Prom 29: JS Bach/CPE Bach/WA Mozart, Dunedin Consort, 6 Aug 2023

[bluestateprommer]

Sunday 6 August 2023
11:00
Royal Albert Hall

J. S. Bach:
(a) Sinfonia in D major, BWV 1045
(b) 'Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied', BWV 225

C. P. E. Bach: Heilig ist Gott (first performance at The Proms)


interval


W. A. Mozart (compl. Clemens Kemme): Mass in C minor, K. 427 (first performance of this edition at The Proms)

Lucy Crowe, soprano
Nardus Williams, soprano
Jess Dandy, alto
Benjamin Hulett, tenor
Robert Davies, baritone

Dunedin Consort
John Butt, harpsichord and conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ernv9r

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-29-mozarts-mass-in-c-minor/

[french frank]

Morning Prom, Sunday 6 August, 11.00: "Begun to celebrate his marriage to Constanze, but left unfinished at the composer’s death, Mozart’s magnificent Mass in C minor can clearly be traced back to the choral writing of J. S. Bach and his son.

"Period-performance specialist John Butt and the award-winning Dunedin Consort unpack the Mass’s musical genealogy, with soloists including Lucy Crowe and Nardus Williams." [RAH webstie]

[edashtav]

I’m shocked.that nobody has penned a report on this important concert. It started with a wonderfully richly scored,lively Sinfonia in D by JSB. I had ‘t heard it before- it was enthralling- the great contrapuntalist at his most beguiling. The performance by the Dunedin forces under John Butt was exceptional - real Proms Festival fare and a great tonic!
I’ve heard Singet dem Herrn many times. Plenty ofbuoyant brilliance in the faster sections. I just felt a trifle disappointed. with some slower, quieter passages which lacked intensity.Maybe, I was feeling grouchy.

By golly, was I stunned by Heilig ist Gott a 7 minute work for alto solo, and double choir , written by CPE Bach at the height of his considerabke powers just a few years befire Mozart’s Mass. Abrupt key changes rule, OK? Intense, passionate and before its time. Butt feeks WAM was influenced by such works. You must hear it!
i’ve sung many major masses in my life but the one I enjoyed most for the quality of its music and the challenges placed before the choir’s basses was Mozart’s Great C minor (unfinished). I enjoyed heaing Clemens Kemme’s elegant completions of those portions where there is some evidence left in fragments from WAM, himself.
more important for was the fresh light and expertise brought by scholar Butt, his extrairdinary bunch of soli and his choir/ consort.

A ravishing and significant performance! Please sample it on BBC SOUNDS.

[smittims]

I heard the Mozart mass when it was repeated yesterday afternoon and thought it very good. Some lovely intervals from Lucy Crowe in the 'Incarnatus' and after listening to the 1950's RPO much of the day I enjoyed the plangent period oboe and bassoon.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Currently On BBC4. An excellent concert in so many ways, but why does KD always have to tell us what we can see for ourselves on the screen? As for telling us how “fabulous” every thing is…

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This completion must rank among the best for this work. Interesting that it makes no attempt to return to the alleged home key of C minor - a misnomer if ever there was one. The Kyrie is indeed in that key - though even there the central Christe Eleison section is in E flat major. Once the Gloria begins, C minor is quietly forgotten, never to return. Realistically, this is Mozart’s Great Mass in C major.

[jonfan]

The Mozart and CPE Bach were stunning but the quality of tuning left much to be desired in the JS Bach pieces. The Sinfonia was beyond the abilities of the leader and Anna L tellingly remarked at the end that JS stretches his performers. Intonation was suspect in much of the motet as well. Thank goodness the rest made up for it.

[Lordgeous]

The Mozart and CPE Bach were stunning but the quality of tuning left much to be desired in the JS Bach pieces. The Sinfonia was beyond the abilities of the leader and Anna L tellingly remarked at the end that JS stretches his performers. Intonation was suspect in much of the motet as well. Thank goodness the rest made up for it.

