Live in Concert: BBCScottish S O: Rachmaninoff and Wagner: Thursday 27 September

[Hornspieler]

7.30pm
BBC SSO - Rachmaninov and Wagner
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Live from City Halls, Glasgow

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donald Runnicles, open their new season with Wagner's Tristan and Isolde: Act I and Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead.

On a darkening sea, a lone ship carries a strange cargo: a dutiful knight, an unwilling bride, and between them - though no-one yet knows it - a love more powerful than life itself. Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is the ultimate love story, set to a score so passionate that it changed music for ever. BBC SSO Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles is known the world over as a leading Wagner conductor; now, as we approach the composer's bicentenary year, he's assembled an international world-class cast to begin a three-part voyage towards supreme bliss. Rachmaninov's Wagner-inspired tone poem sets the mood; climb aboard for one of the greatest experiences in all opera.

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead

7.55: Interval

Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Act I

Nina Stemme: Isolde
Ian Storey: Tristan
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner: Brangäne
Boaz Daniel: Kurvenal
Nicky Spence: Young Seaman
Men of the RSNO Chorus
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor


I'm not keen on part operatic performances and will probably not bother with the second part of this concert, but I will certainly listen with interest to Part One and this comparatively unknown and seldom performed work by Rachmaninoff.

HS

[Barbirollians]

7.30pm
BBC SSO - Rachmaninov and Wagner
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Live from City Halls, Glasgow

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donald Runnicles, open their new season with Wagner's Tristan and Isolde: Act I and Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead.

On a darkening sea, a lone ship carries a strange cargo: a dutiful knight, an unwilling bride, and between them - though no-one yet knows it - a love more powerful than life itself. Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is the ultimate love story, set to a score so passionate that it changed music for ever. BBC SSO Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles is known the world over as a leading Wagner conductor; now, as we approach the composer's bicentenary year, he's assembled an international world-class cast to begin a three-part voyage towards supreme bliss. Rachmaninov's Wagner-inspired tone poem sets the mood; climb aboard for one of the greatest experiences in all opera.

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead

7.55: Interval

Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Act I

Nina Stemme: Isolde
Ian Storey: Tristan
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner: Brangäne
Boaz Daniel: Kurvenal
Nicky Spence: Young Seaman
Men of the RSNO Chorus
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles, conductor


I'm not keen on part operatic performances and will probably not bother with the second part of this concert, but I will certainly listen with interest to Part One and this comparatively unknown and seldom performed work by Rachmaninoff.

HS

Although I can understand your general antipathy I would make an exception for Nina Stemme- one of the greatest Isoldes of all time and in a class of her own at present

[AjAjAjH]

7.30pm
Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead

HS

[Petrushka]

Although I can understand your general antipathy I would make an exception for Nina Stemme- one of the greatest Isoldes of all time and in a class of her own at present

I can echo this. Some Wagner Acts from the operas work very well in concert (Walkure 1 and Meistersinger 3 for example) but Tristan 1 isn't wholly satisfactory in this respect because nothing is resolved; everything is left hanging in the air somewhat. Nevertheless, will give this a listen.

[BBMmk2]

Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, is one of those works where I am left in a confused state. I find myself quite, hmmm.......?

[jayne lee wilson]

Seems poor planning to me - two pieces which leave a sense of pent-up tension, which despite late climaxes leave you wanting more...

Yes, there's a tradition of Opera Acts in Concert, but you wonder if the Wagner is just another symptom of having to include a big draw.

An ideal partner for Isle of the Dead would be Rachmaninov's Symphony No.1. Plenty of passion spent by the end of that one...

[Petrushka]

Runnicles is a very fine Wagner conductor (his Gotterdammerung at the Proms Ring in 2007 was superb and he has conducted at Bayreuth) so it is, I suppose, natural that he would want to bring his talents in Wagner to the BBCSSO audiences. The problem is, of course, that Wagner is, er, rather long and likely to take up a chunk of the season if performed, say, in consecutive concerts (not to mention artists fees etc) so I suggest that what we have here is a compromise.

[Flosshilde]

I'm going to the concert on Thursday (& the other two acts) so I'll let you know if I'm suffering from a delayed climax . I'm rather looking forward to it, & it will be interesting to see if having different Tristans & Isoldes adds anything or not (I would have preferred to have had Nina Stemme in the last act, for her Liebestod)

[Petrushka]

I'm going to the concert on Thursday (& the other two acts) so I'll let you know if I'm suffering from a delayed climax . I'm rather looking forward to it, & it will be interesting to see if having different Tristans & Isoldes adds anything or not (I would have preferred to have had Nina Stemme in the last act, for her Liebestod)

I wasn't aware that the other two Acts were being performed as well. This puts a different complexion on matters. Are they later on in the season?

