BBCSO/ANDREW DAVIS/LIVE R3/FRIDAY 19:30hrs 12/04/13 - TIPPETT symphony no.4

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I am not sure JLW that pianists would agree that the D Minor is not exhausting !

I understood her comment to mean that the Brahms D minor Concerto is so "potentially" exhausting (for the orchestra and audience) that it might have a detrimental affect on the performance and reception of the Tippett #4 which follows it?

(PS; I'd put Lloyd George's with Atlee!)

[BBMmk2]

Quiote a challenging programme, to say the least! I be glad when the interval comes :) Tippett no.4 with these forces, must be something special. I still think that when sir andrew Davis conducts this orchestra, they always seem to mperki up more, than for any other conductor.

[jayne lee wilson]

Not much to frighten the horses in that Brahms D Minor was there? I'm afraid that as broadcast I found it by turns heavy or expressionless, or simply too polite.
Surely this of all pieces has to be flung out like an eagle from a crag, retreat into dark elegiac valleys, then storm the citadel with a final charge - it has to go to extremes. Otherwise why all the sound and fury?

Do hope this hasn't put Bryn off for life...
... there is indeed a Brendel performance which has all the wild power and extremes of expression that I, at least, desire -
on the "Alfred Brendel: An 80th Birthday Tribute" Decca set - live from 1985 with Colin Davis/Bavarian Radio SO in the great Herkulessaal. One last try Bryn?

[Petrushka]

Rather enjoyed the Lloyd Old Racket, an approachable piece with a fine ear for string sonority - but was that a quote from Shostakovich 5 I heard?

I'm not familiar enough with the Brahms Piano Concertos to know which Stephen Hough turned up but in any case I strongly prefer the 2nd to the 1st.

Really listening to this concert for the Tippett which I've considered a real masterpiece since I heard it at its 1978 UK premiere with Solti and the Chicago SO.

[Alison]

Fair play to Sir Andrew, a thoroughly compelling symphony performance tonight.
How fully he enters the fragile nervous system of the work.

Get your dates right Petroc! And no need for the circus act introduction to the breather either.

[jayne lee wilson]

Are we SURE that was the same orchestra as in the Brahms...? I WONDER where most of the rehearsal time went...

STUNNING Tippett 4th, a performance in a single breath! But how I would love to hear those last chords separated by silence, without any breath, or just the barely-held breath of a rapt audience. Would anyone miss this effect if it were simply left out? I doubt it. Davis led the BBCSO in a display of precision, terrific power and rich sonority; with razor-edged brilliance in those brass outbursts. A great account of a late-20th Century masterpiece that has so much to tell us, it almost seems too much to take in.

(I was right about the Brahms concerto - in context, tonight it WAS an exhausting waste of time. Oh for the Mendelssohn D minor instead...)

[Petrushka]

And no need for the circus act introduction to the breather either.

Yes, I was most dismayed by this. Tippett must have been aware that he ran the risk of the breathing seeming to be a gimmick but what an original and moving effect it is. There's no need to invite titters from the audience.

JLW is spot on. This was a wonderful performance and I regret not recording it now.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

I suspect Leon Fleisher's account with Szell/Cleveland Orchestra might convince you of its worth.

Try Gilels and Jochum on DG, or Rudolf Serkin with Szell on CBS/Sony too!.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

A recording which I am currently awaiting delivery of, having ordered it a couple of days ago. I don't so much need convincing of its worth as to clear the painful memory of that Brendel 'off-night'. I tend to relive the horrors of that evening whenever I hear the work.

Is Brendels off night available on CD....perhaps he was in one of his jokey moods!.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

Yes, plenty of interest tonight. You never quite know what you're going to get with Houghy (phenomenal pianism or fistfuls of wrong notes) while Sir Andrew has always been a leading Tippett interpreter.

These BBCSO live Friday relays have surely been high points of the schedule this season. The orchestra seems to be playing so much better these days while the programming has been consistently fresh and even unfashionable.

I have a lot of respect for "Houghy" , I just felt that there was a lack of body to the piano sound when the going got heavy. I would describe it as stunted dynamics. I think this was the broadcast. I gues it would have been a different matter in the Barbican.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

I do just happen to have the 1989 Hough/BBCSO/Davis recording to hand. Perhaps I might give it a spin in advance of tonight's performance.

I believe that Stephen Hough has recently recorded both the Brahms Piano Concerti....to be released.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

I am not sure JLW that pianists would agree that the D Minor is not exhausting !

I will skip as I am allergic to Andrew Davis's conducting.

I too suffer the same allergy!.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

[QUOTE=jayne lee wilson;283006]Not much to frighten the horses in that Brahms D Minor was there? I'm afraid that as broadcast I found it by turns heavy or expressionless, or simply too polite.
Surely this of all pieces has to be flung out like an eagle from a crag, retreat into dark elegiac valleys, then storm the citadel with a final charge - it has to go to extremes. Otherwise why all the sound and fury?

Do hope this hasn't put Bryn off for life...
... there is indeed a Brendel performance which has all the wild power and extremes of expression that I, at least, desire -
on the "Alfred Brendel: An 80th Birthday Tribute" Decca set - live from 1985 with Colin Davis/Bavarian Radio SO in the great Herkulessaal. One last try Bryn?[

It sounded polite to me as well....I thought it might be the broadcast compression kicking in on the piano?.

[jayne lee wilson]

Sir Monty - I should have said I was listening via the HDs webfeed at 320 kbps AAC, so there should have been no dynamic range compression, or very little - in fact the dynamic range in the Brahms (orchestra and piano) as such, wasn't bad (and VERY impressive in the Tippett!) - it was the performance itself which seemed to me to lack the sharpness and drama that, perhaps, more rehearsal time would have encouraged.

If I had to listen to FM I wouldn't listen much at all!

[Nick Armstrong]

Brendel ...Tennstedt...

Crikey! What a duo! I envy you having witnessed that pairing. Wish there was footage of the rehearsals...