Prom 8: 'Impressions of Spain' - Falla/Lalo/Debussy/Ravel, BBC SO, Dueñas/Pons

[bluestateprommer]

Thursday 20 July 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Falla: La vida breve – 'Interlude' and 'Dance'
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole
[Encore: Fauré: 'Apres un reve' (arr. for solo violin & string orchestra)]

Interval

Debussy: Images – "Ibéria"
Ravel: Boléro

María Dueñas, violin (Proms debut artist)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Josep Pons, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e6vrn3

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-8-impressions-of-spain/

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Thursday 20 July 2023
Royal Albert Hall

Manuel de Falla: La vida breve – Interlude and Dance
Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21
Claude Debussy: Images – Ibéria
Maurice Ravel: Boléro

María Dueñas violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Joseph Pons conductor

[FFAdminMKS]

Topic now open

[Pulcinella]

41 minutes of music in the first half; 33 in the second?
Someone's having a laugh.

[Ein Heldenleben]

41 minutes of music in the first half; 33 in the second?
Someone's having a laugh.

Yes indeed and it’s not just this one - Bryn mentioned his first 1966 prom on another thread. A Beethoven overture , Piano Concerto and Symphony followed by 2 pieces by Varese. Now that’s value for money . I guess it’s the classical equivalent of shrinkflation.

[JasonPalmer]

Listening now after putting my son to bed, seems nice but the timings do not gel with the details on the website,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nnwx

perhaps i am listening to an encore instead of the interval chat, such is real life, having to fit listening around other things.

[JasonPalmer]

Enjoying the second half.

[JasonPalmer]

Wow, excellent. Lots of whoops and cheers from the audience, marvelous concert.

[Barbirollians]

I see no reason why Iberia is performed on its own , It always works better with the other Images - and if they want to be just Spanish surely they could have fitted in the Rhapsodie Espagnole. I missed the first half but the Debussy and Ravel struck me as a bit routine.

[teamsaint]

41 minutes of music in the first half; 33 in the second?
Someone's having a laugh.

About standard isn't it ? TBH , such short measure does put me off attending on occasions.
But, yes, I agree.

[smittims]

I intend to catch up on this concert. I think Pons is an individual and distinctive conductor and I'm glad to see him appear at the Proms.

[smittims]

I've just listened to this concert on BBC Sounds and enjoyed it. Joseph Pons fulfilled my expectations of his conducting. He made our dear old orchestra sound as well as I've ever heard it, the timpanist and saxophonists especially .

I wasn't bothered by 'Iberia' being played alone; it was often done this way in the past. the theme was 'impressions' and this was why three of the four composers weren't Spanish, i.e. Spain seen from the outside.

Applause between movements seems to be making quite a comeback. I noticed this at the Beeethoven/Vivaldi Prom too.

[Brixton Dave]

Nice concert. The seats were quite full, but the arena was very empty so had the best view I've ever had of Ravel's Bolero. Images was super. As often happens at the start of a Proms season the audience clap whenever the music stops (between movements). I was next to a score-reader - so noticed that the conductor nipped straight on from Images no2 to no 3. Maybe to obviate yet another round of muted applause - or possibly it is always done like this?

[Pulcinella]

Do I need to go to Specsavers?
Or is there another thread about this concert?
I'm sure I posted about it being very poor value (timing) and teamsaint replied, and also that I read a comment from someone saying they didn't mind Iberia being just on its own, but they seem to have disappeared!

[oddoneout]

Do I need to go to Specsavers?
Or is there another thread about this concert?
I'm sure I posted about it being very poor value (timing) and teamsaint replied, and also that I read a comment from someone saying they didn't mind Iberia being just on its own, but they seem to have disappeared!

No need for Specsavers, there is another one, as you describe. I've just skimmed through it but it hasn't come back up again when returning to this thread, and in any case I never did get the hang of linking threads on the old forum so I'm not even going to attempt it now!