[Flosshilde]

Yes. Act II is on the 8th November, with the same T & I, but a different Brangene; it will be preceded by excerpts from Berlioz Romeo & Juliet, & Act III on the 11th April (rather a big gap), with Robert Dean Smith as T & Petra-Maria Schnitzer as I, but the same Brangene as in Act II. This will be preceded by Straus's Metamorphosen. King Mark is Peter Rose in Act II & Mathew Best in Act III (he sang Wotan in the SO's Ring).

James Naughtie will be in discussion with Runnicles before the Act I concert, A.L. Kennedy "presents a specially written creative response" to the myths & to Wagner before Act II, & Graham Vick will talk about staging T&I before Act III. The Radio 3 scedule doesn't indicate if the pre-concert talks will be broadcast in the interval.

(note - the dates above are for the Glasgow performances - I assume Radio 3 will broadcast from there, but they have broadcast BBCSSO concerts from Edinburgh in the past, even though the City Halls is in effect the BBC studio.)

[Flosshilde]

A thrilling opening to the season. We were told that Nina Stemme had come down with 'the lurgy', but it certainly didn't show in her performance (unless the near-swooning a couple of times was the result of the infection, rather than her acting). Ian Storey seemed, if anything, to be more likely to be suffering from ill-health - he seemed to have more of a struggle to be heard above the orchestra. His acting was more understated than Nina Stemme's, but none the less effective. (Is T & I the only opera where one doesn't feel that one is missing anything, dramatically, in a concert performance?). The orchestra were brilliant (& in Rachmaninov's Ilse of the dead). The main problem (& not a major one) was of balance between orchestra & singers; inevitable in a concert performance & one that might be adjusted in the broadcast.

The Edinburgh performance will apparently be recorded for broadcast in the future (a rather odd arrangement - why not just record the Glasgow performance?)

[Hornspieler]

(Is T & I the only opera where one doesn't feel that one is missing anything, dramatically, in a concert performance?). The orchestra were brilliant (& in Rachmaninov's Ilse of the dead). The main problem (& not a major one) was of balance between orchestra & singers; inevitable in a concert performance & one that might be adjusted in the broadcast.

This will always be a problem with "concert" performances.

The composer writes his score in the expectation that the orchestra will be in an orchestra pit and the singers voices will carry across and above them.

I am quite happy to listen only to a commercially produced CD, where the sound engineer has balanced the forces assembled in the recording studio accordingly, but to have all the performers together on a stage (a real example of "a level playing field") just does not - can not work.

That is why I was unhappy about the number of this year's promenade concerts which were devoted to "Opera Performances" (and that includes "Musicals")

HS

[Pianorak]

. . . The main problem (& not a major one) was of balance between orchestra & singers; inevitable in a concert performance & one that might be adjusted in the broadcast. . .

Listening to the broadcast there seemed to be no problem of balance between orchestra and singers, with Storey well to the fore, although Stemme sounded to me a bit below par. There was a slight problem towards the end of Scene 5 involving Kurwenal (microphone placement?). I thought the orchestral playing first-rate. However, overall I felt the performance could have done with a bit more tension and urgency, especially scenes 1 & 3 between Isolde and Brangaene.

[amateur51]

This will always be a problem with "concert" performances.

The composer writes his score in the expectation that the orchestra will be in an orchestra pit and the singers voices will carry across and above them.

I am quite happy to listen only to a commercially produced CD, where the sound engineer has balanced the forces assembled in the recording studio accordingly, but to have all the performers together on a stage (a real example of "a level playing field") just does not - can not work.

That is why I was unhappy about the number of this year's promenade concerts which were devoted to "Opera Performances" (and that includes "Musicals")

HS

It's worked perfectly well for me in Opera North's marvellous first two parts of their Ring cycle at Leeds Town Hall and in Paul Daniel's Ring at the Barbican and in Haitnik's Ring at the RAH with ROH forces while the opera house was undergoing refurbishment. I'd go so far as to say that I prefer my Ring done this way these days because you don't have to cope with the diector's imagination and the whole thing tends to move along at a cracking pace

[Roehre]

..... I'd go so far as to say that I prefer my Ring done this way these days because you don't have to cope with the director's imagination and the whole thing tends to move along at a cracking pace

Makes two of us