Ruth Leon recommends..LPO – Jurowski at the harpsichord
Ruth Leon recommendsLPO – Interrupted Stories – Jurowski at the harpsichord
Tickets : Marquee TV
Here’s a rare view of the conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, thoroughly enjoying himself at the harpsichord. His excuse for sitting down is to start this excellent London Philharmonic concert with Vivaldi’s overture, La Verita in Cimento composed for a carnival in 1720. Delightful, and so much less often stuck in our faces than The Four Seasons.
The rest of the concert is equally unfamiliar. Back on his feet, Jurowski soon gets to 1820, Louis Spohr saluting his hero, Beethoven, with his dramatic Symphony No 2, and soon moves onto 1920, where Arthur Honegger is watching the sunrise over the Swiss Alps and composing his Pastorale d’été. Quick jump to a riotous cocktail party given by Arthur Bliss (Riot) and then finishing up a most entertaining concert with a work by a living composer, James MacMillan’s Sinfonietta. I meant to watch just a few minutes of this concert but then got hooked by Jurowski’s quiet showmanship and the LPO’s zest to be playing again.
It’s still a bit of a shock to see an empty Festival Hall when, after a rousing musical finale, there’s no applause, but Jurowski doesn’t seem to notice and, therefore, neither do his musicians.
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Jurowski certainly has a knack for innovative programming. I suppose London will miss it.
And speaking of, let’s keep in mind that in Munich he will be conducting Shostakovich’s The Nose and Penderecki’s Die Teufel von Loudon.