Wednesday 24 June 2009

St.Petersburg

Finally… I’ve got a good and fast internet connection first time in a last couple of weeks! At the moment I’m waiting for my flight in St.Petersburg Airport, travelling to Copenhagen-Nice today. Suppose to write something a long time ago, but exhausting end of season and difficult travelling doesn’t allow me ))) Perhaps my lazy nature prevented me even more.

Anyway, since Hawaii, where Orchestra are quite heroic – being unpaid for three months keep playing concerts (!) – I’ve been in Spain, Liverpool, Copenhagen, Tenerife, St.Petersburg. Summertime give some special edge to orchestras attitude for work, but I must say that all concerts were quite successful, Orchestra Tivoli in Copenhagen even played touché by the end of concert, and Tenerife got a very good crowd and great response. St.Petersburg Phil last night was also quite full and Russian premiere of Simfonia de Requiem by Montsalvatge, Catalan composer, was very well received instead of abstract nature of piece (which I think is a very good music!).

Now expecting a good sunshine in Monte-Carlo together with Russian programme, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and afterwards will do a concert in Paris with Radio France Orchestra (also Tchaikolvsky and Rachmaninov, but different pieces) on my way to Liverpool for White Nights concert and Viennese Ball.

Glad to read, that meeting with Michael went very well and you’ve enjoyed Friary. In current economy conditions it’ll be very challenging to get funding for improvement or new hall. Difficult, but not impossible and we will be looking for support in lots of places.

Oops, boarding!

24 comments:

jill said...

Hi Vasily and welcome back. Apart from seeing many of the world's concert halls and airports, have you had the opportunity in the past few years to explore any of Britain. Have you been to the Lake District or North Wales, or cities: York, Chester, Bath and many others, or Westminster Abbey in London? Perhaps you have some plans to see London after the Prom in August. I do hope so because there are some treats out there.

Hope most of the bloggers are at the Phil this evening, really looking forward to the concert.

Jill

Jill

Robin said...

Hi Vasily

I echo Jill's 'welcome back' and it's great to hear from you again! Glad to hear that things have been going well on your international circuit.

Hope you - and all the audience - enjoy the concerts while you are back in Liverpool, and very best wishes for your birthday on Tuesday when you get your honorary Doctor of Music from the University. Congratulations on this latest well-deserved honour!

As Jill said, even if we can't go, we can enjoy the broadcast of your 8 August Prom with the NYO. Hope the concert at Aldeburgh on 16 August also goes well - will that be your first time at Aldeburgh? Not long after that and we can look forward to the new season in Liverpool!

Obviously the present economic climate isn't good for getting money, but if you don't ask you don't get! It's critical, though, just now that we keep things building instead of sliding back and good to know that the Phil management - and even some politicians! - are really aware of this.

Best

Robin

Jane. said...

Hello everyone.

Thank you Robin for the birthday message you sent me in the previous post- my birthday is tomorrow. I didn't know that I almost shared the same birthday as Vasily. Happy birthday for Tuesday.

I am also glad not to be working next week, Jill. Working in a coffee shop with no air conditioning is terrible. Looking forward tonight's performance.

Robin said...

So, Jane, you and Vasily are cancers - it says on a website, if you can believe this stuff, 'cancers are cute. They pretend to be tough but it's all an act'!

But I came back really because I forgot to reinforce Jill's point that the Phil's website - especially Vasily's info page - desperately needs updating and I hope that happens too. And perhaps Vasily can get IMG Artists to update their outdated pages about him. Hope to see vasilypetrenko.com go live soon too!

Robin

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone,

Well, last nights' White Nights was the last concert I'll be going to this season and I really enjoyed it. Tchaikovsky and the Gadfly Romance were favourites of the first half (in the former the Tamborine player - Jenny Marsden? -was fascinating to watch and the latter was beautifully played by Thelma Handy!).

The Rachmaninov Piano Concerto (No.2) was the highlight for me, as was Simon Trpceskis' playing. No wonder he looked tired by the end!. At least his efforts were well received by the packed house. Does anybody know the name of the piece he played for the second encore?.

The Original Liverpool Sound book is Editors' Choice in this months' Classic FM magazine, which is good to see. My mum won a copy in a Liverpool Echo competition back in April and it's really interesting. Many thanks, Vasily, for signing it and I hope your family enjoyed the concert yesterday. Have a very Happy Birthday.

Many happy returns also for today, Jane!.

Heres to September.

Robin said...

Hi again everyone

Sorry I couldn't get to last night's concert, but glad you enjoyed it Karen and hope everyone else did too. Simon Trpceski's always good, isn't he? And he's back with Vasily for the first concert of the season with Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto. I see this is already sold out, so I'm glad we got our tickets early! Good news for the Phil, but not so good for those without tickets and more evidence that the hall lacks capacity??? Couldn't resist mentioning that!

