Tonight's Prom

GrahamN said:
probably nothing life-changing yet, but nothing particularly dire either
Click to expand...
Ah...."sports commentator syndrome" hits. Last night's Jansons/Bayerisher Rundfunk concert was quite superlative (well at least the first half). It's a mark of a great performance when you completely re-evaluate your reaction to a piece - and that happened for me for the Dvorak 8th last night. It has normally struck me as a rather slight piece, extended well beyond the capabilities of its pleasantish folky tunes, sandwiched between his two masterpieces. Last night's performance really made it hang together and each theme was shaded wonderfully so their workup was just the right length. While the Heldeleben was also very good (particularly in its more muscular parts), I felt the strings who have clearly already got the classic "Jansons sound" - hard driven with a wiry edge - weren't honeyed and rapturous enough for the more tender Straussian themes. BTW, they also play very well in the dark - all the stage lights went off during the Battle section.

And the dire?....Davis/BBCSO in Janacek's Taras Bulba (notwithstanding Lordsummit's comments above). They just about got the last half-dozen bars OK, but the rest of it was directionless meandering - I doubt either he or they had any idea what this music was about. This is about the third time I've heard this live, and I've had a recording for donkey's years, but if this was my first encounter it would also have been my last. Maybe the radio engineers managed to liven it up a bit, but none of the stabbing interjections happened in the hall. And the E-flat clarinet shrieks as Ostap dies at the end of the 2nd movement were more like whingeing after pricking his finger :( . One of the critics did comment about the orchestra being swallowed by the hall - but funny how it's only the BBCSO this happens to (and it certainly wasn't a problem with the Bayerischer). To hear what this piece should sound like try Kubelik or Mackerras.

I also wasn't over-impressed by Ginger Spice - or rather was a bit irritated by her. She does prowling agression (or predatory sexuality) very well...but you get the same pretty much whatever she sings. This fitted the last song well (which was then quite overwhelming), but seemed over-emotive (rather than over-emotional) in all the rest. She also really swallows her words now - considering how much she puts into trying to enunciate the words, I had to keep on looking at the program to work out any of them.
 
Proms 19,20,21

I enjoyed both of the Bavarian's concerts for some superlative playing but I'm not so convinced by Jansons' interpretations. I enjoyed the Dvorak up to a point but thought the reading was somewhat hard-edged and lacking in joy. Isn't this supposed to be a pastoral symphony? My ideal has a little more bucolic charm. Highpoint for me was the Shostakovich Violin Concerto. Kremer was gripping in this, his un-glamorous tone suits it well and works well with the steely conducting. The Tchaikovsky 6th sounded spectacular and brought the house down but mostly left me cold. Apparently Jansons described the BRSO as 'the Rolls Royce of Orchestras' (I wonder what they thought of that at Bayerische Motoren Werke !). The performance reminded me of the latest products from BMW - no doubt about the technical merit but frankly rather tasteless. I suspect I might be in a minority on this one though.

The Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis were superb. They can do highly complex and intellectual music but they can still get down and have a good time. Which we did.
 
I only caught the end of the concert, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the second half of Tchaik 6 - a real hysterical intensity in the third movement which sounded dangerously close to the edge (probably just as a result of taking it fast from the off and getting faster as it went) yet controlled at the same time (probably due to the superb technical standard of the orchestra). The last movement started a little briskly and matter-of-factly (indulge yourself for crying out loud, it's the Pathetique after all :D ), but picked up with a particularly ravishing pianissimo on the fiddle entry with the second subject and built to a suitably shattering climax.
 
It looks as if the reason I found the Dvorak revelatory was the very same one that spoilt it for Duncan - oh well, never mind. I'm afraid we also have to disagree on the Shosta Vln 1. This was actually the first time I'd heard it, and it epitomised everything that put me off 20th cent vln concs for years - tuneless, ugly hacks against the instrument. Apparently it's supposed to be his requiem for the victims of the Gulag, but I'm afraid none of that came over to me at all - and a couple of my friends who do know the piece well hated it too. I thought the 'Pathetique' pretty good, although he could have wrung things out much more in the last movement. He really did go for such a big finish to the 3rd mvmt though, when even I had troubles not joining the applause, that it pretty much made it into a 3 movement symphony + tone poem.

We can agree about the Marsalis concert though - although the forum jazzers would have hated it, as it hardly counted as 'jazz' (until the final encore). I thought the choice of music very interesting. When they came two years ago they tried to make it a dance gig - until they realised that the number of people packed into the arena made this quite impractical, and hastily changed their plans half way through. This time they pitched it just right - realising that the audience were after something quite thoughtfully composed. Maybe they could have started with something a bit more rabble-rousing than a drum concerto, but I loved the piece. The other highlights for me were the Ted Nash piece 'La Espada de la Noche', and their Ornette piece (I missed its name).

