Anyone seen Hakan Hardenberger perform live?

[ryno]

[ This Message was edited by: ryno on 2002-10-09 08:55 ]

[ This Message was edited by: ryno on 2002-10-09 08:55 ]

[ This Message was edited by: ryno on 2002-10-09 08:58 ]

[PC]

Hey,

The man's in town and I'm going to hear him tonight! Håkan will play a concerto by a Swedish composer, Jan Sandström, written specially for him. We'll see what he has been up to lately.

It is quite exciting as we do not get a lot of greats in our neck of the woods, and when we do, it's usually the usual suspects, playing piano or violin (with all due respect, yawn!!).

From my limited experience of greats, it is always terrific and even better than canned! Now let's see, who have I collected so far: Maurice André, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Guy Touvron, Kenny Wheeler, Arturo Sandoval, CSO, Berlin, Vienna, LA, Pittsburgh, Pierre Thibaud, Phillip Jones brass and lots of other "lesser" cats and cousins from F. horn, trombone and tuba reputation!

I'll come back tomorrow with a full clam report (that's the beauty with contemporary works, no way to tell!)!

Pierre

[ This Message was edited by: PC on 2003-01-16 06:48 ]

[johntpt]

I saw Mr. Hardenberger play the Maxwell Davies Concerto with one of the BBC Orchestras on tour in 1995 in Houston. He played from memory - quite an accomplishment in such a modern work nearly 30 minutes long featuring extreme upper and lower register playing. He sounded absolutely wonderful and made a big impression on me at that time. His stage presence was a lesson by itself. Even in the rests while he wasn't playing he was "playing a part" so to speak, and never went out of character. He is truly a world class soloist on the level of any famous pianist or violinist.

John Urness

[ZeroMan]

I agree. He has great stage presence and incredible endurance. The latter is most appreciated by trumpeters, esp. those for whom endurance is a sticking point. I also had the chance to hear him play the Maxwell-Davies live. While I was never impressed with the actual work, I was very impressed with the way Hardenberger played it.

[PC]

Well, what can I say, my ears are still ringing!! What a concert!! That kid can play, definitely. No disappointment, he sounded EXACTLY like on his CDs!! Even in the treacherous perfectly clear acoustics of our concert hall (you could hear his breaths, but I would challenge anyone to hear an imperfection in his sound attacks)!!

The concerto was very interesting, calling for a full orchestra (3 trp. with lots to play, sometime unison with Håkan, kudos to our 1st trp. Reidar Bye - the son of the 2nd. trp. in my orchestra - who had to measure himself with the soloist and played brilliant entries on high Ds muted after a really difficult Overture before the concerto, 3 trb., tuba, 4 horns and lots of percussion à la Jolivet). The 1st and 2nd mvt. showcased HH's musicality, nothing too technical (apart from a few twisted runs around concert high C), but all the palette of attacks, legato lyricism, wide intervals, whisper tones, you name it! HH played on a silver C trumpet, exact on the challenging rhythms, at times overpowering the orchestra with a magnificent tone with the slightest vibrato, at other times backing off to feature the orchestras brass more than himself, truly a wonderful musical experience. As stated above, HH had a wonderful stage presence even though he played with the music on a large music stand, living the music even when not playing, at times almost singing along!

But that paled in comparison to the final 3rd mvt.! Apparently, the composer revised his copy, scrapping the first version and writing something much more challenging to really show off HH!! That mvt. saw him playing literally non stop, at the speed of light, treating us to a bunch of concert high Fs, some of them as part of rapid double tongued intervals (!), loud low notes, sustained fff long high D's, what can I say but WOW!!! On top of that, he really looked nonchalant, even straining more in the middle register, trying to get the sound colour he wanted.

Of course, we did not let him get away with just the concerto, he had to play an encore! He came back on stage with a copper harmon in his C trp. and proceeded to play the sweetest ballad I've ever heard. Again, beautiful soft attacks, delicate half-valve ornaments, fiery high Cs, cascades of notes, perfectly clean intervals, beautiful music ending on a most delicate pp.

HH even had the courtesy of remaining to hear the orchestra play Brahms 4 after the pause, which you would have thought he could not care less about! I saw him leave the hall on foot to get back to his hotel, but I did not dare challenge him with equipment and mouthpiece nerdy questions!!

In short, a fabulous experience which I will not forget!! Now, I'll either run to practise or sell my tubes on ebay!!

Pierre

[ This Message was edited by: PC on 2003-01-17 01:59 ]