Prom 47: Ligeti / Mozart, Les Siècles, Faust / Melnikov / Roth, Sun. 20 Aug. 2023

[bluestateprommer]

Sunday 20 August 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Ligeti:
(a) Concert Românesc
(b) Violin Concerto
[Encore: György Kurtág: Signs, Games, and Messages - 'Doloroso' (first performance at the Proms)]

interval

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
(a) Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
(b) Symphony No. 41 in C major ('Jupiter'), K. 551

Isabelle Faust, violin
Alexander Melnikov, fortepiano (Paul McNulty modern reproduction after Conrad Graf, FF-f4, circa 1819, c/o Wigmore Hall)

Les Siècles
François-Xavier Roth, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/exc4mb

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-47-les-siecles-play-ligeti-and-mozart/

[french frank]

Sunday 20th August, 19.30:

"Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, François-Xavier Roth’s award-winning orchestra Les Siècles presents music from sonic pioneer György Ligeti alongside two late works by Mozart – pieces separated by two centuries, but united by the spirit of revolution.

"Unperformed until 1971, Ligeti’s vibrant Concert Românesc (‘Romanian Concerto’) is a light-footed celebration of Romanian folk music – real and invented. His Violin Concerto – performed here with German soloist Isabelle Faust – is one of the most original of any age, while Mozart’s final symphony, the ‘Jupiter’, with its astonishing finale, is the last word on the genre from a master innovator. Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov is the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23." [RAH website]

[CallMePaul]

Sunday 20th August, 19.30:

"Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, François-Xavier Roth’s award-winning orchestra Les Siècles presents music from sonic pioneer György Ligeti alongside two late works by Mozart – pieces separated by two centuries, but united by the spirit of revolution.

"Unperformed until 1971, Ligeti’s vibrant Concert Românesc (‘Romanian Concerto’) is a light-footed celebration of Romanian folk music – real and invented. His Violin Concerto – performed here with German soloist Isabelle Faust – is one of the most original of any age, while Mozart’s final symphony, the ‘Jupiter’, with its astonishing finale, is the last word on the genre from a master innovator. Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov is the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23." [RAH website]

Any info on the instrument that Melnikov will be playing? Given that he is playing with Les Siècles, I assume that it will be a period instrument or modern copy.

[bluestateprommer]

Perhaps a slightly straight-laced reading of Ligeti's Concert Românesc from Les Siècles and F-XR, but still good clean fun, as always. Andrew McG. made a slight, but understandable error when he mentioned this performance of Concert Românesc as its Proms premiere, because the work got its Proms premiere as an encore back in 2006. So tonight's performance was the work's first scheduled performance at The Proms, so AMcG got it half-right that way.

Haven't heard a thing about the instrument that Alexander M. will use in the 2nd half, per CMP's question, so we shall see.

[edashtav]

Perhaps a slightly straight-laced reading of Ligeti's Concert Românesc from Les Siècles and F-XR, but still good clean fun, as always. Andrew McG. made a slightly understandable error when he mentioned this performance of Concert Românesc as its Proms premiere, because the work got its Proms premiere as an encore back in 2006. So tonight's performance was the work's first scheduled performance at The Proms, so AMcG got it half-right that way.

Haven't heard a thing about the instrument that Alexander M. will use in the 2nd half, per CMP's question, so we shall see.

Yes, it was Concert Românesc cool from Les Siècles this evening which was an unexpected twist! The piece owes much to Bela Bartok but even more to Georges Enescu. It’s fun and harmless but today’s perfirmance would have benefited from more brio and ‘devil’.

However, I feel the well- filled programmme was well balanced.

i’m enjoying Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with Isabel Faust in excellent form. The arena enjoyed the ocarinas. The work is replete with quotations and evocations: I was delighted by the very active insectarium. A great work played with affection and wit.

How apt to use Kurtag`s super sadness, to use Virgil Thomson’s term, dolorosa within the octave of the Prom performance of ‘Fin de Partie’.’

[edashtav]

Why did I enjoy Alexander Melnikov’s Mozart on a ‘loud’ fortepiano? His playing was bright and breezy using both wit and rubato. He was especially good at projecting rapid runs. Decoration was used unsparingly. Accents were emphatic and his interplay with the woodwind section in the slow movement was lovely. It wasn’t HIPP but was HIPP aware. I loved the BBC engineers’ good balance between soloist and orchestra and chortled as the bassoon showed how fast (s)he could articulate in the playful finale.