Tonight's was another spectacular night. I really enjoyed Britten's War Requiem (another piece I don't know, being mostly allergic to Britten). The silence at the end wasn't quite as achingly tense as Gergiev's Shosta 4 a couple of years ago, but this was one where applause did seem very much the wrong reaction. The 2nd concert though was something else, the shortened 'concert' version of Tavener's "Veil of the Temple" - down from about 7-9 hours to less than 3. This is probably the most enjoyable of his larger-scale pieces I've come across - although it's difficult to tell how much of that is the music and how much is the in-the-round experience we got tonight. The slow inexorable build-up from solo mysticism to the rending of the Temple Veil and the proclamation of the Easter Light was quite overwhelming - I really hope this can be done as a proper Easter All-Night Vigil sometime (the previous full length performances have all been in summer), and that I can be there. And for bass-freaks we had plenty of almost sub-audible drones from the RAH organ - stunning!
 
GrahamN said:
The 2nd concert though was something else, the shortened 'concert' version of Tavener's "Veil of the Temple" - down from about 7-9 hours to less than 3. This is probably the most enjoyable of his larger-scale pieces I've come across - although it's difficult to tell how much of that is the music and how much is the in-the-round experience we got tonight.
Click to expand...

Listening on the radio I thought it was pretty poor to be honest - the usual Tavener trite politically correct cross-faith cod-mysticism business - and the chorus was having some really serious difficulties with staying in tune with the organ. I turned it off after about half an hour and stuck on some Brahms :D
 
Oh well, I guess it was one of those "you have to be there" things. I do agree with you regarding the tuning though. And yes, Tavener is completely barking, e.g. specifying clothing the performers should wear at the various points in the piece and appearing right at the end to lead us out of the hall (definite shades of Scriabin in his less sane moments) - still, the stewards were probably very grateful.

BTW - if you turn up on Thursday you'll be two days late for Vengerov, but you will get Bell doing the Sibelius instead, and the rather gorgeous Ms von Otter too.

See you there whichever day you come - I'm having a really tough time finding a concert not to go to at present.
 
GrahamN said:
I'm afraid we also have to disagree on the Shosta Vln 1. This was actually the first time I'd heard it, and it epitomised everything that put me off 20th cent vln concs for years - tuneless, ugly hacks against the instrument.
Click to expand...

And there I was whistling it all the way home ;). A friend of mine who is not normally a classical person at all (but well into her alt. rock, a big My Bloody Valentine fan) watched the broadcast, thought the Shostakovich was brilliant and is now demanding to be taken to a concert!

I thought the War Requiem was extremely well done. It's not a work I'm completely convinced by but the final 30 minutes or so last night was very moving. Keenlyside and Bostridge were both superb even though the latter looked a little unwell and was stifling a cough at the end (the less said about Susan B Anthony the better - painfully flat). The choruses were excellent and Colin Davis really knows this work. A very satisfying evening.
 
GrahamN said:
BTW - if you turn up on Thursday you'll be two days late for Vengerov, but you will get Bell doing the Sibelius instead, and the rather gorgeous Ms von Otter too.
Click to expand...

:shame: Um...yeah. Just noticed this morning that I'd got the two concerts mixed up somehow.

Looks like I'm heading to London tomorrow then :D
 
Heh why have they stop showing the Proms on BBC4. Just as I was getting the swing of things. These are those few occasion when I wish I live nearer to London.
 
Made it to yesterday's (Tuesday 3rd) Prom 25 - Vassily Sinaisky and the BBC PO with Maxim Vengerov on solo violin. Programme: Szymanowski concert overture in E, Britten violin concerto, Ravel Tzigane (then Bazzini La ronde des lutins as an encore), then Dvorak 6 in the second half.

Firstly, I don't know the Szymanowski or Dvorak at all, and was pleasantly surprised by both pieces of music - the Szymanowski was massively, voluptuously OTT in a R Strauss / Scriabin kind of a way, and the Dvorak symphony was much closer than I was expecting in style to his last big three. As I was trying hard to follow the music I didn't really pay much attention to the performance, if that makes any sense. I thoroughly enjoyed both those two, although GrahamN (whom it was a pleasure to meet in person BTW) didn't really rate the performance of the Dvorak.

