What will you remember from this year's Cervantino in five years?

[raquelita]

You can compare with my top picks on the first page of
MEXIGUANA http://www.rochellecashdan.blogspot.com. Maybe because I've heard so much marvelous music at the Festival over the years, the theatre & dance events are the ones I'll remember longest (but then there was Bach's St. John's Passion).

[Mykul]

On the opposite end of the spectrum I will remember Amon Tobin's Isam 2.0 performance. I have been a fan for years and to finally see him live was a thrill.

[raquelita]

The extreme loudness at the Alhondiga freaks me out--I'm an oldie. When there are dancers on stage like the Moiseyev I'm not bothered. After your post, I'll look for Amon on Youtube.

[SteveGinGto]

I was sick for darned near the entire Cervantino, darn it, but I did manage to catch a few events.

My memory FOREVER will be the Camerata Ireland doing Beethoven's piano concertos - all of them - over three days at Templo de Compa?ia. When the last day they did Beethoven's own adaption of his Violin Concerto - one of my top five classical pieces, one I've listened to maybe 100 times.

I was hoping they'd do it justice. They didn't. They didn't just do it justice, they freaking NAILED IT. It was the single best classical performance I've ever seen/heard. Barry Douglas was FABULOUS on the piano, and there wasn't a missed note or inflection anywhere.

Beethoven himself was maybe the best classical pianist of his day, and he wrote to show off his mastery of the instrument. Barry Douglas was able to go everywhere Ludwig went, and the chamber orchestra was with him ever millimeter of the way.

I was just flabbergasted at how good they were.

Being from Chicago, I've seen the CSO several times. Never in my visits have they done so well as the Camerata Ireland.

The Camerata Ireland was simply terrific, on all three days.

It was sublime. It was profound. It was dynamic (it was Beethoven, after all). It was transcendent.

I am still stunned.

[roberb7]

I didn't go to very many Cervantino events, but the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra concert was memorable.

Here's the story: in my late childhood/early teenagehood, I played a trumpet, before switching permanently to various types of guitars. During the course of my musical education, I learned the the modern trumpet with three valves wasn't invented until the early 1800's. The trumpets played in the time of Handel and Mozart were like the bugles used by the "bandas de guerra" that are heard here in GTO whenever there's a parade. They're not capable of playing more than five notes without great difficulty.

One way around this was to use "crooks" of different lengths to make it possible for trumpets to play in more than one key, so trumpeters in the Baroque and classical eras carried around a suitcase full of crooks.

So, although I had heard about Baroque trumpets, this concert was the first time that I had ever seen and heard them.

The trumpets used by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra have a 20th century improvement; a vent hole that allows the trumpeter to alter the pitch with her thumb. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_trumpet