Tchaikowsky Night at Symphony Hall

[Hornspieler]

The CBSO conducted by Andris Nelsons play Tchaikowsky's March Slav, Rococo Variations and Manfred Symphony tonight (25th September) starting at 1930 hrs.

(see the schedule for full details)

HS

[amateur51]

Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Presented by Tom McKinney

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, plays Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations - with Daniel Müller-Schott as cello soloist - and the Manfred Symphony.

Tchaikovsky: Marche Slave
Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations

8.05: Interval

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

Daniel Müller-Schott: cello
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons: conductor

Tormented by forbidden desires, Byron's Manfred takes to the mountains to battle his demons. Tchaikovsky knew exactly how he felt, and poured everything into fifty minutes of the rawest, most personal and most passionate music he ever wrote. It's certainly a powerful contrast to the stirring Marche Slave and the jewel-like Rococo Variations, here played by Daniel Müller-Schott

[Barbirollians]

I shall be listening - after last Saturday's concert and listening to the Rite on iplayer that i missed - I am convinced that this is a great conductor of a great orchestra .

[Flosshilde]

The 'Marche Slave' has certainly made a stirring opening. (why do we use a French translation of the Russian title Tchaikovsky presumably gave it, rather than an English one?)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The 'Marche Slave' has certainly made a stirring opening. (why do we use a French translation of the Russian title Tchaikovsky presumably gave it, rather than an English one?)

Is this so? Educated Russians of the Middle Classes used French in their communications before the 1917 Revolution (the famous letter in which he exclaimed "I am Russian, Russian, Russian" was written in French, for example)?

(Genuine question - I presumed that the Russian titles on Russian editions of his works were all from the Soviet era.)

[Petrushka]

Forgot about this concert until half way through Marche Slave. Looking forward to what I'm sure will be a memorable Manfred. I'd second Barbirollians verdict that Nelsons and the CBSO are the real deal.

Just wish the BBC presenter wasn't a Blue Peter reject.

[Hornspieler]

Forgot about this concert until half way through Marche Slave. Looking forward to what I'm sure will be a memorable Manfred. I'd second Barbirollians verdict that Nelsons and the CBSO are the real deal.

Memorable for the wrong reasons as far as I am concerned.

I quite enjoyed the first part of the concert. Excellent cello soloist and the CBSO on their toes.

But Manfred? On this evidence, the orchestra can't play it.

Sloppy rhythm. Woodwind totally unable to get round the notes in the scherzo. Timid horn playing in the third movement those solo passages completely lost the semi-quavers. Trombones in the finale soiunded like the Regina Jailhouse Band!

For me,Tchaikowsky's Manfred Symphony is beyond this orchestra's capabilities.

HS

[Barbirollians]

I missed the second half - I forgot to turn it back on having been driven away by the unparalleled drivel that was the interview feature .

Enjoyed the first half though.

[edashtav]

Don't Shoot the Orchestra, send the Conductor to a Russian Boot Camp

Memorable for the wrong reasons as far as I am concerned.

I quite enjoyed the first part of the concert. Excellent cello soloist and the CBSO on their toes.

But Manfred? On this evidence, the orchestra can't play it.
[...]
For me,Tchaikowsky's Manfred Symphony is beyond this orchestra's capabilities.

HS

I missed the second half - I forgot to turn it back on having been driven away by the unparalleled drivel that was the interview feature .

Enjoyed the first half though.

I nearly followed Barbirollians beat, so awful was the interval talk!

I’ve got a soft spot for Daniel Müller-Schott, generally, but particularly in Russian music. I last heard him live with the LPO (Jurowski) in Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto and he was terrific – characterising its moods with precision and bringing out Prokofiev’s rhythms with point & purpose. Even a broken string that necessitated “stretching in” a replacement and repeating a well-launched movement from its start didn’t disturb Daniel’s acute concentration.
Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations are much lighter stuff but they are wonderfully scored and the work – the first cello concerto by a Russian composer, is a considerable achievement. Neither Daniel nor the orchestra let us done – this was a stylish performance with plenty of light, graceful playing

I’m comparing this live concert by the CBSO of the Manfred Symphony under their excellent principal conductor, Andris Nelsons, with a performance in the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, back in 1966 with Constantin Silvestri conducting “his” Bournemouth Orchestra: that was the first time I’d encountered the work and visceral impact of that performance was sensational. Technically, the CBSO of 2013 is a superior instrument to the BSO almost 50 years ago. Orchestral standards and the training of youngsters are much improved. However, it took me two minutes this evening to decide that Nelsons, much as I have admired his work, had lost the plot. By golly, the CBSO were playing the piece as if it was a traditional symphony. Let’s not overstress the start, players, ‘tis only an introduction, save yourselves for later in the symphonic argument. It you let fly with that leitmotif now, what will be left in your locker at its 29th repeat? C’mon, relax, make a beautiful line – that’s it first violins lean on that first note, don’t rush forward, this is the exposition, ensure the melody is fixed in the audience’s mind. . Horns,it ISN’T Berlioz, RIGHT?

