok Lee   Caspar
Jae-Hyong Kim   Balthasar

Orchestre National de Lyon
Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris

A kékszakállú herceg vára: from Petra Lang with love

Bluebeard's Castle (in concert), Pleyel, Paris, June 4 2010

Petra the Great

Philippe Jordan conducted Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, while our fave Petra Lang sang the role of Judith, and Peter Fried was Bluebeard. Did we like it?