Tchaikovsky's Pathetique - a lollipop?

[Guest]

On Thursday 17th February 2011 I am going to the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester with 3 friends to hear the Halle under Sir Mark Elder perform the following programme:

Thomas Ades - Overture, Waltz and Finale to Powder Her Face
Max Bruch - Scottish Fantasy ( Violinist - Valeri Sokolov )
Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 6 ( Pathetique )

It is being recorded for broadcast on Po3 in the near future.

A friend light-heartedly but somewhat mystifyingly described the programme as 'lollipops'. I was disconcerted. With something as emotionally charged as the Pathetique such a description seems quite inappropriate.

[Threni]

Yes I'll be at this one, should be a highlight, not heard the bruch live.

More looking forward to Stravinsky Fairy's kiss next week with knussen ;-)

[StephenO]

More of a feast than a lollipop, surely.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A friend light-heartedly but somewhat mystifyingly described the programme as 'lollipops'. I was disconcerted. With something as emotionally charged as the Pathetique such a description seems quite inappropriate.

I really wouldn't worry about this kind of comment from your friend. This attitude was rife in the 1960s and '70s.

[Mandryka]

No lollipops there, I'd say, apart possibly from the Bruch.

[french frank]

The OED gives as a definition: "a showy or non-serious performance" with the 1972 quote: "Colin Carr chose, mistakenly for a student, a lollipop, a Popper Polonaise, rather than good red meat, but it served to show off an enviable fluency on the instrument", who knows, perhaps this one. Sweetish with loads of panache and not too long. So, no, I don't think that programme fits the bill. Hope you enjoy it!

[They played the Turnage at the Proms about three years ago, as an opener to Duke Bluebeard's Castle. I only had the small pocket guide which didn't list it so I was expecting proceedings to begin with Duke B. Flummoxed there until the very quick interval and I was able to ask my neighbour ... ]

[Martin Reynolds]

Just got back from the concert. Unfortunately Valeri Sokolov was indisposed and his place was taken by Sophia Jaffe who played the Dvorak Violin Concerto instead of the Bruch. The Ades I wasn't totally happy with especially the Overture which seemed to be a pastiche of 30s popular styles but the Waltz was marvellous and the Finale was quite good too. The Dvorak was too Brahmsian for me at the beginning but in the latter stages developed into something akin to the Slavonic Dances which in my book is Dvorak at his best. The Tchaikovsky I found curiously uninvolving at first. But as the piece progressed I was gradually won over. The final movement was sublime. At the last cadence we didn't want to applaud. Just go away in silence. But inevitably the spell was broken. And there was a lot of applause.

[BBMmk2]

Oh, what music! how can anyone say is this a lollipop?

[Uncle Monty]

What I do notice is that the Pathetique is scheduled for two consecutive days on R3 next week! (Wednesday, and Thursday, I think from memory, but could be wrong.) This seems an extraordinarily sloppy piece of programming. (The other one is under Dudamel.)

I mean, I don't mind, as I wouldn't have listened to either performance of the overwrought drivel anyway, but I'm not going to be boring again about Tchaikovsky. Unless provoked

[Threni]

Excellent performance at the Halle last night with elder.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Halle under George Weldon played this work in an all Tchaikovsky programme in my first ever live concert. I loved the items in the first half (March Slav, Andante Cantabile & Romeo and Juliet) but was bored by the 6th Symphony. However, 10 years later it was one of my favourite works, and it remains so until this day.

[Chris Newman]

[QUOTEPyotr Illych Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 6 ( Pathetique )

A friend light-heartedly but somewhat mystifyingly described the programme as 'lollipops'. I was disconcerted. With something as emotionally charged as the Pathetique such a description seems quite inappropriate. [/QUOTE]

Tosh!! It was not a lollipop in Tchaikovsky's day.

Hearing it on Thursday 22nd of August 1968 preceded by Rachmaninov's "Isle of the Dead" and David Oistrakh playing Shostakovich's 2nd Violin Concerto with Evgeny Svetlanov and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra the day after Russia had invaded Czechoslovakia and it was no lollipop either. I could not hear it again for years.

And hear it played by Mikhail Pletnev conducting the Russian National Orchestra and anyone will be totally flabberghasted by your friend's comments.

[Stanfordian]

I was there at the Bridgewater and Sir Mark and the Halle provided a quite spellbinding concert. Whoever said the Pathetique was a Lollipop knows nothing about serious music or has misunderstood the meaning of the word. Just because a work is extremely popular with an audience does not make it a Lollipop .

[AjAjAjH]

I was in the Bridgewater Hall too and couldn't agree more with the post by 'Stanford's Legacy'. (See my post elsewhere.)

I see that the BBC has the 'Pathetique' scheduled twice next week. On Thursday's 'Performance on Three' (the performance mentioned here) and on Friday's 'Afternoon on Three'.

[Uncle Monty]

I see that the BBC has the 'Pathetique' scheduled twice next week. On Thursday's 'Performance on Three' (the performance mentioned here) and on Friday's 'Afternoon on Three'.

Thanks for the correction. I misremembered the days in my post yesterday.