Prom 21: Skye / Copland / J. Adams, BBC NOW / Bancroft

[bluestateprommer]

Monday 31 July 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Derrick Skye: Nova Plexus (BBC commission: world premiere)
Copland: Concerto for clarinet and string orchestra with harp and piano
[Encore: Stravinsky: Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet - III]

interval

John Adams: Harmonium

Annelien Van Wauwe, clarinet

BBC National Chorus of Wales
Crouch End Festival Chorus
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ryan Bancroft, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/efx6gw

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-21-adams-copland-and-skye/

[french frank]

Tomorrow (Monday 31st July), at 7.30pm:

In the first of two consecutive concerts this week, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft present an all-American Prom.

Two poems by Emily Dickinson provide the starting point for Harmonium, one of John Adams’s most powerful works for chorus and orchestra. Propulsive, motoric urgency gives way briefly to blissful waves of sound, before a blazing conclusion.

Jazz runs through the veins of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by ‘King of Swing’ Benny Goodman and performed here with soloist Annelien Van Wauwe. The concert opens with a world premiere from Los Angeles-based composer Derrick Skye, whose music has been described as ‘deliciously head-spinning’. [Note from the RAH website]

[bluestateprommer]

For the first half of this all-American concert:

(a) Derrick Skye's new work struck me as considerably too long for its material, where the slower middle section came off best. His work reminded me of John Adams (fittingly enough) and Steven Mackey in places. If nothing else, though, Skye's work sounds very optimistic in tone, perhaps unusual in a time when not much seems to warrant optimism.

(b) Copland's Clarinet Concerto is always a pleasure to hear, and is actually my own favorite among his works. AvW did a very fine job, as one would expect. The BBC NOW strings seemed to be scrambling at occasional moments to keep up, though not because AvW went at a particularly fast pace. Maybe most of the rehearsal time had to go into the other two works, understandably enough. Cracking encore of the solo Stravinsky movement (hope her unnamed friend and dedicatee of the encore is doing OK).

[edashtav]

For the first half of this all-American concert:

(a) Derrick Skye's new work struck me as considerably too long for its material, where the slower middle section came off best. His work reminded me of John Adams (fittingly enough) and Steven Mackey in places. If nothing else, though, Skye's work sounds very optimistic in tone, perhaps unusual in a time when not much seems to warrant optimism.

(b) Copland's Clarinet Concerto is always a pleasure to hear, and is actually my own favorite among his works. AvW did a very fine job, as one would expect. The BBC NOW strings seemed to be scrambling at occasional moments to keep up, though not because AvW went at a particularly fast pace. Maybe most of the rehearsal time had to go into the other two works, understandably enough. Cracking encore of the solo Stravinsky movement (hope her unnamed friend and dedicatee of the encore is doing OK).

(a) I agree with you, bsp, about the inordinate length of Derrick Skye’s commission. It was built on limited material that was treated in an eclectic fashion. Influences extended through the composer’s elders - I would instance Michael Torke as well as Adams and Mackey- and took in oceans of World Music with plenty of borrowings from the music of the Middle East / Iran. I attributed its optimistic tone to shades of Torke’s orchestral works. The performance sounded well-prepared. Derrick has heard too much, digested too little and, to my ears, added too little of his own voice. The Stravinsky encore was near to perfect and was the concert’s unforgettable moment.

( b) The Copland received a beautiful interpretation from AvW who produced a luscious lyrical line. She was a tad slow in the first movement but her wonderful, tender, tone held my attention. The cadenza was charming. Did the final demand something a little more edgy?Are not some if its extremely high notes and wide leaps written to sound shrill and pinched? But her accuracy and ability to find hidden melodies was terrific. The BBC NOW worked hard hard but failed to equal AwW’s relaxed magic.

(c) John Adams Harmonium: good in parts, mainly hectic, loud sections. I have heard other choirs sustain and support the intensity across the work’s many quiet ‘inner’ moments in a more convincing manner.

The Concert was short measure and had I paid for public transport and a ticket, I’d have felt short-changed.

[edashtav]

Neither bsp or I wrote too many good thoughts about Derrick Skye’s new piece.

Erica Jeal in the Guardian was cautiusly affirmative:

“Skye draws on a plethora of musical traditions – west African, Persian classical, Balinese. […] It’s rhythmically powerful stuff, at times an invitation to dance. But harmonically it feels static, and those complex rhythmic patterns are largely grouped into predictable, four-to-the-floor phrases that make the music feel bound by its dance-like energy rather than freed by it.”
Her praise for the performance of John Adams Harmonium was lavish but I was underwhelmed.

What are the views of other Boarders?

[Joseph K]

Definitely getting the dance music vibes and eclecticism of the Skye piece. That is to say, I find it very cheesy and meretricious in a film music sort of way. Nothing much to add to these observations, just the thought crops up that I could write something better than this and: will I make it to the end of this piece?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Neither bsp or I wrote too many good thoughts about Derrick Skye’s new piece.

Erica Jeal in the Guardian was cautiusly affirmative:

“Skye draws on a plethora of musical traditions – west African, Persian classical, Balinese. […] It’s rhythmically powerful stuff, at times an invitation to dance. But harmonically it feels static, and those complex rhythmic patterns are largely grouped into predictable, four-to-the-floor phrases that make the music feel bound by its dance-like energy rather than freed by it.”
Her praise for the performance of John Adams Harmonium was lavish but I was underwhelmed.

What are the views of other Boarders?

I think the reviewer absolutely nails it. I didn’t even find it that rhythmically interesting either.

[edashtav]

Thank you both for you comments. Reading Erica, again, I discern a larger area of agreement. I fear that you’ve nailed it, JK, many competent composers could do as well as DS, but many of them would have a bout of self criticism / self doubt en route, and might shelf the product fearing that the finished work would prove to be redundant.

[Maclintick]

Ed, I agree broadly with your & JK's comments regarding the Skye work -- overlong & disappointingly derivative. Copland glorious, & Harmonium, a work I love and regard as one of JA's standouts, more than adequate for a live performance, but not quite equal to the best I've heard. Then again, I hope there were those at the RAH or listening to R3 who encountered the piece for the first time who were blown away by it.