Saturday 26/10/13 - Poulenc, Ravel, Roussel (BBCSO/Minkowski)

[Nick Armstrong]

Fascinating concert in prospect on Saturday on R3 !

Baroque master Marc Minkowski tête-à-tête with the BBCSO in 20th century French music - two sides of Poulenc's genius for jayne and ed to debate...

...and then a chance to hear Roussel 3 - plus the delectable Ravel.

This is my kind of programme!

(Less enthralled by the prospect of the BBC Singers - but let's see... or rather, hear....)


7.30
Poulenc: Figure Humaine
Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos

8.15 Interval: Music by Francis Poulenc and other members of 'Les Six', performed by the BBC Singers earlier this evening at St Giles' Church, Cripplegate

8.35
Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet music)
Roussel: Symphony No 3

BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Vincent and David Kadouch (pianos)
Marc Minkowski (conductor)

[teamsaint]

Thanks for flagging that up Cals.
perfect for the car on the way home from the footy.
(5.30 kick off for us on Sat).

[Roehre]

Very nicely programmed concert indeed.

[edashtav]

Fascinating concert in prospect on Saturday on R3 !

Baroque master Marc Minkowski tête-à-tête with the BBCSO in 20th century French music - two sides of Poulenc's genius for jayne and ed to debate...

...and then a chance to hear Roussel 3 - plus the delectable Ravel.

This is my kind of programme!

(Less enthralled by the prospect of the BBC Singers - but let's see... or rather, hear....)


7.30
Poulenc: Figure Humaine
Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos

8.15 Interval: Music by Francis Poulenc and other members of 'Les Six', performed by the BBC Singers earlier this evening at St Giles' Church, Cripplegate

8.35
Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet music)
Roussel: Symphony No 3

BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Guillaume Vincent and David Kadouch (pianos)
Marc Minkowski (conductor)

Neat piece of flagging, Cali - what a shame that the Beeb have not turned the recent set of programmes including Poulenc, fifty years after his sudden death, into more of a Poulenc-fest complete with proper analytical programmes by French specialists. Martin Handley interviewed one before the Stabat Mater - but that was a wasted opportunity because there was no time for her to expand & expound. Life for R.3 listeners is more than headlines.

But, I mustn't be too churlish - it'll be good to hear fresh pianists tackling the delectable two piano concerto and Marc Minkowski is a figure I greatly admire.

I'm a succour for Mother Goose, too. And then there's Roussel...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and if you are about the Barbican on Tuesday there is a recital of songs in the Guildhall where all the performers will be 'fresh'

[edashtav]

Thanks for the "heads up".

[jayne lee wilson]

Last reminder for this Saturday Night treat - be there or be square!

[Anna]

Last reminder for this Saturday Night treat - be there or be square!

Who said "Be square, be there, or be a doughnut" ?
I'm sure someone did but google isn't coming up with anything. Was it Bob Dylan?

[jayne lee wilson]

Don't usually post during a concert but (as we wait 10 minutes for the 2 pianos to be positioned) Petroc Trelawny wins the Stale Doughnut Award for pronouncing Figure Humaine as "figger oo-man"... oh, FAR too much trouble to research a title you have to say repeatedly...

[jayne lee wilson]

Minkowski got the BBC SO to play the Poulenc 2-Piano Concerto with truly Parisian gay abandon. Shades of! Etc. Exactly the right blend of tongue-in-cheek romance and clownish drama. The young soloists also did well, but were a little too respectful; I wanted more cod-melodramatic operatics - to sauce it up a little, as Sweet Sue might have said.
But they were warmly expressive and brought the 1st movement gamelan-episode off beautifully.

[edashtav]

Minkowski got the BBC SO to play the Poulenc 2-Piano Concerto with truly Parisian gay abandon. Shades of! Etc. Exactly the right blend of tongue-in-cheek romance and clownish drama. The young soloists also did well, but were a little too respectful; I wanted more cod-melodramatic operatics - to sauce it up a little, as Sweet Sue might have said. But they were warmly expressive and brought the 1st movement gamelan-episode off beautifully.