A sparkling, fresh performance!
Gosh was the conductor worrying about overtime rates after 10pm when he started the Jupiter before the audience’s applause had died down? Plenty of drive and propulsion but no lack of charming phrasing, either. I’m thoroughly enjoying it all.

A proper length concert delivered with panache.

[LHC]

Why did I enjoy Alexander Melnikov’s Mozart on a ‘loud’ fortepiano? His playing was bright and breezy using both wit and rubato. He was especially good at projecting rapid runs. Decoration was used unsparingly. Accents were eomphatic and his interplay with the woodwind section in the slow movement was lovely. It wasn’t HIPP but was HIPP aware. I loved the BBC engineers’ good balance between soloist and orchestra and chortled as the bassoon showed how fast (s)he could articulate in the playful finale.

A sparkling, fresh performance!
Gosh was the conductor worrying about overtime rates after 10pm when he started the Jupiter before the audience’s applause had died down? Plenty of drive and propulsion but no lack of charming phrasing, either. I’m thoroughly enjoying it all.

A proper length concert delivered with panache.

Melnikov's fortepiano wasn't at all 'loud' in the Hall and was often hard to hear when the orchestra was playing, so I wonder if he had some help from the BBC engineers in balancing his playing with that of the orchestra

[ostuni]

The fortepiano was the Wigmore's Paul McNulty copy of an 1819 Conrad Graf: rather late for Mozart, but apparently Melnikov wanted something with a bit more volume, given the space he had to fill (info from a tweet by AMcG).

[Bryn]

The fortepiano was the Wigmore's Paul McNulty copy of an 1819 Conrad Graf: rather late for Mozart, but apparently Melnikov wanted something with a bit more volume, given the space he had to fill (info from a tweet by AMcG).

I left Twitter when Musk took it over but I either heard or read that information re the Wigmore McNulty instrument elsewhere. Let's think of it as an instrument that Beethoven might have heard the work played on.

[silvestrione]

I left Twitter when Musk took it over but I either heard or read that information re the Wigmore McNulty instrument elsewhere. Let's think of it as an instrument that Beethoven might have heard the work played on.

Come on, keep up, it was announced as such both before and after the performance!
(ah, but perhaps not the Wigmore Hall bit)

[ARBurton]

Why did I enjoy Alexander Melnikov’s Mozart on a ‘loud’ fortepiano? His playing was bright and breezy using both wit and rubato. He was especially good at projecting rapid runs. Decoration was used unsparingly. Accents were emphatic and his interplay with the woodwind section in the slow movement was lovely. It wasn’t HIPP but was HIPP aware. I loved the BBC engineers’ good balance between soloist and orchestra and chortled as the bassoon showed how fast (s)he could articulate in the playful finale.

A sparkling, fresh performance!
Gosh was the conductor worrying about overtime rates after 10pm when he started the Jupiter before the audience’s applause had died down? Plenty of drive and propulsion but no lack of charming phrasing, either. I’m thoroughly enjoying it all.

A proper length concert delivered with panache.

"A proper length concern" indeed - but too long for BBC Sounds since at the moment the programme ends before the end of the programme!

[edashtav]

"A proper length concern" indeed - but too long for BBC Sounds since at the moment the programme ends before the end of the programme!

Golly! Oh for a human to be at the controls!

[Bryn]

"A proper length concern" indeed - but too long for BBC Sounds since at the moment the programme ends before the end of the programme!

All sorted now, though.

[Retune]

A sparkling, fresh performance!
Gosh was the conductor worrying about overtime rates after 10pm when he started the Jupiter before the audience’s applause had died down? Plenty of drive and propulsion but no lack of charming phrasing, either. I’m thoroughly enjoying it all.

I was sitting in the Choir looking straight at Roth and loved that moment. It was of course entirely deliberate, and nicely propelled the orchestra into the first movement, the start of a great performance.

[edashtav]

All sorted now, though.

I hope the Beeb hasn’t attached Sullivan’s TheLast Chord to cover the missing Mozart coda.