What a Good Week on R3 Oct 22-28

[Nick Armstrong]

mea culpa - yes it was #8 that of a thousand ! don't know why I mixed it up tho I only really listened to final half + am not a Mahler enthusiast.

I caught the end of Part 1 - not ideal, as you said - and the intro to Part 2 - good. But then went out. Not tempted to return to hear the rest...

[Petrushka]

I caught the end of Part 1 - not ideal, as you said - and the intro to Part 2 - good. But then went out. Not tempted to return to hear the rest...

I thought the whole thing was terrific. Yes the very large chorus was slightly recessed but this allowed lots of orchestral detail to emerge that I'd not heard before. That the end of Part 1 sounded 'congested' is probably more down to Mahler than the engineers who face an almost impossible task at this point. Chailly helped by taking a slightly slower tempo than usual but it still sounded very 'busy'. I pushed the volume up to create an overwhelming racket as I did again at the very end of the work which sounded superb.

I'd give it another go, if I were you, and make time for the whole to work its magic. You soon adjust to the slightly backwardly balanced chorus but bumping up the volume gives it plenty of body and it does sound like a very big chorus. You can see a photo on the schedule page http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0801l4s

[teamsaint]

What I tend to do these days , and this is quite deliberate, is turn up ( or tune in) not having any idea at all of what is on the programme, and going with the flow.

Works for me.....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What I tend to do these days , and this is quite deliberate, is turn up ( or tune in) not having any idea at all of what is on the programme, and going with the flow.

Works for me.....

A similar attitude got me through an entire teaching career.

[ahinton]

A similar attitude got me through an entire teaching career.

!!!

You must have amassed a goodly number of grateful students during that time!...

[teamsaint]

A similar attitude got me through an entire teaching career.

interesting.

it seems one can apply the same principle to sales.....

[BBMmk2]

There was this teacher I used to work with and he said he always enjoyed my music selection first, whatever it may be, classical ofcourse, and just with that, helped him though the day.

[Flay]

What did you all think of Haitink's Bruckner 8?

I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed - I had hoped to hear a definitive performance from a top Brucknerian and an excellent orchestra. But it was all so painfully slow, barely plodding along. I didn't feel any of the excitement, drama or danger that I usually associate with this work. It felt like the cathedral could topple at any time.

Am I alone?

The performance lasted 1 hour 27 minutes. Was the audience extremely polite in holding back their applause, or were they stunned into silence?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But it was all so painfully slow, barely plodding along. I didn't feel any of the excitement, drama or danger that I usually associate with this work.

I agree in every particular.

Am I alone?

No

[bluestateprommer]

Just been leafing through the radio pages for Radio 3 next week and what a very fine week it looks!

Sunday's 'Radio 3 in Concert' has a performance of Mahler's 8th Symphony given at Lucerne with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. Recordings from the Lucerne Festival make up the backbone of Afternoon on 3 with an all Dvorak concert from the COE and Bernard Haitink on Tuesday while Haitink pops up again on Wednesday, this time with the LFO in Bruckner's 8th.

There's a fine looking concert from Liverpool with Petrenko and the RLPO on Wednesday evening while Tuesday has a promising BBCPO concert. I might even tune in for Thursday evening's Nash Ensemble concert. Friday evening's concert features Semyon Bychkov and the BBCSO in Tchaikovsky in what is actually the only live concert of the week (all the other evening concerts were recorded earlier).

Opera buffs aren't neglected either with Verdi on Saturday and Wagner on Thursday.

This looks as good a week on R3 as I've seen for a long, long time away from the Proms. Reason enough to feel that it's like 'the good old days' and the station is in excellent health.

Didn't quite manage to catch all the highlights from this particular week, but I did hear the BBC SO/Bychkov concert of Tchaikovsky, the Chailly/LFO Mahler 8, and the RLPO/Petrenko mainly Rachmaninov fest. Perhaps the one highlight of the bunch was "Manfred", because I have a soft spot for the work, and hope one day to hear it live with Tchaikovsky's original ending (I've heard it once with the Svetlanov-ized ending that traduces the finale). Nice touch to have the harmonium at the end after Manfred's final departure, which would actually render it more accessible to most orchestras, if indeed a full pipe organ is not what is called for at the end.

Chailly's Mahler 8 was good, if not necessarily a world-beater for me. But lucky audience in Lucerne who got to hear it at the KKL, and the audience gets points there for observing something 10 seconds of silence after its ending, before applauding. No such luck with the RLPO at the end of the 'Symphonic Dances', as jean noted. I found VP's interpretation and nudges of tempo too quirky and extreme in many places. But the work is my favorite Rachmaninov composition, so beggars can't be choosers.