BBC SSO, Volkov, Britten/Bridge concert from the Concertgebouw, A'dam, 3 June

[bluestateprommer]

Surprised that no one has brought up this recent BBC SSO concert up in a thread, as it's eminently worth hearing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b020vpz1

It turned out that two of the original soloists were indisposed and had to be replaced:

Sarah-Jane Brandon (original soprano) -> Eleanor Dennis (replacement soprano)
Christine Rice (original mezzo) -> Kelley O'Connor (replacement mezzo)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/events/1474

However, tenor Andrew Staples avoided whatever health gremlins were about. All this aside, this is a very, very fine concert, repertory that one certainly does not hear every day live:

Britten:
(a) An American Overture
(b) Ballad of Heroes
Bridge: Enter Spring

Britten: Spring Symphony

It's all the more impressive that this is a tour concert. No American orchestra would dare to take a comparable all-American program on tour even in the USA.

The choirs are all from The Netherlands, namely the Laurens Cantorij Rotterdam, the Laurens Collegium Rotterdam, and the Kinderkoor Musicanti. Their English is impeccable - but of course; they're Dutch. Ilan Volkov leads the proceedings well, with the only slight "quirk" being the rather briskly paced opening of the Spring Symphony, at least brisker than I'm used to hearing from other recorded versions.

You've got a few days left to catch it, and I do recommend this concert on iPlayer. We'll see if I'll have time to give it another go-around.

[Tevot]

Hello there Blue...

I've listened to the first half of the concert already and very much enjoyed it. Will certainly endeavour to hear the Spring Symphony in the near future. Thanks for the post.

BTW a number of Britten's song cycles are being aired on the R3 Lunchtime Concert... Plenty of Britten listening to do this week

Heck - I'm getting carried away

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Tevot]

Just listened to it...

The audience loved The Spring Symphony - didn't they?

It was brisk - most certainly - and fresh as a result. Really enjoyed it. And indeed the Dutch certainly do English quite well ;-)

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Mary Chambers]

I love the Spring Symphony, though some don't. I love the exuberance of it, the same sort of exuberance I find in Paul Bunyan, which I listened to this afternoon - though being Britten each has its serious moments.

I!d have appreciated Ballad of Heroes more of I'd bothered to fetch my copy of the words from another room.

Frank Bridge - quite enjoyable, but as always with Bridge I can't find a fingerprint that tells me "That's Bridge", or even "That's probably Bridge". It seems sort of anonymous.

[salymap]

I love the Spring Symphony, though some don't. I love the exuberance of it, the same sort of exuberance I find in Paul Bunyan, which I listened to this afternoon - though being Britten each has its seroius moments.

I!d have appreciated Ballad of Heroes more of I'd bothered to fetch my copy of the words from another room.

Frank Bridge - quite enjoyable, but as always with Bridge I can't find a fingerprint that tells me "That's Bridge", or even "That's probably Bridge". It seems sort of anonymous.

I too love the Spring Symphony, but I feel it is one work that I only get the most out of if I hear it live. It was terrific in the very new RFH years ago after the RAH echo.

[Stanley Stewart]

Here's another unequivocal endorsement for this afternoon's broadcast of "Paul Bunyan" - so many happy Britten memories on R3 throughout this past week. In particular, I recall the splendid production of "PB" at Sadler's Wells Theatre in the hot summer of 1976 when even the grass fringes in London turned brown! I got 'comps' for seating in The Stalls, alongside several SW singers and it was a joy to hear their memories of "Peter Grimes" at the Wells in
1945. My cue to remind members of tomorrow's R3, 19.15 hrs, performance, (7 June), of "Peter Grimes". 'live' from Snape Maltings on the first night of the Aldeburgh Festival. Please note the starting time if you wish to hear the Opera Guide by Paul Kildea, Philip Reed and Josephine Barstow.

