In concert 16.09.24: Schoenberg - Piano concerto

[edashtav]

Kyla Greenbaum was the sister of Hyam Greenbaum who conducted the 'BBC Television Orchestra' onthe first night of BBC TV from Alexandra Palace in 1936, and I believe died during the war. Her discography is minuscule, consisting of the 1949 Columbia recording of 'The Rio Grande' with Constant Lambert conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Alfred Brendel was the leading interpreter of the Schoenberg concerto, recording it three times,on Vox, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips.He gave a memorable Prom performance of it in 1979, on a rather warm evening, as I recall.

Yes,I've heard AB on Vox Two expressions remain in my mind: cerebral with an acoustic as dry as dust. I think interpretation of the Schoenberg concerto have moved on since the owlish days of AB. We have a welcome chance to judge tonight.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Kyla moved away from performing although she introduced.one of the knottier Prokofiev PCs to thre UK. She later concentrated on composing, having an oratorio performed on her 80th birthday. She died as recently as 2017.

Hyam was a tragic figure haunted by alcohol problems. He scored the works of his contemporaries e.g. Walton's films, finished Lambert's Summer's Last Will and Testament. Whilst posted to Bangor in wartime by the BBC, like Bax, he lived in a pub. He must have been a popular guest as he fired his bed on 5 occasions. Cecil Gray wrote: "There is no more tragic figure than the great interpretive artist who has never been given a chance to reveal his powers. Such was Hyam Greenbaum.". Both he and Lambert died young of alcohol-related issues.

.

I met Kyla a few times many years ago on holiday in France. This is her Times Obit . A real trailblazer for modern music. I did notice that she was also a world champion chain smoker

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/kyla-greenbaum-obituary-93nhb0mnn

[Ein Heldenleben]

Looking forward to this. A very beautiful work (yes beautiful- intensely lyrical ) and perhaps easier on the ear than the violin concerto where the listener often has to cope with (understandably ) wayward violin intonation adding to the atonal mix.

[edashtav]

I met Kyla a few times many years ago on holiday in France. This is her Times Obit . A real trailblazer for modern music. I did notice that she was also a world champion chain smoker

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/...uary-93nhb0mnn

My nearest approach (see obit. image) I knew Maurice Miles' errant brother, Philip Miles, who was holiday Deputy to my father on his church organ. Philip was a brilliant extemporising player. He loved the opportunities offered by the psalms, birds tweeted, great leviathans trundled up the nave. That was when he was sober but after a drink... words fail me!

[edashtav]

Looking forward to this. A very beautiful work (yes beautiful- intensely lyrical ) and perhaps easier on the ear than the violin concerto where the listener often has to cope with (understandably ) wayward violin intonation adding to the atonal mix.

I 'll stick up for the VC: in Hilary Hahn's hands two of your words come to my my mind: intensely lyrical but I have to admit that in lesser hands, an uncertain wiriness can dominate a Vox Box.

I'm anticipating lyrical charm plus clarity in dense passages from the distinguished, aristocratic pianist this evening.

[Serial_Apologist]

I 'll stick up for the VC: in Hilary Hahn's hands two of your words come to my my mind: intensely lyrical but I have to admit that in lesser hands, an uncertain wiriness can dominate a Vox Box.

I'm anticipating lyrical charm plus clarity in dense passages from the distinguished, aristocratic pianist this evening.

Me too - in general judgement terms, providing the performer is accurate and understands the idiom. Whereas with the Violin Concerto one is entering entirely new domains of expression and experience, I have come to feel in two minds about the Piano Concerto. One the one hand I have to "thank" its relative accessibility for giving me my first chance to understand a twelve-tone work, on the other hand I have come to feel a compressed kind of awkwardness as marring passages, which are maybe ascribable to the composer's choice of a basic row without the kinds of tonal implications deployed in the immediately preceding Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte Op 42, (or the Berg VC, and certain works from Eisler's "American period"). It seems very difficult for even the most sympathetic interpretations I have heard (and I have heard many) to overcome the, for me, resulting clumsiness. Reactionary critics have spoken of the music sounding like "Brahms played backwards", and I have to admit I find myself half in agreement. It's odd really because some parts or the PC "work" - the Mahlerian start of the slow movement, for instance; and (on a different topic) has anyone else been struck by likenesses between the concluding brass fanfare with its "resolving" perfect fourths, and similar brass fanfares in the finale of Bartok's Second Piano Concerto, composed some 12 years previously?

[smittims]

I find the piano concerto more congenial than the violin concerto, though the VC is the major work of the two. and I must say I didn't think Brendel was at all 'cerebral' rather lyrical, in the PC. I have his second recording, with Kubelik.

I think the 'life goes on' programme was written for Oscar Levant to give him a rough guide to playing the work, and was a little tongue in cheek, as was Schoenberg's famous remark about the 12-tone method ensuring the supremacy of 'german music'.

Many thanks for the information about Kyla Greenbaum. I treasure her interpretation of the Rio Grande, though I think Hamilton Harty got nearer the soul of the work in its wonderful first recording. My father told me he was taken by his mother to hear them perform it in the old Free Trade Hall.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think the 'life goes on' programme [...] was a little tongue in cheek, as was Schoenberg's famous remark about the 12-tone method ensuring the supremacy of 'german music'.

