Chailly conducts Beethoven's 7

* Notes * 
Last Monday Riccardo Chailly lead Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a program of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and Symphony No. 7 at Davies Hall in San Francisco. The pianist was Louis Lortie, whose playing is precise and music box-like. One almost felt that he was some sort of mechanized toy that was carefully wound up beforehand. The orchestra had a wonderful sense of dynamics, the pianissimi were breathtaking. The brass had a warm, damp sound, and in general the music floated along. The Seventh was spirited and the tempi were rather fast. There were very few horn errors, and the timpani was especially fine.

* Tattling * 
There was very little talking, no electronic noise, but quite a lot of tapping during the Seventh. We were treated to an encore of the Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. One can read Herr Feldheim's account of what happened here.