Prom 42: Philharmonia Orchestra, Cho / Rouvali, Wed. 16 August 2023

[edashtav]

That favouring the pianist is something I also noticed in the Schiff performances, I am perversely all in favour as the pianist is usually swamped when live.
Forgive me Edashtav if , speaking as someone who enjoys your contributions immensely, I respectfully point out that the nocturne is in E Flat . Only a semitone but all the difference in the world.

Yes a whopper! I think I’ve caught Bug from the Beeb which has recently truncated some key names.
I did spot my error and nearly corrected it before thinking that I deserved censure.
I write too fast and am hopeless at proof-reading.
Cheers!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes a whopper! I think I’ve caught Bug from the Beeb which has recently truncated some key names.
I did spot my error and nearly corrected it before thinking that I deserved censure.
I write too fast and am hopeless at proof-reading.
Cheers!

Absolutely no censure intended. Just that Eflat is bit of ‘mare of a key in some ways pianistically and E major isnt !
That Eflat nocturne is rated grade 8 but IMHO its much more difficult than that.

[JasonPalmer]

Enjoying the Strauss, this is the great thing about radio 3, they pick out music for you, much less complex than cd hunting.

[edashtav]

Enjoying the Strauss, this is the great thing about radio 3, they pick out music for you, much less complex than cd hunting.

The opposite may be true, Jason. Recently, I sat through a second live performance of R.Strauss’s early Violin Sonata within a few months. The first I tolerated as a ‘novelty’, whilst thinking ‘less would be more’ re its welter of notes. The more recent performance, despite considerable advocacy from a husband and wife Duo, was torture: my Hell was an incandescent, endless stream of white-hot musical lava yet knowing that more garrulity was at hand. Enough material to furnish a Baker’s dozen of violin sonatas, all to no effect. A composer’s greatest friend is his rubber.

[silvestrione]

I’m so lucky! The first time I heard In The South it was with Constantin Silvestri conducting ‘his’ Bournemouth Symphony Orchesta. Reader, Constantin was a magician
shaking a kaleidoscope: his vision was colourful and constantly being refreshed.

Ah, me too, edashtav. I was there, perhaps sitting next to you, who knows?
(A live performance by those forces has now found its way onto Youtube.....)
I love your marvellous image for Constantin.

[JasonPalmer]

The opposite may be true, Jason. Recently, I sat through a second live performance of R.Strauss’s early Violin Sonata within a few months. The first I tolerated as a ‘novelty’, whilst thinking ‘less would be more’ re its welter of notes. The more recent performance, despite considerable advocacy from a husband and wife Duo, was torture: my Hell was an incandescent, endless stream of white-hot musical lava yet knowing that more garrulity was at hand. Enough material to furnish a Baker’s dozen of violin sonatas, all to no effect. A composer’s greatest friend is his rubber.

Reminds me of that film about mozart where the king complains "too many notes" lol

[edashtav]

Reminds me of that film about mozart where the king complains "too many notes" lol

Too few, too many: either can cause musical chaos. Here’s a true tale told by the Rev. MacDermott in 1927. It reminds me that that technology has always been an unforgiving bugger:

“A barrel-organ was used in Albourne Church up to about the year 1868 to provide the accompaniment for the hymns and metrical psalms. Untortunately, the mechanism of the instrument was imperfect, and occasionally in the middle of a hymn requiring a long metre tune, like the Old 100th, the organ would give make ‘a click’ and switch over to another tune of an entirely different metre. The singers would then try to chant the hymn to this wrong tune, only to discover that they could not make the words
fit: there would be either too many or too few notes at the end of each line.
After an unedifying competition between organ and congregation, the latter would give up in despair, and victory would remain with the delinquent barrel- organ. “

I attended a Crematorium where the hymns were accompanied by a CD. Unfortunately, the printed service sheet had fewer verses for one hymn than were stored on the CD. When the extra verse sounded, inevitably in UNISON, without thinking, I repeated the first verse - my father always told his choir- if during a Processional hymn you are still walking when the verses run out, go back to verse 1. Unfortunately, I was the only member of Dad’s choir at the funeral - so my verse became a SOLO.

[Petrushka]

I attended a Crematorium where the hymns were accompanied by a CD. Unfortunately, the printed service sheet had fewer verses for one hymn than were stored on the CD..

This happened at my mother's funeral except that it was the other way round: the CD had one verse less than the printed sheet with one of the middle verses omitted. One half of the congregation ploughed on as per the printed sheet while those quicker on the uptake skipped the omitted verse. My mother would have loved the resulting chaos.

[Barbirollians]

I am not surprised at the encomiums for Seong Jin Cho here . He is an outstanding young pianist as anyone who bought either of his Chopin records or his Debussy recital would know . I saw him play Beethoven 4 with the CBSO/Yamada and albeit very different it was the finest I had heard since Brendel and Rattle with the CBSO in 1990 . Mercurial ,passionate - sensitive in the slow movement and then a cartwheeling joyful finale .

As this Chopin 1 showed he’s a great talent so much that I have not yet heard Aus Italien as I played the concerto again.

Enjoyed In the South - but more a bright morning than a wild evening in Alassio.

[Barbirollians]

Rouvali and the Philharmonia did a very good job with Aus Italian where one's attention can wander. Good to see it making a Proms reappearance after 120 years.

[gurnemanz]

This happened at my mother's funeral except that it was the other way round: the CD had one verse less than the printed sheet with one of the middle verses omitted. One half of the congregation ploughed on as per the printed sheet while those quicker on the uptake skipped the omitted verse. My mother would have loved the resulting chaos.

... which gives me an excuse to trot out an old possibly/probably apocryphal cremation anecdote whereby the CD operator pressed the wrong button and played 'Smoke Gets in your Eyes' rather than 'Every Time We Say Goodbye'.

[Roslynmuse]

... which gives me an excuse to trot out an old possibly/probably apocryphal cremation anecdote whereby the CD operator pressed the wrong button and played 'Smoke Gets in your Eyes' rather than 'Every Time We Say Goodbye'.

I was once accompanying a singer in Smoke Gets In Your Eyes at a social event with supper, and smoke started curling round the entrance to the room closely followed by a stage whisper - "the lasagne is burning!"