Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Daniil Trifonov on piano. Trifonov gave one of the best piano performances I've ever seen, at times mesmerizing, at times incredibly powerful. Tremendous expression at high speeds at times.
Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Sadly, resident conductor Peter Oundjian butchered this amazing piece of music. The instruments were laid out in an unconventional arrangement on the stage, with the result that all the voices and notes where there but the total sound was somewhat off throughout
. The choir had it's sections all mixed together instead of separate. The result there was that the sound was powerful when everyone sang at full volume all at once, but it always is anyway. The rest of the time, the separate voices were not as distinct. The performance was sloppy at times and unbalanced. Worst performance of the 9th I've ever seen. Oundjian should have stuck to playing it the way Beethoven intended, rather than being arrogant enough to think he could improve on Beethoven. What a tool!This guy shouldn't be in charge of a high school band, let alone a symphony orchestra.
Time for the Toronto Symphony to find a new conductor.