Elgar's Second - BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena: Afternoon on 3 30/06/17

[Andrew Slater]

Did anyone catch this afternoon's performance of Elgar 2 recorded in Innsbruck? Well worth a listen - an extremely lively performance, about 1 hour 27 into the programme. I've heard them play it in Manchester, but this far surpassed that performance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thank you. I shall listen with immediate effect.

[EdgeleyRob]

Fabulous,thanks Andrew.

Gorgeous Larghetto and how good was that scherzo,especially the middle section,incessant.

[PJPJ]

Thanks for the reminder - I'd intended to listen to Julia Fischer play the Britten....

Seems to have been a busy tour (like all tours, I guess)

20 March 2017

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ec68gw

21 March 2017

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e5dv2m

BBC PO event diary

https://www.bbc.co.uk/philharmonic/events/by/date/2017

[BBMmk2]

Thanks. There is always quite a lot of good concerts in the afternoon. Must try harder!!

[Andrew Slater]

Yes, there are some gems tucked away - I only heard it by accident when in the car.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, yes - very good indeed! I, too, had missed this - why somebody doesn't produce a weekly online listings for R3, I don't know!

Coincidentally, I had just finished listening to Jeffrey Tate's recording of the work when Andrew posted his recommendation - and I'd been increasingly frustrated by Tate's so-very-very-SLOW conducting (his recording of the First is much better IMO). Mena's reading was very much closer to how I prefer this work to sound - if anything, perhaps I'd've liked it a smidgenetissimo slower in the Second Movement. But the Third movement rattled the rafters exactly as it should, and the ache at the end of the work was breath-taking.

Great performance - many thanks for bringing it to the attention of the Forum, Andrew.

[Andrew Slater]

The whole performance was good, but it was the scherzo which caught my attention - I nearly had to stop the car, which is unheard of for me!

And I read somewhere that the 2017-18 season will be Mena's last as chief conductor of the BBC Phil .

[BBMmk2]

Would an "afternoon on 3" schedule be highlighted on here?

[Andrew Slater]

Would an "afternoon on 3" schedule be highlighted on here?

Well, you could always go to this part of my weekly listing and navigate from there (click on the time for the local listing, or on the pid for the BBC version):

http://radio-lists.org.uk/r3/r3.php?source=r3_2017-07-01.html#pind

(This will only work for this week's listing: you can get to it generally from the main listing 'Goto' button.)

Although I produce the listing, I sometimes miss things - I went to a fizzing performance of Walton's Symphony No. 1 in October (BBCPO / Mena) and have just discovered that it was broadcast in Ao3 on 8th November last year, and I managed to miss it! I don't suppose anyone recorded it?

[Bryn]

... I went to a fizzing performance of Walton's Symphony No. 1 in October (BBCPO / Mena) and have just discovered that it was broadcast in Ao3 on 8th November last year, and I managed to miss it! I don't suppose anyone recorded it?

Why would you not suppose that? I will have a search through my hard drives.

[Petrushka]

This is the whole problem with the R3 Afternoon on 3 schedule which. as I've said before, is a complete dog's dinner. Bits and pieces of concerts are jumbled up without any feeling for the coherence of programme building that would have gone into the original concerts. Moreover, as Andrew has found here, some seriously good music making is easily missed as it has the look about it of routine performances being relegated to daytime 'padding' of the schedules, a view seemingly confirmed by the dismal Radio Times layout.

Time was when the BBC orchestras foreign tour concerts were all broadcast in the evening slot, some of them live, and someone at the BBC should have realised that they had something good here with this Innsbruck concert and given it an evening slot, albeit as a recording.

As I still work full time there is never much chance of catching any possible gems within the Ao3 schedule so thanks for the heads up on this Elgar 2, I'll listen to it as soon as I can and make a proper concert of it by including the Britten Violin Concerto also broadcast on Friday.

[Andrew Slater]

That's very kind, Bryn. Thank you.

[Andrew Slater]

This is the whole problem with the R3 Afternoon on 3 schedule which. as I've said before, is a complete dog's dinner. Bits and pieces of concerts are jumbled up without any feeling for the coherence of programme building that would have gone into the original concerts. Moreover, as Andrew has found here, some seriously good music making is easily missed as it has the look about it of routine performances being relegated to daytime 'padding' of the schedules, a view seemingly confirmed by the dismal Radio Times layout.

Yes, the incoherence stretches to pieces inserted from CD recordings, without any indication that that is what they are, in the listings. The (my) tendency is to assume that many are CD recordings, and therefore to miss what could be a better 'live' performance. (Not so in this case, as I don't think these forces have recorded the Elgar or the Walton to CD - perhaps they should!) The programme would benefit from some re-working. I suppose the main problem is that the slot is too long (except Wednesday) for the average concert to fill it. But there are ways of overcoming that!

[gradus]

Just caught up with the broadcast and thoroughly agree with the plaudits. Thanks Andrew for drawing attention to it.