G Live opens

We approached the entrance to G Live with some excitement last evening as we were to attend the opening concert of this amazing new venue in Guildford. The famous orchestra, the LSO were playing an evening of Tchaikovsky under their conductor, the illustrious Valéry Gergiev.

The foyer was abuzz with concertgoers. Some were finishing meals in the Café-Bar and some had attended a champagne and canapés reception, while others had been to the pre-concert talk given by Guildford resident and principal flautist, Gareth Davies. The venue is an impressive building and we descended the stairs to entrance no.2 (tiered stalls), collecting a free programme on the way. The concert hall filled up and the audience noise increased; the orchestra entered and took their seats and then, as anticipated, a huge round of applause welcomed Valéry Gergiev to the platform. He quickly began the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy. The sound is very bright, with many individual instruments clearly audible such as the harp. The orchestra is, of course, world class and lived up to their reputation. The audience really appreciated their performance.
Now the scene changed as the grand piano was wheeled into place for the Piano Concerto no 1. The soloist, Daniil Trifonov,is the winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition and was warmly welcomed by the audience. He sat and the conductor began the piece. It was spellbinding - until suddenly with a slight crack all the lights went out, leaving only the emergency lighting throughout the auditorium.
The music went on as battery powered lights were passed quietly out around the orchestra. They finished the first movement and received a standing ovation for their efforts. Discussion followed as some people left the auditorium, and much of the orchestra, too. Then young Mr. Trifonov sat down at the piano and played a Chopin Waltz. More ecstatic applause and then we all trooped out for an unscheduled interval.


The lights in the foyer were all on, but obviously lots of power was off as the door magnets were not working, nor the tills for a while and we had one moment when everything went black for just a second or two. It took about half an hour, but eventually we were called back to our seats and the MD of the management of G Live climbed onto the platform to explain that the venue had lost power but it was all alright now. He also told us that the orchestra would now reprise the 2nd and 3rd movements of the piano concerto despite their not having yet played it.There was also a comment from someone from Guildford Borough Council. Unfortunately it was all to clear to see that all was not well - there were no platform lights and the rest of the concert was performed with the house lights up.


Despite all this, the orchestra returned as did our intrepid soloist who performed the remaining movements of the piano concerto superbly, and received yet another ovation from the audience. We then moved quickly on to the final piece of the evening, Symphony No.4, which once again was played to the highest standards and rightly Valéry Gergiev received massive applause from the appreciative audience. It was a wonderful opening concert and to give G Live credit, they did invite everyone for a free drink as we left the auditorium. It was here that we stumbled across some old acquaintances from our time overseas. What a coincidence!




G Live
LSO 
Gergiev 
Trifonov