The Original Liverpool Sound is great and reminds me all the time of stories from the past that they just couldn't have printed!

Robin

JoyceandCarole said...

Happy Birthday, Vasily with many more to come!

White Nights was a magnificent programme, although we were disappointed that Julie was unable to wow us again as she recently did. Please keep trying, won't you?

Probably many will have noticed that this peformance was being filmed and when we enquired of the camera-lady afterwards she said to look out on the blog in about 2 weeks time. We had already enquired about the possibility of Vasily and the Phil making DVDs and were informed that the facilities exist and the idea has, we hope, been taken on board.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will be kind for Southport on the 25th but anyway we will be there with our butties come rain or shine!

jill said...

Happy Birthday, Vasily. Hope your event at the Phil today was good. Did your family go and did Sasha wear his cap and gown - or even get another one from Liverpool Uni.
I, too, enjoyed the concert on Saturday, how fab to see the place packed out (it's been a while). I am also going to Southport with friends on 25 July, so hope the weather is kind. Hope you are having the rest of today off so you can enjoy your birthday.

Jill

jill said...

I just realised I sent my message a day early. That's what happens when you don't work, the days just blend into each other.
Jill

Jane. said...

Hi Jill, if you want to watch the cermony online use this link http://www.liv.ac.uk/graduation/ceremony_webcast.htm

Thank you Karen for wishing me happy birthday and my favourite bit was Simon Trpceski's playing. For some reason I waved at him when he was bowing!! He seems to be a nice person. Glad everyone had a nice time.

jill said...

Happy birthday Jane - kept meaning to say it and kept forgetting - another consequence of not working!! Thanks for the link, I will watch it.
Jill

Gillian said...

Hello everyone,

Really enjoyed the White Nights concert last Saturday. Sorry, however that Vasily didn't present it this year as he has done on previous years.I like to hear him speak to us now and then!! However that is a very small thing when the music was so glorious.


Happy Birthday, Vasily, for tomorrow. I hope you have a good day tomorrow and many more in the year to come.

Looking forward now to the opening concert in September.

Gillian

jill said...

Hi all
The new website is running. I haven't looked at all of it yet, but just to let you know.
Jill

Robin said...

Hello Vasily and all

Have just been exploring the new Phil website and, though like Jill I haven't seen everything, it's really impressive. Apart from being updated (and I hope it stays that way now!), it's fresh, bright and easy to navigate. Much more visual, and the new Phil Channel could be really great as it's rolled out. More comments probably as we go on, but importantly it's also finally easy to get to Vasily's blog, so let's hope for more bloggers here!

Looking forward now to vasilypetrenko.com going live ... and to news of some more disc releases.

Best to everyone

jill said...

Hi Vasily
I enjoyed the concert at Southport very much and we were so lucky with the weather, one clear and sunny day especially for you and the Phil. I have not seen the Phil outdoors for many years, the last occasion was before your time as conductor. When you were studying at the conservatoire, did you ever dream about conducting Gershwin and Cole Porter and how do you rate it compared to regular classics? I have tickets for the 10:10 concert with Emma Morwood and Carolina Krogius singing the Weinberg opera (Nov) and am now looking forward to it even more after hearing Emma sing yesterday.
I hope you got to spend time with your friends and family when you were in St Petersburg in June. Will you have time to visit again before the season starts in September? Enjoy your time with the NYO and I look forward very much to seeing the Prom concert on 8 August(on TV).

Isn't it exciting, everyone, that we are back at the Phil in just over a month's time!!! Hope we get a little bit of summer weather before then.
Best to all
Jill

JoyceandCarole said...

Hello Vasily!
We managed, through queuing very early, to get on the front row to see and hear you and the RLPO on Saturday at Southport. We were the two ladies with the smallest Union Jacks but when we heard you up there (the sound was magnificent - especially for the "Gadfly") we waved them like mad!

It was great to see the Phil families enjoying their day out - loved Andrew's knees!

Could we wish you and the NYO all the luck in the world for the 8th -
we would have been there too if we were not going on holiday, but as we will record this it will even make it a pleasure to come back to watch it!

Jane. said...

Hello.

Classic fm will mention VP on Sunday morning if anyone is interested. I thought the Halle was very good last night on the proms and I hope one day the RLPO could be on the TV for the proms.

The Halle season for 09/10 is very similar to RLPO as both orchestras are doing Mahler cycles. However, the Halle doesn't have as many big names in their concerts. Does anyone go to the Halle's concerts at all?

jill said...

