Bizet 150 MPO

Today I watched an MPO performance at their beautiful concert hall in KLCC. Tonight’s performance is entitled Bizet 150 A symphony of celebration, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the passing of French composer and pianist Bizet at the young age of just 36.

This concert hall and the MPO were both conceived at the time the PETRONAS twin towers was being built. The orchestra was set up in 1997 and had its first performance in 1998. The concert hall is purpose built for the orchestra with wonderful acoustics and wonderful ambience. I have always enjoyed concerts here and there was a time in the early 2000s when I would drive up to KL regularly on the weekends to catch their concerts. They used to bring in very well known conductors and soloists to perform with the MPO. To me, a memorable performance of Beethoven 9th, Mozart’s piano concerto for 2 pianos with Melvyn Tan and Joshua Bell on the violin stand out still.

I stopped coming here after a while. I think the last time I was here must be have been in 2007 or 2008. After that, I heard the quality of performances by the orchestra dropped.

The first half of tonight’s performance started off with 2 short pieces by Falla followed by L’Arlisienne Suite No 2 by Bizet. I didn’t care too much for the 2 Falla pieces but the Suite was alright.

The second half was the highlight and it featured excerpts from his most famous opera Carmen. There were 4 soloists performing with the orchestra. Bizet completed this opera just 3 months before he died and unfortunately for him, it was only declared a masterpiece after he died. Poor man. It became so successful after he passed away.

It was a good performance tonight and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.