The Britten I thought was tremendously well played, with Vengerov's enormous ripe, sweet tone making a decent attempt at filling the hall and Sinaisky balancing him nicely with the orchestra. The very end of the concerto flagged a bit IMO, but that's probably Britten's fault rather than that of any of those who were present.

The Ravel was frankly awesome TBH - the BBC PO struggled to keep up with Vengerov, and the strangely awkward accompaniments were pretty patchy ensemble-wise in places (although I've never actually heard them played well for some reason) - but Vengerov's style and charisma totally swept any worries aside, and the excitement in his playing really was just hair-raising. His prodigious technique was slightly turned to "thrills" rather than "precision" BTW, which isn't to say that he lacked polish by any normal standards, just he wasn't quite as mercurially clean and precise as he can be. He also took a few liberties with the letter of the score here and there for added effect, which I'm sure Ravel would have approved in this of all works.

Then there was the Bazzini encore, which is the kind of throwaway virtuoso lollipop Vengerov was born for (all furious saltando ricochet bowing and lightning left-hand pizzicato, or "pull-offs" for the guitarists reading :D ). Again, tonnes of style and charm - Vengerov works an audience for laughs like a stand-up comic in this sort of thing, and while I imagine it might get a little tiresome if you heard him play three times a week, it's very difficult to resist his obvious enthusiasm. If you're going to bring this kind of thing off with any conviction, you have to be good - and Vengerov was amazing.
 
In the Music Makers though I just couldn't get past the Edwardian sanctimoniousness (OK George V-ian, just). Although I'm a fair English pastoralist nut, I do find Elgar's choral/vocal music pretty cloying
Click to expand...

Me too!
There's something about RVW that just grabs me, even though when you really listen, a lot of it's just sentimental twaddle. Nevermind, RVW floats my boat.
Elgar on the other hand ...
I've sung in several 3 Choirs festivals, where Elgar is pretty much unavoidable. We did "The Kingdom" under Slatkin in Worcester in '99. Fairly tedious stuff, although Slatkin was very genial (and effective) to work under. Gerontius is perpetual threat on the 3 choirs horizon!
Elgar's not for me!

Due to the kids growing up and work pressures I haven't really done any proper singing since the 2000 Hereford 3 Choirs, and I'm missing it. I thought maybe I might give the Hereford Choral Society a go again this year, whatever they might be doing. Then I saw: 3 concerts, 2 of which: Gerontius and Messiah (I love Messiah, but every year?)

Oh well ...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Usually watch the last night on the TV but missed it this year as I ended up listening to it on the main system via Radio on DAB. Strange choice of presenter, didn't realise Titchmarsh had any interest in classical music. Mind you I always found the likes of Paul Gambachini and Simon Bates on Classic FM a bit strange at first seeing as I grew up listening to them on Radio 1. :)

2 highlights for me last night... Thomas Allen doing the "I've Got A List" song from G&S's Mikado, really made me laugh out loud. :lol: Also nice to discover the "Toccata Festiva" piece by Barber, so now at least I know one other piece by him apart the Adagio For Strings (aka "Agnus Dei" in its choral arrangement).

BTW, I was quite shocked by the sonic quality of the broadcast I was getting from my little DAB tuner last night, it really was the best I'd heard from the format at home. I'm usually anti DAB but my reception of Radio 3 on FM is crap so have no choice but to use DAB.
 
HenryT said:
I always found the likes of Paul Gambachini ... on Classic FM a bit strange
Click to expand...

Gambaccini strikes me as a genuine music fan. He's quite a regular concert goer at the Wigmore Hall.

2004 was a pretty good season. Highpoints for me, of concerts I actually got to, were the Davis/Britten War Requiem, Winton Marsalis and the LCJO, Helen Grimaud's Brahms Piano Concerto No 1, the Rattle/Wagner Rheingold, the Rattle/Messiaen Eclairs sur l'Au-dela... and possibly best of all the Gardiner/Bach B minor Mass. Honorable mentions to Haitink's Bruckner 7 (not quite enough to erase memories of Gunter Wand in the same hall) and Alfred Brendel's 'Emperor' Concerto. Not a bad line-up for six weeks of concert-going. Concert I most regreted not going to, having heard it on the radio: Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemperain. Why was this relegated to the late-night ghetto?
 
lordsummit said:
Gambacini is a pretty good pianist by all accounts.
Click to expand...
Really? :eek: When did you see/hear him perform and what was he performing?

Yeah, Gambacini does seem to be a good all round muso, which is always good in my books. IIRC, he also use to present a show on London based Jazz FM.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top