What did Silvestri do? He told a story. His start is electric, horns blast (hs tells us that naughty Silvestri added a 4th one for weight), the upper strings throb as if their lives depend on the phrase, lower down the celli & basses dig in with weight and separation giving us a rocking Russian peasant rhythmn, crashed out by Cossacks wearing home -sewn leather boots. Immediately, we get the story, Manfred is a man in almighty torment, a man who cannot envisage a way through.

I liked the 2nd Waterfalls movement in the CBSO performance more than hs, enjoying the woodwind flurries although I didn’t feel that the later counterpoint between the woodwind figures and the longer-breathed melody was fully successful.

The 3rd movement was fine, this evening, but a bit incidental – a moment of relaxation.

Nelsons was most successful, for me, in the fraught finale. Great pace and accuracy in the Bacchanale and, unlike the BSO, a proper pipe organ was employed at the end. I know that Tchaikovsky stipulated an harmonium, but the non-sequitur of the chorale needs a touch of majesty if the work is not to collapse in bathos.

I shall defend the CBSO against hs’s strictures. I believe that they can play Manfred but Nelsons doesn’t yet know how to conduct it. It’s a dramatric story, phrase after phrase must maintain the tale and build on what has gone before. Silvestri starts with an atom bomb – but he forces his plays to carry on and build a hydrogen bomb in real time. No damp squibs for Maestro Silvestri. Andris Nelsons is a young man – he has time to learn! Manfred is not a romantic symphony, it is a symphonic tragedy.

My rankings for live performances are :
1. Silvestri
2. Jurowski

unplaced Nelsons

[DracoM]

Loved the Manfred - CBSO gave it wonderful driving hammer in all the right places.

[Petrushka]

Not sure why your post is repeating itself but I get this as well when editing.

Anyway, your post makes clear why this Manfred left me puzzled. Certain passages were too slow and the symphonic drama managed to fatally hang fire as a result. Agree that the CBSO can play the piece; a Prom performance under Sakari Oramo at the Proms a few years ago was terrific. LPO/Jurowski at last year's Proms was the best live performance I've heard.

[edashtav]

Not sure why your post is repeating itself but I get this as well when editing.

Anyway, your post makes clear why this Manfred left me puzzled. Certain passages were too slow and the symphonic drama managed to fatally hang fire as a result. Agree that the CBSO can play the piece; a Prom performance under Sakari Oramo at the Proms a few years ago was terrific. LPO/Jurowski at last year's Proms was the best live performance I've heard.

Thanks for the heads up - I hope my post is no longer repeating its exposition.

[salymap]

Thanks for detailed reviews of Manfred. I enjoyed the first half of the concert, the Rococo
Variations being one of my favourite Tch works but may not bother with Manfred, playing an old CD of it instead.

[Bryn]

While the interval feature and Manfred are available in Radio 3's HD Sound via the iPlayer's Listen Again facility, part 1 is only presented in very low data rate mono (despite the "HI" bandwidth button being highlighted). Hopefully this problem will be addressed and resolved during the course of the day.

[Hornspieler]

Thanks for detailed reviews of Manfred. I enjoyed the first half of the concert, the Rococo
Variations being one of my favourite Tch works but may not bother with Manfred, playing an old CD of it instead.

Yes, a good review by edashtav. He blamed the conductor whereas I blamed the orchestra. So I hunted amongst my CDs and found Manfred played by the CBSO but conducted by Sakri Oromo.

Yes, much better (I still prefer Silvestri, but then I would, wouldn't I?)

Of course, an orchestra's personnel change and my experience is that the annual turnover of players in an orchestra can be as high as 15% so there is no guarantee that these are the same principal players as there were at that time.

Interestingly, in the course of my searching, I also found a CD of Silvestri conducting Manfred with the French National Radio Orchestra. I shall give that one an airing and see how it compares.

HS

BTW: whilst compiling this post, I notice Bryn saying that Part One of the concert sounded as if it was in mono.

Yes! I was struggling to balance the input on one channel (left)with the other one (right) as shown on my PPMs.
I thought that it was my equaliser that was at fault and even in Part 2 there was still a discrepancy, though not as noticeable.