Gurrelieder this evening on R3

[Prommer]

Imagine my delight - not being able to go to this concert myself - to find that for once what I am missing in person is being broadcast live from the Festival Hall this evening...

As below

Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Camilla Tilling soprano, Tove
Michelle DeYoung mezzo-soprano, Waldtaube
Robert Dean Smith tenor, Waldemar
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke tenor, Klaus-Narr
David Soar bass, Bauer
Barbara Sukowa speaker
Philharmonia Voices
Royal Academy of Music Chorus
Royal College of Music Chorus
Guildhall School of Music & Drama Chorus
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance Choir

[HighlandDougie]

Imagine my delight - not being able to go to this concert myself - to find that for once what I am missing in person is being broadcast live from the Festival Hall this evening...

As below

Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Camilla Tilling soprano, Tove
Michelle DeYoung mezzo-soprano, Waldtaube
Robert Dean Smith tenor, Waldemar
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke tenor, Klaus-Narr
David Soar bass, Bauer
Barbara Sukowa speaker
Philharmonia Voices
Royal Academy of Music Chorus
Royal College of Music Chorus
Guildhall School of Music & Drama Chorus
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance Choir

It was really pretty wonderful in the Hall - probably sounded better via R3 as the forces involved are so enormous that detail sometimes got lost (I was sitting near the front). But EPS, as is known from the recording of the 2009 performance, really has the measure of what in lesser hands can seem like a bit of a sprawling mess. Schönberg does Game of Thrones in effect.

[BBMmk2]

Hoping there’ll be a recording?

[ostuni]

Hoping there’ll be a recording?

Well, it's on the iplayer for the next 29 days - but, as HD mentioned, Salonen and the Philharmonia recorded it less than a decade ago (with Sukowa as Sprecher; other soloists different), so I don't imagine this performance will be commercially released.

I was seated right behind the double basses, in the side stalls - an intriguingly bass-led balance there (strengthened by the low brass, not far along from me) - quite apart from the buzz you can only get from a live performance, last night's experience also reminded me that you get to hear the piece in a different way. Without the 'ideal' balance of a recording, certainly - but hearing things that you'd never hear in a recording.

Anyone who heard/saw his Loge in ON's Ring won't need telling that Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke was an astonishingly vivid Klaus-Narr: I couldn't imagine this small but vital part being sung better. And Camilla Tilling (a late replacement, I was pleased to see, for the originally advertised singer, who hasn't impressed me in the past) was a near-perfect Tove: I've never heard a better one. Barbara Sukowa's Sprecher is certainly striking: the wrong side of the platform for me, so I look forward to hearing her on the iplayer. Choirs and orchestra were superb - lovely to see percussion legend Tristan Fry on 2nd timps (and one Peter Fry in the large percussion section: related?). But the LSO's chains, a year ago in the RAH, were bigger...

[Prommer]

really has the measure of what in lesser hands can seem like a bit of a sprawling mess. Schönberg does Game of Thrones in effect.

Like the Gothic!

[BBMmk2]

Ostuni, I play tuba. It’s my life’s ambition to be part of a performance of this mighty work and others like it! I bet you had quite a buzz from the low brass!

[Prommer]

As this title seems apposite, since it is live on R3 this evening (this time the LPO, conducted by Gardner etc), I thought I would resurrect the thread!

[Prommer]

Lise Lindstrom soprano, Tove
Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano, Waldtaube
David Butt Philip tenor, Waldemar
Robert Murray tenor, Klaus-Narr
James Creswell bass-baritone, Bauer
Alex Jennings speaker

London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Choir
Members of London Symphony Chorus

Edward Gardner conductor

[smittims]

I'm catching up with it on BBC Sounds as I type. It's midnight (about 28 minutes in) and all's well, but I haven't heard anything outstanding yet.

The Salonen was fine, my only disappointment with the CD issue was the apparent absence of Waldemar's top B at one after 32.

In my view, after 50 years of listening to this glorious epic, is that none of the early recordings is really good; they all have their wonders and their faults. But from the Rattle/Berlin onwards they're all fine and I'd be hard pressed to choose a 'best'. The work has been well-served on disc.

[Pulcinella]

I thought that at some points the vibrato was almost wide enough to cover all 12 tones!

[smittims]

Having heard the whole broadcast I don't want to cavil at details; I was moved by the final chorus (well done Neville Creed).

The Tove and Wood dove were a bit wobbly; Klaus the Fool flung himself into his part with gusto. I'd have preferred the speaker's part to be the original Robert Franz Arnold German, and for Schoenberg's notated part to be followed. The orchestral playing was I thought the best part of the evening. Overall it was enjoyable.

I'm glad the BBC air this work fairly frequently, going back to 1928 when Schoenberg himself conducted a broadcast with the then BBC Wireless singers and Orchestra, trained by Percy Pitt.

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought that at some points the vibrato was almost wide enough to cover all 12 tones!

…from the RFH soloists, you mean?

[Prommer]

One online review said it was well balanced (Keith McDonnell?) - well, it wasn't in the Hall. Maybe the broadcast achieved better.

David Butt Philip had nowhere near the chops for the size of the orchestra and the chosen dynamics.

Lise Lindstrom was miscast, I think. Sad as I am to say it as she has real presence (i.e. swoon) and is a great singer in the right repertoire.

Orchestra and chorus were fabulous. Heard Wagner in there as usual, Elgar (somehow) too.

[Pulcinella]

…from the RFH soloists, you mean?

Indeed, last night at the RFH.
Especially Tove.

[BBMmk2]

I need to catch up with this.