Interesting; and you could well have a point. There was a fascinating programme a few years ago on Radio 3 - whose title I have sadly forgotten - which considered the importance of German thought and culture for a number of still influential Jewish thinkers and artists, one being Schoenberg, although I don't think he or many other complosers and musicians were included in it. "German culture" was and arguably still is a mixed salad for many, many deep and complex reasons, often to do with "interpretability"; and I myself would include Marxism in that salad as a critical subscriber.

[edashtav]

Help!

Both the D.Telegraph and the current Radio Times claim that tonight's In Concert is a Piano Recital by Yuja Wang of DSCH, Barber (Sonata) and the 4 Chopin Ballades recorded at the Usher Hall , Edinburgh International Festival on 05.08. RT declares it will be presented by one "Kate Moleson"!

Checking the schedule on the BBC website linked to this Forum that remains constant to the RSNO / Elim Chan 3 Concerti night which I think is live at the Festival this evening but starting at 18.30. (I HAD PRESUMED R.3 HAD PLANNED TO DELAY TRANSMISSION TO FIT ITS 'STRIPED' PROGRAMME PATTERN)

I and some other Forumistas led by the venerable smittims have been building a head of steam over the happy prospect of hearing the Schoenberg Piano Concerto this evening from an admirable interpreter.

Are we doomed! ?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Help!

Both the D.Telegraph and the current Radio Times claim that tonight's In Concert is a Piano Recital by Yuja Wang of DSCH, Barber (Sonata) and the 4 Chopin Ballades recorded at the Usher Hall , Edinburgh International Festival on 05.08. RT declares it will be presented by one "Kate Moleson"!

Checking the schedule on the BBC website linked to this Forum that remains constant to the RSNO / Elim Chan 3 Concerti night which I think is live at the Festival this evening but starting at 18.30. (I HAD PRESUMED R.3 HAD PLANNED TO DELAY TRANSMISSION TO FIT ITS 'STRIPED' PROGRAMME PATTERN)

I and some other Forumistas led by the venerable smittimd have been building a head of steam over the happy prospect of hearing the Schoenberg Piano Concerto this evening from an admirable interpreter.

Are we doomed! ?

The Radio TImes last billings press day is usually the Friday before publication . So that’s Friday the 6th for this weekl
The Fleet St papers go off that. I would trust the website .

Incidentally unbilled schedule changes used to attract more complaints than anything else. Fewer now thanks to iPlayer and internet based listings.

[edashtav]

The Radio TImes last billings press day is usually the Friday before publication . So that’s Friday the 6th for this weekl
The Fleet St papers go off that. I would trust the website .

Incidentally unbilled schedule changes used to attract more complaints than anything else. Fewer now thanks to iPlayer and internet based listings.

There's still some hope.

[edashtav]

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU HOPE FOR

WYNTON MARSALIS TRUMPET CONCERTO

Six movements and 40 strenuous minutes for the trumpet soloist, Alison Balsom. Stylistically, the work may include 6x40 styles, so eclectic is the musical magpie composer.

At the start the elephant isn't cornered but roaring in the orchestra to introduce a Military March or maybe a selection of calls and marches. If the work has a theme or subtitle, it may be A Trumpet Glossary. Plenty of Jazzy rhythms and hyperactivity: the casual listener must be hooked and kept in the swim. Frankly it's transient and trivial: music of our time to pass time. No doubting the virtuosity and adaptability of Alison Balsom. There are tunes and almost all of the fun of the Fair. Gosh one movement starred mutes - I was struck dumb.
At times, I was reminded of H.K. Gruber and Frankenstein!!!

Effortless and uncritical fluency. Not characteristics that come to mind in thinking about its immediate bedfellow: Schoenberg's Piano Concerto. Did Arnie suffer from bedbugs?
I understand that Alison's Tour de Force is taking the world by storm.

O.M.G.

[Ein Heldenleben]

BEWARE OF WHAT YOU HOPE FOR

WYNTON MARSALIS TRUMPET CONCERTO

Six movements and 40 strenuous minutes for the trumpet soloist, Alison Balsom. Stylistically, the work may include 6x40 styles, so eclectic is the musical magpie composer.

At the start the elephant isn't cornered but roaring in the orchestra to introduce a Military March or maybe a selection of calls and marches. If the work has a theme or subtitle, it may be A Trumpet Glossary. Plenty of Jazzy rhythms and hyperactivity: the casual listener must be hooked and kept in the swim. Frankly it's transient and trivial: music of our time to pass time. No doubting the virtuosity and adaptability of Alison Balsom. There are tunes and almost all of the fun of the Fair. Gosh one movement starred mutes - I was struck dumb.
At times, I was reminded of H.K. Gruber and Frankenstein!!!

Effortless and uncritical fluency. Not characteristics that come to mind in thinking about its immediate bedfellow: Schoenberg's Piano Concerto. Did Arnie suffer from bedbugs?
I understand that Alison's Tour de Force is taking the world by storm.

O.M.G.

To sum up it wasn’t much cop was it ?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very Good performance of the Schoenberg but a rather distant sound balance …

[Ein Heldenleben]

My word the strings of the RSNO are giving the Lutoslawki their all ….superb

what a piece this is ..

an absolute full on masterpiece