Pierre Boulez, RIP

[subcontrabass]

Hope so. I stupidly missed it.

It is now available on iPlayer.

[VodkaDilc]

BINGO

At least we saw part of the George Newson piece too - though it was 6th September 1971. I'm sure Mr Service said it was November - perhaps that's when part of the recorded concert was shown on BBC2.

Going back to the RAH Proms, wasn't it striking to compare the audience on the front couple of rows in the 1970s Proms and then the recent ones? In the 1970s they were predominatly young; now it's probably the same people, though some decades older. Has a sociological shift taken place in the make-up of the core Proms audience? And, if so, should the planners find the future a little worrying?

[Serial_Apologist]

BINGO

Ray's Records, a part of Foyles in Charing Cross Road, puts on live jazz from time to time. I remember being there for a freely improvised set by Lol Coxhill and Pat Thomas a few years ago, in the middle of which a waiter from the cafeteria next door dropped a metal tray at precisely the right moment. I looked up and caught the eyes of Steve Beresford on the other side of the room. He'd noticed it too, and we smiled in mutual recognition.

[Beef Oven!]

Hope so. I stupidly missed it.

Oh dear!

I ended up getting home at 7.50 so I saw the whole thing (even foregoing the same-time live transmission of Manchester United smashing the mighty Derby County!).

Not to be missed Petrushka, get onto the iPlayer!!

[teamsaint]

Oh dear!

I ended up getting home at 7.50 so I saw the whole thing (even foregoing the same-time live transmission of Manchester United smashing the mighty Derby County!).

Not to be missed Petrushka, get onto the iPlayer!!

Just dont tell Petrushka the result.

[Beef Oven!]

Going back to the RAH Proms, wasn't it striking to compare the audience on the front couple of rows in the 1970s Proms and then the recent ones? In the 1970s they were predominatly young; now it's probably the same people, though some decades older. Has a sociological shift taken place in the make-up of the core Proms audience? And, if so, should the planners find the future a little worrying?

That's why we need more Ibiza type Proms

[Beef Oven!]

Just dont tell Petrushka the result.

He dies in the end.

[mercia]

Going back to the RAH Proms, wasn't it striking to compare the audience on the front couple of rows in the 1970s Proms and then the recent ones? In the 1970s they were predominatly young; now it's probably the same people, though some decades older. Has a sociological shift taken place in the make-up of the core Proms audience? And, if so, should the planners find the future a little worrying?

yes very noticeable, and similar questions came to my mind

[teamsaint]

yes very noticeable, and similar questions came to my mind

There are still plenty of younger people in the Arena audience .
My guess would be that most of them are too busy working during the afternoons, (including the music students to help pay the loans), while those in the front couple of rows presumably have free time(taken holiday or retired) for the 2/3/4 hour queuing time.

How far the age mix has changed over time is another thing.

[VodkaDilc]

That's why we need more Ibiza type Proms

Or a return to Music as a subject which is given its rightful importance in schools.

[Beef Oven!]

Or a return to Music as a subject which is given its rightful importance in schools.

I'd go for and, not or.

[Pulcinella]

Correction/addition to previous posting.
Watching the NYO Proms extract stirred distant memories, confirmed by Dear Diary: I was there with my partner; it was his 32nd birthday (3 August 1987).
So I have seen Boulez conduct live more than I had originally remembered.
And indeed Jessye Norman sing (Mahler in Boston, Ariadne at Covent Garden, and this Prom).

The same thought about front row arena age struck us, too.

[ardcarp]

I wonder if this is the right place for a few thoughts about Boulez' conducting style...and results.

He had a fabulously clear beat...which is absolutely essential for his own very difficult scores (often with an element of 'conductor choice' anyway) and a beat which left no orchestral player in any doubt about his rhythmic and tempo intentions in more mainstream pieces. He got fantastic results from the NYO, and while they might not be considered 'amateurs' by many of us, it has always been my contention that a good amateur orchestra needs, above all, a very clear and unambiguous beat. NYO playing Gurre-Lieder? Unheard of when Ruth Railton first founded it!

PB's eagle eye (backed up by an eagle ear of course) always seems cold and unwavering...as if daring any individual player to deviate in any way from his intentions. So a clear beat...but body and facial language? I just wonder if, in the French/Russian repertoire (The Rite, La Mer, etc) his technique slightly inhibits orchestras from playing with every emotional fibre? It was always said, when he began conducting Debussy, that he brought a new clarity to it. Maybe too much? Monteux has always been my yardstick for this repertoire, and still is.

Seeing Michael Roll on the programme brought back memories. What became of him?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The claims that many listeners besides ardy have made about Boulez' conducting inhibiting players' emotional response to what they're playing (in Debussy in particular) has never been heard by my own response to his concerts and recordings. When I listen to them, they convince me that this is exactly how the Music should be performed and, that this work is the very finest piece of Music that has ever been written - just as it is with all great performances of all great Music, of course (including Monteux' - although I think he recorded Le Sacre a little too late into his career). Boulez ensures that it is the Music's emotional fibre that is communicated, rather than the performers' or his own - an approach I find utterly convincing and entirely honest.

[ardcarp]

I think a whiff of fear (i.e. being terrified of doing something to offend the maestro) is probably in the mix of many orchestra/conductor relationships. The ideal balance probably lies somewhere between getting the lion to eat out of your hand and keeping it under control by waving a chair at it.