Runnicles & BBCSSO

[french frank]

Press release today announces that Runnicles will stay with the orchestra until 2015.

Is that a second three-year contract?

[Curalach]

Is that a second three-year contract?

Yes it is. He is 2 years into his first contract.
I will be attending their performance of MacMillan's St John Passion tomorrow night.

[Tony Halstead]

I wonder whether they will be renewing A Manze's contract?

[Tevot]

Hello there Curalach,

What did you make of the MacMillan?

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Ariosto]

I wonder whether they will be renewing A Manze's contract?

[Curalach]

What did you make of the MacMillan?

Hi Tevot,
I should say up front that I am a bit of a devotee of JM's music as I know him. I was looking forward to this performance as it was the first time I have heard the piece live although I have often listened to the LSO/Davis recording. I think it is a spectacular piece of music which, even as a non-believer, I find very moving. I mention that just to point out that it is not necessary to share Jimmy's faith to find much to admire and be moved by in his works. He wrote the Passion immediately after writing his opera "The Sacrifice" for WNO and in many ways it inhabits the same sound-world. For me it is the finest large choral piece written in this country since Britten.

I have some issues with the performance which mainly relate to the organisation of the performance rather than the musicmaking. Mark Stone's Christus was a model of clarity, The BBC Singers as the narrator chorus and the London Symphony Chorus sounded good to my ears. The BBCSSO were a bit short in the string sections which, coupled with their trademark overloud brass, resulted in an odd balance in the hall. This may not have been evident in the broadcast as there were about 40 microphones which would provide plenty of opportunity for balancing!
Runnicles directed the proceedings effectively and with passion. Although it is written in two parts, I would have much preferred the work to be performed without an interval. It lasts about 90 minutes, no more than Bruckner 8 or the Missa Solemnis, and I felt it destroyed the tension of the work.

It is my view that the City Hall in Glasgow, much as I like it, was the wrong venue for this piece. It needs a larger space. Ideally, it should have been done in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh or even in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. That said, the BBC failed to fill the hall, even with several rows of seats removed for the extended platform. I estimate the audience to be not more than 850. Using a Scottish Chorus would have resulted in a much larger audience but the performance would have to have been at a different time of the year.

I have used Radio Downloader to burn CDs of the broadcast, editing out the interval selection of further JM music, and when I get time will compare it to the Davis recording and to my experience in the hall.

Cheers.

[bluestateprommer]

I wonder whether they will be renewing A Manze's contract?

Well, Manze will be curating a multi-year cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies with the BBC SSO, which should earn him some praise from some here, one would think.

[Nick Armstrong]

[Nick Armstrong]

Manze will be curating a multi-year cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies

(Does 'curating' mean that he will be in charge of finding appropriate people to actually conduct the pieces? )

[bluestateprommer]

(Does 'curating' mean that he will be in charge of finding appropriate people to actually conduct the pieces? )

So far, AFAICT, Manze has led VW 3-6 with the BBC SSO, at the Proms and also in Glasgow. The consensus seems to be that he's doing rather well with them so far. Perhaps a re-think of opinions here on AM?

[Flosshilde]

So far, AFAICT, Manze has led VW 3-6 with the BBC SSO, at the Proms and also in Glasgow. The consensus seems to be that he's doing rather well with them so far. Perhaps a re-think of opinions here on AM?

Indeed. I look forward to seeing Caliban eat his stylish titfer.