Damn, Mrs G insisted we watch SCD together so I'll have to listen later on iPlayer to the 2-pno. pc. I'm listening to the BBC Singers in the interval. Too beefy & very English in Auric's 5 Songs. ah... those two young lads (David Kadouch and Guillaume Vincent) are back on piano 4-hands, again, for Poulenc's early duet sonata.. Pert rhythms and melodies with a pleasant lilt. The microphone focus was soft and quite distant allowing the textures to be coloured by the church acoustics in St Giles, without losing the fast detailing. The performance was charming and understated.

[ardcarp]

Petroc Trelawny wins the Stale Doughnut Award for pronouncing Figure Humaine as "figger oo-man".

Yes. Absoluely ubelievable.

I have failed in my quest for a suitably out-pf-date comestible for the BBCS. I know I'm going to resurrect old arguments here, but in all honesty I was unable, at times, to discern what notes they were meant to be singing. As for Poulenc's delicious harmony, the chords were so fogged up it was completely lost. I struggle to think what Marc Minkowsky, used to working with some pretty amazing early music groups, must have thought (privately) about the outfit.

Sorry to be so forthright. I do not set out to find fault and always hope against hope things are going to be better. But........

[edashtav]

Ravel’s Mother Goose was interpreted by Minkowski in a lovely, relaxed, dreamy, gentle fashion. Is there a more beautiful orchestral score in 20th century music? It was good to hear the BBC SO back on their mettle – there was delightful “give & take” between the various solo instruments. The flutes were balanced a little too prominently – but was that a function of my equipment? The hunting horns were like miniature instruments, so delicate was their playing. Minkowski’s magic allowed the music to breathe organically. I’ve been listening to Mother Goose since I was introduced to it in the early 1960s by Constantin Silvestri in Bournemouth, but this was the most winning performance that I’ve heard. Constantly, I was reminded that it was ballet music. One waltz section was so wonderfully pointed that the lovely line spun by the clarinet conjured a strong vision of the rise & fall of the dancers. Was the beast a bit of a paper tiger? Maybe – but I’m sure that Minkowski didn’t want too much reality to intrude on fairyland. The whole of the orchestra had bought the dream and played with united restraint and their grace was so Gallic. The string interlude that leads to the coda moved me to tears.

Reader, I didn’t want the dream to end so I opted out of the robust matter of fact nature of Roussel’s Symphony. I shall catch up later, I hope.

My message to the BBC after this performance is make Marc Minkowski a regular channel-hopper – please get him back early and often!

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, a gorgeous, sensuous, smoothly-contoured Mother Goose. I think those prominent winds were emphasised by Minkowski, with a magically apt sharpness and sparkle.

In the Roussel 3rd, Minkowski produced a cooler and more percussive sonority - it didn't sound like Ravel or Poulenc - good. Terrific weight and impact in the allegro vivo but with space to breathe and relax in the lyrical episodes, not too relentless. Impressive textural clarity again. The BBCSO strings were both elegant and ardent as they sung out the adagio, and the tempi changes were well judged with a brilliant colorific contrast in the fast central episode; but the trumpets failed to cut through and crown the climax here, only managing this in the 2nd climax before the movement's end. The brasses were strikingly sharp, lean, almost nasal - a properly French sound, not too full or rounded.

Minor slips aside the last two movements again balanced weight with clarity, and the violin solo, reflecting upon the motto at the finale's heart, was beautifully done; but Minkowski didn't create quite enough tension as we approached the coda, and rushed one or two phrases within it, slightly lessening its impact.

[Oliver]

Three of my French favourites in one concert. The slow movement of the Poulenc transports me to the banks of the Seine on a misty November late afternoon. A better work than the Piano Concerto, I'd suggest; its wistfulness is quintessentially French. Uniquely Poulencesque (sic).