[RobertLeDiable]

It was a stunning concert, brilliantly played, sung and conducted. Volkov once again showed what an incredibly versatile musician he is - and it was good to hear the Ballad of Heroes which deserves to be programmed far more often. I'm not a great fan of the Spring Symphony, but again you hardly ever hear it and this was an almost ideal performance. Those Dutch choirs put most large British choirs to shame.

[Serial_Apologist]

I love the Spring Symphony, though some don't. I love the exuberance of it, the same sort of exuberance I find in Paul Bunyan, which I listened to this afternoon - though being Britten each has its serious moments.

I!d have appreciated Ballad of Heroes more of I'd bothered to fetch my copy of the words from another room.

Frank Bridge - quite enjoyable, but as always with Bridge I can't find a fingerprint that tells me "That's Bridge", or even "That's probably Bridge". It seems sort of anonymous.

Then I have to say I prefer that "anonymity" to the awful twee cuckoo/cock-a doodle doo anti-hunt saboteur tweeness of the Spring Symphony, where even the "tunes" are banal and as so often in Britten (unlike his teacher, from whom he could have learned so much) the harmonic dissonance makes little sense and seems to represent a basically tonal composer who was deliberately trying to sound "modern".

[Mary Chambers]

Then I have to say I prefer that "anonymity" to the awful twee cuckoo/cock-a doodle doo anti-hunt saboteur tweeness of the Spring Symphony, where even the "tunes" are banal and as so often in Britten (unlike his teacher, from whom he could have learned so much) the harmonic dissonance makes little sense and seems to represent a basically tonal composer who was deliberately trying to sound "modern".

Suit yourself, SA.

[salymap]

Then I have to say I prefer that "anonymity" to the awful twee cuckoo/cock-a doodle doo anti-hunt saboteur tweeness of the Spring Symphony, where even the "tunes" are banal and as so often in Britten (unlike his teacher, from whom he could have learned so much) the harmonic dissonance makes little sense and seems to represent a basically tonal composer who was deliberately trying to sound "modern".

well S_A poems about Spring are often twee but when I heard it live at the RFH I loved all the cross rhythms of parts of it and the way Britten makesone part melt into another [not very technical but you know what I mean.] He does the same at the end of the YPG when the big fugue comes back.

[Mary Chambers]

well S_A poems about Spring are often twee but when I heard it live at the RFH I loved all the cross rhythms of parts of it and the way Britten makesone part melt into another [not very technical but you know what I mean.] He does the same at the end of the YPG when the big fugue comes back.

I know what you mean, Saly.

It's a 16th century poem by Thomas Nashe, and in that context not twee at all. Britten understood that. It's just joyous.

Whenever I've heard it live I've never been able to hear the children's choir properly, but the atmosphere of jubilation when Spring arrives has always been very strong.

[mercia]

I didn't think the children's choir came over very well in this performance, in fact sumer is icumen in was inaudible for me - I put it down to lack of numbers, but I suppose it could have been sound-engineering

I like Britten and Bridge, I wouldn't want one to sound like the other - what would be the point of that ?

[HighlandDougie]

I suppose it could have been sound-engineering

Having been supplied with a 320kbps recording of this concert and having now listened to it twice, I don't think that the sound/balance engineers had quite got the hang of the Concertgebouw's acoustic and the placing of the various instrumental and vocal resources within it. Large and spacious, yes, but can also run the risk of 'losing' instruments, voices etc. So I think that it was Mercia's sound engineering rather than lack of numbers.

Fine performances, though, and I'd forgive BB pretty much anything for that absolutely magical setting of Auden's, "Out on the lawn I lie in bed" - even S.A.'s, "awful twee cuckoo/cock-a doodle doo anti-hunt saboteur tweeness".

[RobertLeDiable]

I thought the sound in the Brahms 4 from Rotterdam a couple of afternoons ago was pretty dim too. The Dutch radio sound engineers, from wherever they came, don't seem to have been brilliant. But who knows whether they had enough time to get a good balance at the rehearsal - having to deal with two different choruses, one with naturally less powerful voices than the other, can't be easy.