The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Juanjo Mena Friday 30 November at 7.30

[Hornspieler]

Live from The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Martin Handley

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Juanjo Mena, performs George Benjamin's Ringed by the Flat Horizon, Haydn's Cello Concerto in C with Johannes Moser, and Dvorak's Symphony No 7.

George Benjamin: Ringed by the Flat Horizon
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C
Johannes Moser (cello)
INTERVAL
Dvorak: Symphony Nº 7

The concert begins with George Benjamin's electrifying musical landscape, and Johannes Moser performs Haydn's irresistible First Cello Concerto. Dvorak's Seventh Symphony is one of his darkest but most sublime works. Dvorak resolved that this Symphony would reflect his country's struggle for freedom, and his own personal struggle to reconcile his desire for peace with his Czech patriotism. He said "The opening of my Symphony flashed into my mind on the arrival of the festive train bringing our countryment from Pest".

I'm not too keen on the Haydn C major and I don't know the Benjamin, although I do like his music.

I would walk a mile in the rain to hear Dvorak's 7th symphony and look forward to Juanjo Mena's interpretation

HS

[beakon]

So would I, HS (walk in the rain to hear the Dvorak, that is) and likewise I am looking forward to it very much - I'll have to listen on iPlayer though as I'm not in on Friday night. And it's at times like this that I'm very sad to have had to move right away from Manchester a few years ago ... I do miss the Bridgewater Hall concerts.

[3rd Viennese School]

The first time I heard Dvorak symphony no.7 mvts 3 and 4 it was in the rain! A thunderstorm. I was on a train.

The stormy scenery went very well with the music!

3VS

[salymap]

The Dvorak D minor and G major ( nos 7 and 8 ) are my joint favourites, but maybe no 7 is slightly ahead.

I hope iPlayer will work for this on Saturday.

[Hornspieler]

Live from The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester


George Benjamin: Ringed by the Flat Horizon
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C
Johannes Moser (cello)
INTERVAL
Dvorak: Symphony Nº 7

I'm not too keen on the Haydn C major and I don't know the Benjamin, although I do like his music.

I find the Benjamin very atmospheric but:

a) Too much percussion - a common obsession with new music composers (IMV)

b) Too long - it became very repetitive and I felt that Benjamin had nothing more to say, but still had a few empty sheets of manuscript to fill.

Haydn cello concerto has just started. Will post again during the interval.

HS

[jayne lee wilson]

Oh come on HS, it is the work of a 20 year-old (at the time the youngest ever to have work played at the Proms), and doesn't the evocation of a storm need time for tension and atmosphere to build before the brief release? I sink into and enjoy its 20' length the way I might relish an actual storm. Beethoven's magnificent Romantic and pastoralist example is all too brief for me (though not for his symphony of course)! Benjamin, in 1970, is more naturalistic, less compressed.

Percussion can often seem the least human of orchestral sounds, which is doubtless why they have so often been used in alien, natural or otherworldly musical contexts. They found their voice in the 20th Century.

What heavenly sounds the BBCPhil make for this conductor. After the cutglass precision of Ringed by the Flat Horizon, wondrous warmth and tonal beauty for the Haydn Cello Concerto - well-matched by the richly-voiced soloist.

[Hornspieler]

Haydn cello concerto has just started. Will post again during the interval.

HS

A bit of a scramble I thought, but I think it's very difficult to make much out of this concerto. The encore was unimpressive - he shouldn't have bothered.

I'm now listening to the Dvorak and it seems very lucklustre to me. Very restrained where I feel there is a lot more romanticism waiting to come out. A nice easy flow in the scherzo, but where is all the passion? Maybe it's just my mood tonight, but I usually wonder at this symphony and tonight I'm starting to wonder if I haven't got something better to do.

So ignore all my protests and say what you think.

HS

[Flay]

I confess I don't know the 7th well. Some of the the rhythms in the scherzo brought to mind that of Bruckner's 9th. Could they have ever met - possibly in Vienna? I expect Bruckner could have heard the work.

