RSNO, 30/05/2015

Elgar : The Dream of Gerontius

Toby Spence (tenor)
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)
Alan Opie (baritone)
RSNO Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

RSNO, 23/05/2015

Berlioz : Roman Carnival Overture
Lalo : Symphonie espagnole (Ray Chen, violin)
Brahms : Symphony No. 2

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

King Roger streamcast

I've known Szymanowski's King Roger in audio form for many years, and I'd have given my eye-teeth to be in London for the Royal Opera's first-ever staging of this marvellous work.  Not possible, alas, and for some reason, the company saw fit not to add this to its cinema broadcast roster, but they did stream it live over the internet.  It was available from a couple of sources, but I watched via the newly launched Opera Platform (www.theoperaplatform.eu), which also promises more and similar goodies to come, from opera houses all over Europe.

However, the problem is that it is a streamed broadcast.  Unless you have a state-of-the-art home theatre, with smart TV, integrated sound system, etc., etc., then you're faced with a small screen, and tinny sound.  The thing that really gets my goat is that it's apparently not possible to synchronise analogue and digital broadcasts.  I have a perfectly good stereo system, and the ideal would have been to turn the sound off on my computer, and listen to the broadcast live via BBC Radio 3.  Yet there's a ten second delay between the sound you get via FM, and the sound you get over the internet, which is just plain frustrating.

I'm not going to deprive myself of the pleasure of watching this sort of thing, I'm too much of an opera nut for that.  But no matter how interesting King Roger was, it's going to remain a private indulgence, as the kind of reproduction quality you get in the cinema simply isn't available to me.

[Next : 23rd May]

BBCSSO, 14/05/2015

Berio : Quattro versioni originali della "Ritirata notturna di Madrid" di Luigi Boccherini
Mozart : Piano Concerto No. 21, K.467 (Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano)
Mendelssohn : A Midsummer Night's Dream (complete incidental music)

Katherine Broderick, soprano
Clara Mouriz, mezzo-soprano
Actors from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Les Sirènes
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Markus Stenz

Scottish Opera, 12/05/2015

Verdi : Il Trovatore

Chorus of Il Trovatore
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Tobias Ringborg

RCS, 11/05/2015

Vaughan Williams : Sir John in Love

Chorus and Orchestra
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Timothy Dean

BBCSSO, 08/05/2015

Janacek : Sinfonietta
Shostakovich : Piano Concerto No. 1 (Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Mark O'Keeffe, trumpet)
Shostakovich : Symphony No. 15

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Alpesh Chauhan

RSNO, 02/05/2015

Sibelius : Night Ride and Sunrise
Grieg : Piano Concert (Christian Ihle Hadland, piano)
Nielsen : Symphony No. 4 "The Inextinguishable"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Storgårds