Hi Jane and everyone

Go to see the Halle? Absolutely not. (It's a Liverpool thing!) They were rude about our claim to be the oldest orchestra too.
I think the Phil were filmed at the proms few years ago when Gerard Schwarz was here, they did a concert with the Phil choir and also the Chester Festival Chorus if I am not mistaken.

I will be at church on Sunday morning, but hope Classicfc have "listen again" on offer.

I am looking forward to seeing John Wilson and his orchestra tomorrow at the proms. We always enjoy his concerts at the Phil. Don't forget Saturday 8 Aug - everyone set their DVDs to record. There is something called MaestroCam (see BBC Proms) where you can see the conductor from the orchestra's eye, this is available on 8 Aug. We all think VP is magical from the back, so it will be a real treat to see him from the front. He doesn't seem to be enjoying much of a summer break, he is at Snape Maltings after the proms and heaven knows what else that we don't know about. It will soon be September.

Robin - I found an article in the comment column of the Echo which says Vasily raised the issue of a new hall at the dinner following his award from Liverpool Uni. The writer linked it with VPs situation after 2012, but it was hard to tell if this was the view of VP or only the writer.

Best
Jill

Jane. said...

Hi again.

Thanks for the advice about the Halle. The MaestroCam is a bit boring (as I watched Sir Charles Mackerras conducted the BBC Philharmonic last week). It tells the viewer about the way in which the conductor drives the orchestra. Apparently Sir Charles doesn't point at the orchestra and at that point I went back to the normal showing of the concert.

Best Jane.

jill said...

Hi Jane. I wasn't advising you not to see the Halle at all, I'm sure they are a perfectly fine orchestra. It's just that all my money goes to the Phil. I specifically support the Phil as well as getting great joy from attending the concerts.

I agree about Sir Charles Mackerras, but that was him and next Saturday it will be Vasily - a completely different style of conducting. I shall probably record both versions just to be sure I catch every moment to watch again (and again) at my leisure.

Jill

Jane. said...

Hi Jill and all,

I hope you will enjoy the concert on Saturday. It was nice to see John Wilson at the proms and if you look carefully Jonathan Aasgaard was in the orchestra. The proms is great to see the many different ways of conducting and I am looking forward to see Jun Markl at the phil next year ( I loved his proms concert). Good Luck with your dvd recorder, Jane.

jill said...

Hi Jane. re. John Wilson orchestra, I thought Cormac Henry was there with his flute too, as well as JA. If not him, it was his twin! I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, it was my kind of music. Before I got into choral singing, I was in amateur theatre for many years and did all sorts of musicals.
Hi to everyone else too.
Jill

Robin said...

Hi Vasily and all bloggers (hope there’ll be some more contributors once the new season begins)

I’ve been having a rest from orchestras (!), but glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the summer concerts. Very much looking forward to the new season now and glad I’ve got tickets because a lot of concerts seem to be selling out – will return to that in a further message this week on the subject of old hall/new hall. Also looking forward to new Shostakovich releases from Naxos, which I gather from Vasily’s chat with Petroc Trelawny on In Tune yesterday are coming soon. If anybody didn’t catch this (quite long) interview, it was very interesting about the Phil, the NYO and tonight’s Prom. You can ‘listen again’ to In Tune on the R3 website and I’d really recommend listening to it.

Jill: I didn’t see the Echo piece saying that Vasily mentioned the issue of a new hall when he got his last honorary degree, but he always mentions it! Whether it would keep him in Liverpool I don’t know – it would be great to think of him staying here at least ten years if that’s not unrealistic – but I think that (as far as possible) the renovation/new hall debate ought to be on its merits and not just about keeping Vasily. Keeping Vasily in Liverpool is going to be a bout lots of other things too and might be about having a second conductor so that V has the freedom to conduct a bit less in Liverpool and develop his career in other places too – as well as lots of other issues. Clearly, though, Vasily is very keen on a new hall and so that could be important, but he spoke about this in a quite balanced way yesterday on In Tune so do listen to it. As I mentioned, I’ll say more about why I think a new hall is necessary when I write again this week, but basically I agree with what Vasily said on In Tune!

I see, incidentally, that Vasily is now called Chief (rather than Principal) Conductor on the Phil’s notepaper. From what he was saying yesterday, tonight’s Prom with the NYO will be really worth listening to – and watching. Enjoy!

Best to all

Unknown said...

Dear Vasily,

I was at the Classical Brits with Julia and was thrilled
that you won the award for the Male artist of the Year.
Congratulations and good luck for all you are doing.

Marylea van Daalen

We moved out of the Baltschug in Moscow and are
again in Berlin. If you come to Berlin, let me know
so we can make you at home in the Adlon !