We left at the interval...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday April 15 2015 Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach. Soloist: Leonidas Kavakos Brahms : Violin Concerto Symphony N°1 The last time I heard the VPO in the same theatre I was disappointed. This Brahms concert made up for that in full. Brahms Leonidas Kavakos' playing was so (deceptively) "simple" sounding that it was only as the concerto progressed that I realised what an outstanding performance I was actually hearing. It comes across as effortlessly straightforward, which of course it can't be: a great deal of skill and effort and talent must have gone and go into achieving such undemonstrative, un-flashy virtuosity, such fluency in pianissimo passages played without vibrato, note-perfect. The result reminded me of Ana-Caterina Antonacci's singing - in her case, so conversational she makes you feels as if she's taking you into her confidence: you almost forget she's singing, not just talking to you. ...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday January 20 2015 Conductor: Rafael Payare. Wiener Philharmoniker. Schubert: Symphony n°8 , D. 759, "Unfinished" Tchaikovsky: Symphony n°4 (Encore) Eduard Strauss: Mit Chic (polka) Tchaikovsky For the 2014-2015 season I decided we'd have a change from quitting second-rate performances of second-rate scores at the interval by dropping one of our usual opera subscriptions and buying a series of visiting (i.e. non-French) orchestras at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. On account of work (as anyone who goes to operas and concerts knows, these things have to be paid for), I missed the first of these wholly orchestral concerts: the St Petersburg Philharmonic in Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky (in this case, the 6th ), magnificent I was told by the friends who were able to attend. This VPO concert was thus, for me, the first, and it was largely a disappointment: I had hoped to be thoroughly wowed, and wasn't. Rafael Paya...