Prom 13: Catherine Lamb / Tchaikovsky

[bluestateprommer]

Monday 24 July 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Catherine Lamb: Portions Transparent / Opaque [BBC co-commission: world premiere (Portions 2 & 3)]

interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in b, op. 74 ('Pathétique')

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ex32rz

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-13-tchaikovskys-pathetique-symphony/

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 24 July 2023
Royal Albert Hall

Catherine Lamb: Portions Transparent/Opaque (BBC commission: world première (Portions 2 & 3))
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathétique’

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov conductor

[french frank]

Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra pair a classic 19th-century symphony with the world premiere of a newly completed orchestral triptych.

Premiered just days before the composer’s sudden death, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony, with its evocative subtitle, is entangled with its author’s own struggles and emotions. Its passionate outpourings meet the intricate play of proportion, density and energy in American composer Catherine Lamb’s mesmerising Portions Transparent/Opaque – a trio of movements inspired by colour theory that move gradually from sonic expansion to collapse.

[bluestateprommer]

Must admit that my initial reaction to Catherine Lamb's new work, especially in its first part, was "When will it get going?", i.e. it seemed to be stuck in a sonic groove. Then I suddenly thought of Morton Feldman's Coptic Light, and then went, "oh, OK". Eventually, the mood and sounds did start to change, of course.

Great to hear our own makropulos during the interval. He very wisely pointed out something obvious that I completely missed during the CL work, namely the absence of percussion.

[Pulcinella]

Must admit that my initial reaction to Catherine Lamb's new work, especially in its first part, was "When will it get going?", i.e. it seemed to be stuck in a sonic groove. Then I suddenly thought of Morton Feldman's Coptic Light, and then went, "oh, OK". Eventually, the mood and sounds did start to change, of course.

Great to hear our own makropulos during the interval. He very wisely pointed out something obvious that I completely missed during the CL work, namely the absence of percussion.

My reaction was more: "How will we ever know when it's going to end?"; it felt like it could just go on forever.
But at least your comment has made me want to dig out my copy of Coptic Light and listen to that again.

[Bryn]

Listening to the Lamb on headphones, now. Some very pretty sound sculpture with interesting timbral shifts and blends. Any vague resemblance to the work of Morton Feldman is somewhat superficial, though, I feel. In the third section, things got quite Mahlerian in orchestration, at times. In fact, I hear many composers' timbral worlds evinced. That's probably just me, though. Oh, and I rather like it.

[smittims]

There's a term much used by feminists today, 'calling out' as in 'such behaviour should be called out' (i.e. challenged or shown up for what it is).

I feel like 'calling out' Ms Lamb's piece. At the very least it was pretty close to the emperor's new clothes. I'd be interested to know how much it cost us ( hiring or copying parts, rehearsing, etc.). I have tried to give new works a fair hearing but increasingly I feel I'm wasting my time.

[Bryn]

"'such behaviour should be called out'"

Hmm. You might want to reflect upon that, given what followed.

[Bryn]

A perceptive review of the premiere of the Lamb work by the same forces, back in 2019. Why it was described in last night's online listing as a "new work" is a mystery.

https://5against4.com/2019/03/27/catherine-lamb-portions-transparent-opaque-world-premiere/

[Petrushka]

A perceptive review of the premiere of the Lamb work by the same forces, back in 2019. Why it was described in last night's online listing as a "new work" is a mystery.

https://5against4.com/2019/03/27/cat...orld-premiere/

According to the Proms Guide, Portions 2 & 3 are new so it seems to be the world premiere of the complete work, or so I assume.

[Bryn]

Thanks, Petrushka. That does, indeed, clarify things. I should have checked whether Ilan has anything to say about it on FB. I have now, but he is clearly very much occupied with other concerns at the moment. https://www.facebook.com/ilan.volkov.5

[Bryn]

I've only just got around to listening to the somewhat accident-prone Tchaikovsky. It started off with a rather noisy accident and a surprisingly large section of the audience was caught out by the false ending on this occasion.

[smittims]

Now that was very interesting. Clearly the conductor wasnt going to 'tolerate' between-movement applause, and fortunately they took the hint. Precedents include a stage performance of 'Lohengrin ' at the Budapest opera in 1948 (?) when the audience erupted into applause after the Grail Narration and the conductor (Otto Klemperer) stubbornly continued the music regardless, and the famous Edinburgh Festival 'Ariadne' where the conductor (Sir Thomas Beecham) so resented the applause interruption that he turned round and shouted 'Philistines!' straight into the BBC microphone a few inches away.

On another occasion , which has survived on disc thanks to Richard Itter, the audience applauded inte middle of a suite from Gretry's 'Zemir et Azor' and Beecham said 'Ladies and Gentlemen, I deeply regret to say we haven't come to the end of this piece'.

[Bryn]

"Clearly the conductor wasnt going to 'tolerate' between-movement applause"

Just how blatantly wrong can you be?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/02/facing-the-music-conductor-ilan-volkov

[gedsmk]

Tchaikowsky: Excellent work by the sound engineers. Big plushy string tone and the Bass Drum in the 3rd movement was great! I liked his interruption of the applause with the beginning of the 4th movement. All the more dramatic, I thought.

[jonfan]

Tchaikowsky: Excellent work by the sound engineers. Big plushy string tone and the Bass Drum in the 3rd movement was great! I liked his interruption of the applause with the beginning of the 4th movement. All the more dramatic, I thought.

Yes a very passionate reading excellently well caught by the engineers. A worthy memorial for the orchestra’s departed colleague