BBC Scottish with Andrew Manze

[Hornspieler]

Thursday 07 November 2013

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Conductor Andrew Manze brings his passion and insight to the work of composers at the heart of his musical personality: continuing his complete cycle of Vaughan Williams Symphonies, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. To perform that composer's evocation of a frozen wilderness, his Symphony No. 7 (Sinfonia Antartica), the orchestra are joined by award-winning soprano Katherine Broderick and the Ladies of the Glasgow Chamber Choir.

Music composed by a fellow Briton from a slightly later generation, Michael Tippett, begins the concert. His Divertimento on 'Sellinger's Round' takes as its starting point a tune from Elizabethan England. And the pianist and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Shai Wosner takes to the concert platform to perform one of Mozart's most enduring Piano Concertos.

Tippett: Divertimento on 'Sellinger's Round'
Mozart: Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466
Interval 8.20 Discovering Music
R Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 7 (Sinfonia Antartica),

Shai Wosner (piano)
Katherine Broderick (soprano)
Ladies of the Glasgow Chamber Choir

[Flosshilde]

Just a note on the 'complete cycle': the 8th is being performed on Sunday afternoon for a 'Discovering music' session. As the 'discussion with a complete performance' format is apparently no longer broadcast I doubt if anyone outwith Glasgow will be able to hear the complete cycle. (One wonders why, if they are not broadcast, they are put on?)

[Bryn]

Just a note on the 'complete cycle': the 8th is being performed on Sunday afternoon for a 'Discovering music' session. As the 'discussion with a complete performance' format is apparently no longer broadcast I doubt if anyone outwith Glasgow will be able to hear the complete cycle. (One wonders why, if they are not broadcast, they are put on?)

Give it time.

[Alison]

Lovely concert. Now listen to the presenter spoil it.

[Alison]

Sorry. It's an excellent presenter this evening.

[Hornspieler]

Sorry. It's an excellent presenter this evening.

Agreed. No complaints there, Alison.

Well, I managed to find something interesting to do while the Tippet was on and then I settled down to listen to the rest of the concert.

My first acquaintance with the Mozart D minor concerto was when I played in it with that formidable pianist Hans Richter Hasser.
Strong and masterful - but still authentically Mozart, who must have had something important to say when he wrote this.

Well Shai Wosner did not disappoint He didn't pull things about. He integrated well with the woodwinds and this performance was satisfying in all respects. (I'm not quite sure that writing his own cadenza was a wise move)

Stephen Johnson can be a bit tedious at times and I don't usually like to hear extracts from what is coming up later played by a different orchestra, but the Sinfonia Antarctica; which was new to me (I always thought that the film score was it) was very helpful and I can quite understand now why those interval talks of his are of value to listeners who are meeting the works of a composer for the first time.

As for the work itself, I was impressed with the vocal contribution of Katherine Broderick and the Ladies of the Glasgow Chamber Choir, but this is one of the RVW symphonies that I would not bother to add to my collection.

What a fine orchestra this is; under the right conductor.

HS

[Hornspieler]

Is that it then?

Only four posts (including my own) regarding this important live concert?

Radio 3 will soon stop broadcasting live music altogether if its so-called adherents display such apathy.

Well get on with it, you "music lovers".

Ye reap what ye sow.

HS

[amateur51]

Is that it then?

Only four posts (including my own) regarding this important live concert?

Radio 3 will soon stop broadcasting live music altogether if its so-called adherents display such apathy.

Well get on with it, you "music lovers".

Ye reap what ye sow.

HS

Here we go again

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is that it then?

Only four posts (including my own) regarding this important live concert?

Radio 3 will soon stop broadcasting live music altogether if its so-called adherents display such apathy.

Well get on with it, you "music lovers".

Ye reap what ye sow.

HS

And what was the "something interesting" that you managed to find to do during the Tippett, HS?

Kettle thanks Pot for his informative message.

[Bryn]

And what was the "something interesting" that you managed to find to do during the Tippett, HS?

Kettle thanks Pot for his informative message.

