Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony - Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings - Tchaikovsky: Symphony nr. 6

Another week without serious listening went by. Several reasons for that. Submitted my thesis on Monday and then had to throw myself headlong in three project that are running in parallel. So little time. Further, I am still exploring this whole streaming concept so I am reading up on it as much as I can, whilst trying out snippets here and there. With this, my interest in the audiophile side of the listening has again reared its ugly head, so I have been sampling a few things purely for comparative purposes. And, finally, I haven't settled down yet on what I would like to in the next few weeks. Shall I continue with the Bartok project which is still incomplete? What about the stack of string quartets that is waiting for me? Or maybe it is a better idea to relax and just hop between genres until I feel the gravitational pull from something or other?

Anyway, I do need to catch up on a few things I did listen to in the past few weeks. From the BP Digital Concert Hall I have not heard a lot yet. In fact I have limited myself to just one concert. A rather odd affair as it was a memorial concert on the occasion of 25 years Chernobyl (April 26, 1986) that brought together several ensembles in the Berliner Philharmonie: the strings of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin and a Ukrainian mixed chamber choir Credo.

The programme consisted of a long introductory part in which Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony op. 110a was played by the strings of the BPO, altercating with three pieces for choir, and then also texts declamated by two readers (Therese Affolter and Christian Brückner). The whole thing had a theatrical aspect with the strings arranged in a semi-circle (without conductor), backed by the speakers and choir. Despite the unconventional setup it was a gripping performance. The Chamber Symphony was brought with appropriate gravitas without sounding morose, the choir pieces were heartstoppingly beautiful and ravishingly sung and the speakers did quite well (particularly Affolter stood out).

After the break it was the Staatskapelle's turn, conducted by Andrei Boreyko. Allegedly it was his debut performance with the orchestra. I have one Boreyko CD in my collection: Schnittke's Faust Cantata complemented by Bach pieces (with the Hamburg Philharmonic, on Berlin Classics). He is known for enterprising programming. (Soon we will be able to hear more of that as the Belgian National Orchestra have been able to lure him as chief conductor from the 2012-13 season onwards. Next year, in April, he will make his Bozar debut. With Boreyko in Brussels and De Waart and Herreweghe in Antwerp it seems our orchestras are finally getting serious.) First there was a brief but beautiful piece, unbeknownst to me: the Requiem for Strings by Takemitsu. Up to this day I haven't quite fallen for Takemitsu's music which sounds like a somewhat diluted impressionism to me. But this early piece (1957) is very striking, almost Bartokian in the dark suppleness of its long lines. It put the young Japanese composer immediately on the map when it was (accidentally) auditioned by Stravinsky during one his visits to Tokyo. I thought the performance by the Staatskapelle was quite successful.

The concert was brought to a close by Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique". I was rather less impressed by this reading which didn't seem to plumb the depths of some of the others I know. Altogether a very unusual but well received concert on the DCH.