SHOSTAKOVICH 5 (SINAISKY & BBC Phil)

[Guest]

7:30 tonight!

[salymap]

Welcome boy. Also Dvorak 'Golden Spinning Wheel'and Alison Balsom playing the or 'a' Haydn Trumpet Concerto. Is this the oneshe always plays? Is there more than one?

Let's have some reactions afterwards.

[Ventilhorn]

My favourite BBC orchestra conducted bt my favourite contempory conductor.

I'm not aware that there is another Haydn Trumpet Concerto. Some people even claim that this is not authentic Haydn.
Anyway, apart from the excellent Hummel concerto, what else is a soloist to play that will satisfy both self and the listening public?

ENJOY

vh

[Petrushka]

If Alison Balsom is cheesed off with playing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto all the time, she gave no sign of it in this sparkling performance. Other trumpet concertos are available, however, and it would be good to hear her in them. The dark brooding Dvorak opener, the Golden Spinning Wheel, was superb, really want to hear this again (I have Harnoncourt and Rattle on CD), while the Shostakovich 5 is guaranteed to bring the house down and duly did so here.

A very good concert and fine programme with the BBCPO on top form.

[salymap]

First part of concert was first rate. Shall have to listen to the DSCH on iplayer tomorrow.

[BBMmk2]

I only just caught the Haydn Trumpet. What a player!! Iniaially started in brass bands to!!(Alison Balsom that is!)

[Ventilhorn]

A very good concert and fine programme with the BBCPO on top form.

Magnificent!

I don't expect to hear a better concert than this in 2011.

Alison Balsam's technique was flawless and musical awareness was evident throughout - especially in the slow movement.

Dvorak? Well who can go wrong with a Dvorak tone poem? An ideal opening, heralding the musical feast that was to follow.

The BBCPO has arguably the best and most consistent horn section and woodwind in the country and the DSCH Nº 5 was as good as I have ever heard; especially the apparent ease with which the strings coped with that fiendishly difficult score.
Yes the brass and percussion played their part in this triumph and this was a concert to remember.

Any chance of a BBC CD of the Shostalovitch?

ventilhorn is happy to have started the weekend on such a high (no pun intended) note.

Let the thunderstorms do their worst this morning. They won't damp my enthusiasm for Maestro Sinaisky and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

ventilhorn

[Simon B]

I don't know whether this was mentioned in the broadcast, but this was Sinaisky's last concert in Manchester as chief guest conductor of the BBCPO. A pity, as it presumably means we'll be hearing a lot less from this combination in future. It must be a long time since he started working regularly with the orchestra - almost since I started regularly going to their concerts in Manchester, so 15 years or more?

Another excellent concert, and it was heartening to see a more reasonable attendance at the Bridgewater for a BBCPO Friday concert than recently. I'm sure the return to 19:30 starts can only have helped with this, though a crowd-pulling programme and Ms Balsom's presence probably had a lot to do with it.

I wish there were more regular appearances by trumpet soloists - the lack of repertoire is partially responsible for their infrequency I suppose. In terms of concerti there's the Haydn, the Hummel, the Arutunian and... What? I daresay there are many, but in terms of what comes up regularly in concert programmes that's about it. In my view, an instrument that can actually be heard properly above an orchestra without great control and restraint on the part of composer and orchestral players ought to be a more popular choice. It can be as lyrical as any (amply demonstrated last night) but also make a real impact when the moment calls for it... What a lovely crisp, burnished sound Ms Balsom produces, and with technical near-perfection. I also wish orchestral trumpeters would give us more chances to hear all those bright fizzy harmonics a trumpet produces - almost all British players seem to play into their stands almost all the time these days, which dulls the sound from most locations in the audience. When you get one who does raise the bell above (or around the stand) at big moments (to their credit, several of the CBSO players often seem to do this) it makes such a difference. Bring back the late great Maurice Murphy (a good idea in its own right!) among others.

The Shostakovich I thought good, but not quite to the degree as others on this thread. In the first movement in particular Sinaisky seemed a little too keen to always be pressing on for my taste - just a touch on the matter-of-fact side. Also, he's taken to conducting without a baton in recent times which always seems (to me anyway) to lead to a very slight uncertainty and imprecision of ensemble no matter who the conductor or how good the orchestra. Full marks for a ferocious rendering of the finalé though - the biggest cheer afterwards going to the timpanist (though I'd have preferred even harder sticks at times) for a characteristically committed contribution.

Good to have live concerts back on R3 (though having, by coincidence, attended two of them in two different cities, my preference would definitely be for Mr Trelawney to introduce them from offstage - as at the RFH - rather than on - as at the Bridgewater).

[umslopogaas]

There are a few other trumpet concertos apart from the Haydn: I've got recordings of those by Torelli, Telemann, Michael Haydn andLeopold Mozart. The LP featuring the last three is 'Virtuose Trompeten Konzerte II', so presumably there is a volume I with others, but I havent got it. I've also got recordings of concerti for two trumpets by Vivaldi and Handel.

[Petrushka]

The pieces on this CD http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gruber-E%C3%...771787&sr=1-26 are superb and are trumpet concertos in all but name. Alison Balsom should try one of these instead of the ubiquitous Haydn and Hummel.

[salymap]

Since you started this thread, boy, what did you think of the concert ?

[Kuhlau]

I cannot comment on this specific concert, but I did attend a marvelous precursor to it at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham on Wednesday last. The same line up performed Three Slavonic Dances (I forget which three now specifically but not the 'obvious' ones), the Hummel Concerto and Mahler 1. I have never heard any of Mahler's Symphonies before, having been somewhat frightened of their enormity, but I must say this was the most wonderful concert performance I have experienced and enough to make me think about exploring my own potential Mahler Symphony Cycle in Concert (each symphony in order at a different venue was my thinking!)

[Roehre]

Anyway, apart from the excellent Hummel concerto, what else is a soloist to play that will satisfy both self and the listening public?

Just to mention Boughton, Carmichael, Forsyth, Michael Haydn (2x), Hoddinott (2X), Jolivet (2X), Larsson, Maxwell Davies, Molter, Leopold Mozart, Ponchielli, Telemann, Tomasi, Torelli, von Weber, Grace Williams, Zimmermann.

[3rd Viennese School]

Shoshty 5 mvt 1 and 2 is good fun. Starts slowly, gets faster and louder, crash bang wallop, all quiet after the excitement.
Mvt 2- West Side Story (some of this mvt comes from his 4th symphony)
But it always goes downhil for me after that. Except for the first part of the finale. Which then goes all disapointing again.

Actually, I delayed the pub on friday night so I could hear all of this (didnt get to the pub until 10pm!)

However, this symphony is quite emotional if you actually see it live in person, rather than in the bath. I found that out when they played it in Chatham.

3VS

[Chris Newman]

There is no shortage of old and new works for trumpet. Roehre rightly mentions several in message 13. I particularly like the Tomasi. New concertos and concertino works have been created for Haken Hardenberger by, amongst others, Harrison Birtwistle, Tobias Brostrom, Hans Werner Henze, Rolf Martinsson, Olga Neuwirth, Arvo Pärt, Benjamin Staern, Toru Takemitsu and Mark Anthony Turnage. He has performed Heinz Karl Gruber’s concerto Aerial over 60 times. I am sure there are works written for John Wilbraham and Philip Jones as well.