BENEDETTI/BBCSSO/LITTON 19:30 15/11/12 City Halls, Glasgow

[jayne lee wilson]

Last call for tonight's attractive, sparkling Polish and Russian programme...

KARLOWICZ Eternal Songs
SZYMANOWSKI Violin Concerto No.1

PROKOFIEV Symphony No.5

The Szymanowski is one of Ms. Benedetti's signature pieces; Litton's skills should be well-suited to both this and the Prokofiev 5th. Let's hope Mr. Litton gives it all some schwung!

Karlowicz' Eternal Songs? No, me neither. All the more reason then...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Karlowicz' Eternal Songs? No, me neither. All the more reason then...

Eternal Songs was the name of an excellent Saturday (?Sunday?) afternoon series about 20th Century Polish Music broadcast on R3 in the early/mid '80s. The piece was played then, but I don't remember it and this is the first time I've seen it programmed in a Live concert.

[jayne lee wilson]

WOW! Well that was just a stunning performance of the Szymanowski 1st Concerto!

I've never heard it better done, live or on disc; the orchestra refined, polished and powerful, Benedetti's slim tone threaded through this surrealist sonic landscape with a range of voicings and colours to match every mood, from the sweetest, highest refinements to a throaty gypsy huskiness. Litton and his soloist were as one in their vision of this dream-world, the orchestra carefully reserving their greatest force for the biggest tuttis, the still small voice of the violin just surviving each onslaught. Flick of the wrist and it's over. It really was just a dream...

Karlowicz just a little overshadowed, but a sublime close to the end of part 2, an extended quiet cantilena on the highest violins...

[teamsaint]

Thanks for the review of the first half, Jayne.
Working at (or is it from) home tomorrow, so I am going to try to remember to catch up with this one.

I love the concept of a post it note on a laptop. ....all set up for about 10 AM..I deserve a break by then !

[ahinton]

WOW! Well that was just a stunning performance of the Szymanowski 1st Concerto!

I've never heard it better done, live or on disc; the orchestra refined, polished and powerful, Benedetti's slim tone threaded through this surrealist sonic landscape with a range of voicings and colours to match every mood, from the sweetest, highest refinements to a throaty gypsy huskiness. Litton and his soloist were as one in their vision of this dream-world, the orchestra carefully reserving their greatest force for the biggest tuttis, the still small voice of the violin just surviving each onslaught. Flick of the wrist and it's over. It really was just a dream...

Oh, Jayne, how well you understand and respond to this most wonderful of violin concertos! A certain composer (no names, no pack-drill!) remarked to me after the première of his own violin concerto a few years back how Szymanowski's first remains, to this day, "the way to write a violin concerto"...

[EdgeleyRob]

I don't get Szymanowski sorry,am I in the doghouse again?

[ahinton]

I don't get Szymanowski sorry,am I in the doghouse again?

I don't know about "again", Rob - but yes, you are indeed well and truly in the hound abode on this one!...

[EdgeleyRob]

I don't know about "again", Rob - but yes, you are indeed well and truly in the hound abode on this one!...

Well I've been in trouble before for not 'getting' Sibelius,The Beatles,The last movement of Beethoven 9 ................

[Alison]

Marvellous concert, a feast for the ear !

[teamsaint]

Marvellous concert, a feast for the ear !

Hmmmm...looks like a long coffee break for me tomorrow then .
Oh well, never mind.I'll cope somehow.

[jayne lee wilson]

It gives me no pleasure to report a less-than-satisfying Prokofiev 5th after the interval... were they all a bit spent after those Polish adventures?

They had a go, but the orchestra sounded less disciplined, and rather laboured through the 1st movement, dynamically restrained until the final notes, the reading too hesitant and preludial in character. The slight rawness of tone persisted throughout, and, in the adagio especially, Andrew Litton too often pulled back the tempi at phrase-ends, or agogically before a climax, so the music kept losing momentum, the rhythmic flow too regularly disturbed. The finale was scarcely jazzy enough, and oddly slow in the 2nd thematic group, again needlessly. Yes, things livened up as the end approached, and in the coda...
But, well, they would, wouldn't they?

Sorry about that!

[Pianorak]

I don't get Szymanowski sorry,am I in the doghouse again?

I don't get this Szymanowski violin concerto. However, I do rate his piano works highly, as well as his opera King Roger.

[ahinton]

I don't get this Szymanowski violin concerto. However, I do rate his piano works highly, as well as his opera King Roger.

Then I am deeply sorry for you! Do you "get" his other violin concerto? - or third symphony?...

[Pianorak]

Then I am deeply sorry for you! Do you "get" his other violin concerto? - or third symphony?...

My excuse: I didn't know this concerto and missed the beginning. Have just listened to it on iPlayer - and yes, it is excellent, very reminiscent of the Song of the Night (Symphony 3). The 2nd violin concerto which I have known for a long time is quite a different kettle of fish, as you know, and yes I do "get" that.