To be fair, I too found something interesting to do while the Tippett was playing. Admittedly that interesting thing was listening to the performance.

[Flosshilde]

Is that it then?

Only four posts (including my own) regarding this important live concert?

I was going to respond, but my computer went haywire while I was trying to post, & I didn't have time to re-do it.

Like Bryn, I too found listening to the Tippet interesting; it might not be a Great Work, but it is well worth listening too. I then found something worthwhile to do during the Mozart - dozed off (I was in the Hall); not necessarily a reflection on the performance, but on my feelings about Mozart('s music).

I was really there for the VW Sinfonia Antartica, which I haven't heard before. I was bowled over (or blown away, perhaps, given the presence of the wind machine); so inventive, so atmospheric. Perhaps not translated completely from its origins as film music but still an amazing work. I've just been to the performance of the 8th, & as I hear more of the symphonies the more excited I am by them.

[pastoralguy]

I intend to boycott any concert which contain the names Manze and Andrew! Why? Well, Mrs. PG and myself went to Glasgow to hear the BBCSSO under said CONductor perform the Dvorak 'cello concerto. The problem was that we couldn't actually hear the 'cellist for the orchestra screaming at full pelt under their, apparently, deaf conductor. Just terrible.

Manze should stick to playing grade 7 violin pieces...

[Alison]

I intend to boycott any concert which contain the names Manze and Andrew! Why? Well, Mrs. PG and myself went to Glasgow to hear the BBCSSO under said CONductor perform the Dvorak 'cello concerto. The problem was that we couldn't actually hear the 'cellist for the orchestra screaming at full pelt under their, apparently, deaf conductor. Just terrible.

Manze should stick to playing grade 7 violin pieces...

Ouch!! I have wondered how he get on with say the Elgar concerto ....

[LaurieWatt]

Is that it then?

Only four posts (including my own) regarding this important live concert?

Radio 3 will soon stop broadcasting live music altogether if its so-called adherents display such apathy.

Well get on with it, you "music lovers".

Ye reap what ye sow.

HS

OK, then HS. I listened to this - unfortunately I was only able to hear the Sinfonia Antartica which I recorded on Freeview. I decided to leave any comment alone, until I read your post, as having listened to what I thought were the superb first two movements, I, then, in 'Landscape' post first big tam-tam crash, listened in vain for that wonderful quiet organ pedal accompaniment. Disapppointment gave way to disgusted hilarity when the ghastly, pathetic, toy organ entered, completely destroying the fabulous orchestral build up to that fortissimo entry. I turned the performance off, deleted it and put on my LPO label recording of the symphony where the same passages, even from the R3 broadcast at the time (1984), are exemplary - I never even knew til I listened to this performance what wonderful deep pedals the RFH organ possessed - and I am referring to the quiet passages, not just what are supposed to be, and here are, the huge climactic fortissimi in the same Landscape movement.

[RobertLeDiable]

OK, then HS. I listened to this - unfortunately I was only able to hear the Sinfonia Antartica which I recorded on Freeview. I decided to leave any comment alone, until I read your post, as having listened to what I thought were the superb first two movements, I, then, in 'Landscape' post first big tam-tam crash, listened in vain for that wonderful quiet organ pedal accompaniment. Disapppointment gave way to disgusted hilarity when the ghastly, pathetic, toy organ entered, completely destroying the fabulous orchestral build up to that fortissimo entry. I turned the performance off, deleted it and put on my LPO label recording of the symphony where the same passages, even from the R3 broadcast at the time (1984), are exemplary - I never even knew til I listened to this performance what wonderful deep pedals the RFH organ possessed - and I am referring to the quiet passages, not just what are supposed to be, and here are, the huge climactic fortissimi in the same Landscape movement.

Sadly neither of Glasgow's main concert halls has an organ. There was once one in the City Hall, but it was sold off in the 1930s I believe. The modern Royal Concert Hall doesn't have one either so electronic imitations are brought in when required. Sadly this was a particularly bad example of the species.