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Jun. 14th, 2012 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Well, fuck. I somehow forgot to tape the Netherlands/Germany game yesterday, and only realized it today when I went to watch it. Sulking here.
Went to see Sir Thomas Allen and Thomas Middleton (who doesn't have a Wiki page, or rather he does, but it goes to the Jacobean playwright and not the young pianist) at the Chan Centre. Good stuff, and watch this space for further Thomas Middleton news, because he's TALENTED. He looks about 19, but plays like a 30 year old. I'm now off to iTunes to see if he has any CD's out.
All that said, it wasn't a total success, as evenings go. Part of the problem is the Chan is too big a space for lieder. When it's just one singer and a piano in a 1,200 seat venue, they struggle, even though the Chan has good acoustics. I remember about ten years ago going to see Maarten Koningsberger and a pianist do lieder at the Kleine Zaal (small hall) of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. It's the chamber music venue attached to the main hall, has a capacity of about 500, as I recall, and it was probably the single best concert of my life. Perfect marriage of space and art form.
Mind you, I suspect part of the problem is that Sir Thomas Allen was born in 1944, and age catches up to a singer's throat and lungs. Superb, superb vocal technique, but there were times when he seemed about to go full throttle, and then it just...didn't quite happen.
Went to see Sir Thomas Allen and Thomas Middleton (who doesn't have a Wiki page, or rather he does, but it goes to the Jacobean playwright and not the young pianist) at the Chan Centre. Good stuff, and watch this space for further Thomas Middleton news, because he's TALENTED. He looks about 19, but plays like a 30 year old. I'm now off to iTunes to see if he has any CD's out.
All that said, it wasn't a total success, as evenings go. Part of the problem is the Chan is too big a space for lieder. When it's just one singer and a piano in a 1,200 seat venue, they struggle, even though the Chan has good acoustics. I remember about ten years ago going to see Maarten Koningsberger and a pianist do lieder at the Kleine Zaal (small hall) of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. It's the chamber music venue attached to the main hall, has a capacity of about 500, as I recall, and it was probably the single best concert of my life. Perfect marriage of space and art form.
Mind you, I suspect part of the problem is that Sir Thomas Allen was born in 1944, and age catches up to a singer's throat and lungs. Superb, superb vocal technique, but there were times when he seemed about to go full throttle, and then it just...didn't quite happen.