[jayne lee wilson]

They did huff-and-puff a bit through the Dvorak didn't they? Mena seemed to place it firmly in the austro-german romantic tradition, very full and richly textured, but rather too heavy with it, the orchestral response a little laboured in (i) especially. The slow movement was, almost inevitably, the most successful, and beautiful, passage - then in the scherzo I wanted those slavonic horsemen to break out of their hefty canter, the palette again just a little too Brahmsian (and not on original instruments...)

The conductor audibly stamped his foot as the finale gathered steam, urging his players on, but for me this was still too moderately paced - or were the rhythms simply not given enough lift? Those exhilarating passages where joy is all too briefly glimpsed were lacking any sense of that finally illusory triumph, so failed to create their contrasted mood. This great work ends - defiantly, I think, with the sense of survival through dark days. I don't usually find any relief or release at the end, just a grim, if cathartic, determination. If that impression was less vivid tonight, it was due to the consistently darker, heavier character of the performance itself.

[Sir Velo]

I'm obviously suffering from a serious bout of deja vu as I could have sworn that the Dvorak was played only a couple of weeks ago. Must be dreaming. The BBC wouldn't programme the same piece twice in amonth, not when there are literally thousands of symphonies out there, would they?

[Bryn]

I'm obviously suffering from a serious bout of deja vu as I could have sworn that the Dvorak was played only a couple of weeks ago. Must be dreaming. The BBC wouldn't programme the same piece twice in amonth, not when there are literally thousands of symphonies out there, would they?

These were very different performances. Live in Concert offers concerts from a wide range of ensembles around the country and beyond playing concert programmes designed by the promoters rather then the BBC. Sometimes it will be unavoidable that the same work will be programmed within a short period of time by such promoters of different ensembles. Be grateful you got to hear two different approaches to the same work within weeks of each other.

[Sir Velo]

These were very different performances. Live in Concert offers concerts from a wide range of ensembles around the country and beyond playing concert programmes designed by the promoters rather then the BBC. Sometimes it will be unavoidable that the same work will be programmed within a short period of time by such promoters of different ensembles. Be grateful you got to hear two different approaches to the same work within weeks of each other.

You don't work for the BBC do you Bryn?

Seriously, this symphony (fine though it is) was played at the Proms and has been on Ao3 in recent weeks. I take your point about concert programming being outside the BBC's control. However, a little more thought as to which concerts are broadcast would not go amiss.

[Bryn]

You don't work for the BBC do you Bryn?

Seriously, this symphony (fine though it is) was played at the Proms and has been on Ao3 in recent weeks. I take your point about concert programming being outside the BBC's control. However, a little more thought as to which concerts are broadcast would not go amiss.

As it happens I do work for the BBC, but not the British Broadcasting Corporation, (another BBC entirely).

I have listened to both recent Po3 offerings of the 7th this morning, I suppose I could have done without last night's in-house performance, but that on the 2nd was one I was very pleased to have heard.

[Petrushka]

You don't work for the BBC do you Bryn?

Seriously, this symphony (fine though it is) was played at the Proms and has been on Ao3 in recent weeks. I take your point about concert programming being outside the BBC's control. However, a little more thought as to which concerts are broadcast would not go amiss.

So because Dvorak 7 was broadcast from the Proms on July 25 (over 4 months ago) and was on Ao3 'in recent weeks' it shouldn't be broadcast until.... when?
Strange comment.

[Sir Velo]

So because Dvorak 7 was broadcast from the Proms on July 25 (over 4 months ago) and was on Ao3 'in recent weeks' it shouldn't be broadcast until.... when?
Strange comment.

f yoiu follow my link in msg #9 you will see that there was also a live evening concert early in Nov. This makes at least 4 live (or as live) performances in the last 4 months, more than all the Honegger, say, in the last 4 years. However, I've said my fill and been roundly abused so I'll shut up.