Indeed! I wondered was I listening to an amateur orchestra at the start! Strings and wind both with intonation problems as did the soloist. I was left longing for a bit of VIBRATO! There - I've said it!

The first JSB piece did nothing for me I'm afraid. The CPE, though, was thrilling apart from the unusual structure - soloist at the start, did her bit then never appeared again! Mozart rose head and shoulders and saved the day. Lucy Crowe terrific. Loved the way she floated her top notes.

[oddoneout]

Indeed! I wondered was I listening to an amateur orchestra at the start! Strings and wind both with intonation problems as did the soloist. I was left longing for a bit of VIBRATO! There - I've said it!

The first JSB piece did nothing for me I'm afraid. The CPE, though, was thrilling apart from the unusual structure - soloist at the start, did her bit then never appeared again! Mozart rose head and shoulders and saved the day. Lucy Crowe terrific. Loved the way she floated her top notes.

I heard the concert on its first airing and was most surprised by the orchestra problems. I had to be elsewhere for the CPE Bach so the TV broadcast was my first hearing of that. I found it interesting but I'm not sure I'd choose to listen again. I don't know if it was mentioned(despite the presence of Anna Lapwood I didn't have the sound on for the chat) but the orchestra layout was unusual - dictated by the music or John Butt's preference?
I'm afraid I found Jess Dandy disappointing - and not for the first time. Some thrilling sounds, but trying to follow the vocal line defeated me. It reminded me of hearing well known bass soloists performing well known arias in, for instance, Messiah, where the general impression is OK but the detail(as in the actual notes) is missing.
The Mozart was altogether more satisfying, and Lucy Crowe was the high spot for me as well.

[RichardB]

Everyone has their off days I suppose, but it sounded to me listening to the broadcast that in the first piece the musicians couldn't hear each other very well, which wouldn't surprise me with the quieter baroque instruments playing in that cavern. To me the singing often sounded forced also. I would like to have heard this version of the Mozart but I'd run out of patience by then.

[oddoneout]

Everyone has their off days I suppose, but it sounded to me listening to the broadcast that in the first piece the musicians couldn't hear each other very well, which wouldn't surprise me with the quieter baroque instruments playing in that cavern. To me the singing often sounded forced also. I would like to have heard this version of the Mozart but I'd run out of patience by then.

Having seen last night's TV broadcast I think not being able to hear each other might have had something to do with it. The orchestra was split into two approximate groups but not each with conventional layout, and one was offset and behind the other. I think the singers were strung out along the back, but I can't be certain of my memory on that. To my eyes the stage looked rather gappy, almost as if not enough bodies had been thinly spread to make the space look fuller - but not in the Covid spacing way where the gaps were uniform.
There was obviously a reason for that disposition of the performers, but as posted previously I don't know what it was, and even if I had I'm not sure I would have thought it worked as well as might have been expected.

[kernelbogey]

i have been under the impression for too long that this ensemble hails from New Zealand.

[smittims]

Understandable. I used to think the 'Well-gas' ensemble (as I heard it) were so-called because they were sponsored by an energy company (as were the Standard Symphony Orchestra in 1940s America). Yes, truly.

Anyone scouring Wessex in search of the Dorchester Festival would be disappointed. And I remember John Amis interviewing Alfred Deller about his Stour Festival and asking him why none of the concerts took place in Stour.

[Lordgeous]

Understandable. I used to think the 'Well-gas' ensemble (as I heard it) were so-called because they were sponsored by an energy company (as were the Standard Symphony Orchestra in 1940s America). Yes, truly.

Anyone scouring Wessex in search of the Dorchester Festival would be disappointed. And I remember John Amis interviewing Alfred Deller about his Stour Festival and asking him why none of the concerts took place in Stour.

I'd love to hear some, or all, of John Amis' interviews again.