Proms 2011

[starrynight]

In the first prom I thought the Weir piece started ok but then it soon got bogged down a bit by repeating ideas I didn't find that interesting.  The Academic Festival Overture had a vocal at the end which I'm not really used to having, it worked well though.  The performance of the arrangement for piano of Brahm's 5th Hungarian dance was good too, not such a fan of the Liszt concerto though.

[Brian]

I was there for that one. The Weir piece had rather corny lyrics and plain vocal writing but the brass and timpani were paying such shameless homage to Janacek that I thought it a good bit of fun. Hearing 'Gaudeamus Igitur' sung at the end of the Brahms was certainly new to me (it's an innovation of Sir Malcolm Sargent's) and also a guilty pleasure, perhaps... Benjamin Grosvenor did well in the Liszt concerto, though it beats me why the Hungarian dance encore was recast in C sharp minor!

The Glagolitic Mass was, as I suggested in the 'concert' thread, a fantastic experience.

Like several others on GMG, heading to the Gothic today.

[starrynight]

Ok, I didn't see the concert thread.  Not a big fan of The Gothic myself.

[Brian]

Just got back from BBCSO/Belohlavek doing Dvorak's Cello Concerto with Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Smetana's complete Ma Vlast. Queyras had some intonation issues in the first movement, to my surprise, but soon enough was back to his exemplary self; the flute note at the end of the slow movement was held for a divinely long time, although some of Belohlavek's other handling of the winds seemed intentionally eccentric.

The 'Ma Vlast' performance - incredibly, the first complete playing of the cycle in Proms history! (I've now seen two massive Proms debuts in four days) - was really superb, great playing throughout which never tired, an excellent 'Blanik,' a very very flowing, dramatic account of 'Vysehrad' - the only letdown was an abominable 'Vltava,' taken way too fast (11:40 but the nocturne bit was very expansive, and my ideal 'Vltava', Antoni Wit's, is 13:14). I guess the river Moldau runs cold and dark this time of year.

Tomorrow: Mark Elder and Halle do Sibelius' Seventh, Bartok's Third Piano Concerto (with Andras Schiff), and Janacek's Sinfonietta.
Friday: Juanjose Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in all the big Spanish music by French composers: Debussy's Images, Ravel's Rapsodie and Alborada, Falla's Nights in the Garden of Spain (Steven Osborne on the keyboard).

[techniquest]

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to be able to go to any of the Proms, so I am reliant on BBC TV & radio. I was so disappointed that the Brian 'Gothic' was not broadcast on TV, what a lost opportunity. Predictably all the 'themed' Proms are on TV (Spahetti Western band; Human Planet prom; Comedy prom; Hollywood musicals; 'Horrible Histories'); as well as a stack of Brahms (whom I don't see to be having a significant anniversary this year), and Nigel Kennedy.
Thank goodness it's a kids band playing the Mahler 2 - it's on TV twice!

[Opus106]

This is simply bad.

Reports are coming in from the BBC, British newspaper the Telegraph and Twitter that up to six disturbances disrupted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London and led to the cancellation of the concert's live radio broadcast Thursday night.

Link

This, on the other hand, seems intriguing.

With a flying rabbit, a new role for the bell of the tuba, audience voting and wall-to-wall surprise, the Budapest Festival Orchestra's late-night Prom tonight promises to be unlike any the Royal Albert Hall audience has experienced. The BFO and its founder and chief conductor, Ivá* Fischer, will follow their normal concert of Mahler and Liszt with an extraordinary event in which the music will be chosen on the spot, by the audience.

Link

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

This is simply bad.

Link

I hate cultural boycotts. If you want to boycott a product, fine, that's your business. But please don't interfere with other people's enjoyment of music or other intellectual activity.

[starrynight]

The politics of culture.  Well of course you could argue those protesting against something are making it political, except that sometimes what people are protesting about may have already been made political by the other side.  Ultimately music is music for me, I listen to stuff from anywhere whether I like the government or not.  I'm not commenting on this particular case as I know nothing about the orchestra.  But sometimes people who are behind music can make it political, or maybe even some of the audience for it might make it political in some way. 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Well my reaction is simple; I just wouldn't want a bunch of yahoos disrupting a concert I went to. Especially if they're performing a rarely heard masterpiece like Webern's Passacaglia.