They moved the triangle
Just thought you ought to know, following the earlier comment, that they moved the triangle. Another point to M. Bloch, I...
Just thought you ought to know, following the earlier comment, that they moved the triangle. Another point to M. Bloch, I...
“You know the triangle is always late?” says Alexandre Bloch. For about the 20th time today the poor triangulist has just had to sprint as quietly as possible from behind the vibraphone he’s just been playing, picking up a beater en route, in order to place a single...
More laughter rings round LSO St Lukes in the second half of the morning session. Aziz Sadikowic, a tall Viennese, apologises in that rather overdone way you have to when you interrupt a singer as she’s about to launch her next salvo. The orchestra laugh along – it’s not...
The orchestra are taking their mid-morning break, a chance to break off from concentrating hard. A rather bigger group than yesterday, with more brass and percussion in particular, they have nonetheless been on the money from the start. Beginning with Elgar’s violin...
You may have noticed that we have a guest blogger on the LSO blog this weekend. We have invited Toby Deller to sit in on all three days of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition to lift the lid on the sessions that are not open to the public - in previous years the...
Welcome to day two of the 2012 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition. The 10 successful competitors are all here and have just learned their time slots – some at least can slope off back to their hotels for a bit of a kip. Today we get to see them conduct with soloists...
Well, I didn’t do badly – 8 of the 10 candidates chosen to go through were on my list. The 10, who for what its worth include both the female competitors who made it to the competitive rounds, are: Alexander Bloch, Alexander Biadjiev, Ben Gernon, Stamatia Karampini, Lio...
Here’s a question: are the conductors appearing later in the day at an advantage? Having spent the best part of a day in the hall with the orchestra, it’s clear that they are playing better as the day goes on. Is that a reflection of the increasing quality of conductors? Or...
The rules are that each competitor on day one gets 15 minutes each in front of the orchestra to make an impression (that goes up to 30 minutes on day two). But there’s no question of just choosing their favourite moments to rehearse. Having introduced a candidate to the...
Imagine a competition for, I dunno, the best home baker in Britain. You’d have at least one baker as a judge, right? Probably two. If you had a panel of five judges, you’d expect most of them to know their way round a mixing bowl first hand. Well, this competition is...
