RLPO Petrenko live from Perth Sunday 25th May: Elgar,Copeland, Prokofiev
Elgar: In the South 'Alassio', Op.50
Stewart Copeland: Percussion Concerto
Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Op. 111
Vasily Petrenko (conductor)
Neil Hitt (timpani)
Adrian Spillett, Graham Johns and Henry Baldwin (percussion)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
So far, I've listened only to the first half of this concert. Vassily's In the South was better than workmanlike but it wasn't a honed, completed project. Some strategic opportunties for stringing sentences into coherent paragraphs were missed and the final chords, which are always difficult to bring off, were muddied and imprecise.
Parts of the problem may have been Perth Hall's ungrateful, dead, exposing acoustics. It's not the "Fair Maid of Perth", IMHO.
But, I want to dwell on the Copeland Percussion Concerto. A time there was when R.3 listeners were protected from this genre of score by the high-minded "Listening Panel": scores were examined and many, perhaps too many, were banned from being broadcast because they did not meet rigorous criteria. Nowadays, we're less censorious and there's far more latitude around. However, there are times when I feel that a line needs to be drawn in the sand. This piece was one that should not have been broadcast, IMO. At the most basic level, it worked, but it was utterly derivative, mind-blowingly banal, and showed the dangers of assuming that a composer from the world of "Pop", who is able to "drive" his music across 3 or 4 minutes, can fill a large canvas with substance. I was embarrassed for Copeland. And... I was angry on behalf of the army of British composers who are replete with new and profound ideas that we, intelligent, listeners need to hear and be challenged by. When will the BBC realise that many keen listeners want to chew red meat, not suck pap up a straw like infants?
Plenty of action from percussionists and orchestra, but "Much Ado About Nothing", I'm afraid.
By the interval, I felt empty and used. I didn't have concentration and energy left to tackle Prokofiev's 6th.
A shame for I had thought that Petrenko might have something useful to say about the piece.
Stewart Copeland: Percussion Concerto
Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Op. 111
Vasily Petrenko (conductor)
Neil Hitt (timpani)
Adrian Spillett, Graham Johns and Henry Baldwin (percussion)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
So far, I've listened only to the first half of this concert. Vassily's In the South was better than workmanlike but it wasn't a honed, completed project. Some strategic opportunties for stringing sentences into coherent paragraphs were missed and the final chords, which are always difficult to bring off, were muddied and imprecise.
Parts of the problem may have been Perth Hall's ungrateful, dead, exposing acoustics. It's not the "Fair Maid of Perth", IMHO.
But, I want to dwell on the Copeland Percussion Concerto. A time there was when R.3 listeners were protected from this genre of score by the high-minded "Listening Panel": scores were examined and many, perhaps too many, were banned from being broadcast because they did not meet rigorous criteria. Nowadays, we're less censorious and there's far more latitude around. However, there are times when I feel that a line needs to be drawn in the sand. This piece was one that should not have been broadcast, IMO. At the most basic level, it worked, but it was utterly derivative, mind-blowingly banal, and showed the dangers of assuming that a composer from the world of "Pop", who is able to "drive" his music across 3 or 4 minutes, can fill a large canvas with substance. I was embarrassed for Copeland. And... I was angry on behalf of the army of British composers who are replete with new and profound ideas that we, intelligent, listeners need to hear and be challenged by. When will the BBC realise that many keen listeners want to chew red meat, not suck pap up a straw like infants?
Plenty of action from percussionists and orchestra, but "Much Ado About Nothing", I'm afraid.
By the interval, I felt empty and used. I didn't have concentration and energy left to tackle Prokofiev's 6th.
A shame for I had thought that Petrenko might have something useful to say about the piece.
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