Prom 51: J. Weir/R. Schumann/Elgar, BBC SO, Tetzlaff/Oramo, Thurs 24 Aug 2023

[bluestateprommer]

Thursday 24 August 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Judith Weir: Begin Afresh (BBC commission, world premiere)
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in Bb major ('Spring'), op. 38

interval

Elgar: Violin Concerto in b, op. 61
[Encore: J. S. Bach: Sonata No. 2 in a for solo violin, BWV 1003 - III. Andante]

Christian Tetzlaff, violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e64bc8

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-51-weir-schumann-elgar/

[french frank]

Thursday 24th August, 19.30:

"Elgar’s boldly virtuosic Violin Concerto was one of the few works he admitted to being proud of: ‘Awfully emotional! Too emotional,’ he said, ‘but I love it.’ A deeply personal work, its title-page carries the enigmatic inscription ‘Herein is enshrined the soul of …..’.

Distinguished German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is the soloist, following in the line of Fritz Kreisler, for whom the concerto was written. Schumann’s ‘Spring’ Symphony reflects the freshness and drive that seized the composer around the time of his marriage. Begin Afresh, a new commission from Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir, also celebrates new beginnings, inspired by Philip Larkin’s poem ‘The Trees’. [RAH website]

[smittims]

I suppose I will have to do my duty and endure Judith Weir's piece. I really will try to find something to like in it. I've long admired Larkin's poem , a good example of his ability to say a great deal in a few words. Whether Professor Weir can say a great deal in few notes remains to be seen.

I'll be interested to hear what interpretation we get for the Elgar, a rich,many-sided work that is open to different approaches.

[Master Jacques]

Why "Professor"? Judith Weir is a thorough professional, whose fresh music is strikingly free from any suggestion of academic fustian. Compression, the ability to communicate richly in brief space, is one of her great strengths. She's one of the very few full-time composers successful enough not to have to teach. She does so, out of a sense of communality which does her credit, personally.

It is our loss, if we fail to enjoy her excellent, quirky and distinctive music. I'm looking forward to her new piece, and will turn off before yet another repetition of one of the most overplayed (and often poorly played) concertos in the repertoire. Despite its merits, it's time the Proms gave that one a rest, frankly.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Why "Professor"? Judith Weir is a thorough professional, whose fresh music is strikingly free from any suggestion of academic fustian. Compression, the ability to communicate richly in brief space, is one of her great strengths. She's one of the very few full-time composers successful enough not to have to teach. She does so, out of a sense of communality which does her credit, personally.

It is our loss, if we fail to enjoy her excellent, quirky and distinctive music. I'm looking forward to her new piece, and will turn off before yet another repetition of one of the most overplayed (and often poorly played) concertos in the repertoire. Despite its merits, it's time the Proms gave that one a rest, frankly.

if you were talking about Tschaikovsky’s I might agree. If Tetzlaff plays it poorly I shall be very surprised. Have to disagree re the overplaying as I think it is the greatest of all violin concerti. Yes sacrilege I know but better than Beethoven and Brahms.

[Master Jacques]

if you were talking about Tschaikovsky’s I might agree. If Tetzlaff plays it poorly I shall be very surprised. Have to disagree re the overplaying as I think it is the greatest of all violin concerti. Yes sacrilege I know but better than Beethoven and Brahms.

They'll all four overplayed at the Proms, in my grumpy opinion, when there are so many wonderful violin concertos which get completely ignored, year after year. As for Tetzlaff, is he quite the player he was before his hand problems? And does he "do" emotion with the required subtlety. (Personally, I would much rather be hearing him in the Schoenberg concerto, anyway, than yet another outing for "Windflower".)

[Ein Heldenleben]

They'll all four overplayed at the Proms, in my grumpy opinion, when there are so many wonderful violin concertos which get completely ignored, year after year. As for Tetzlaff, is he quite the player he was before his hand problems? And does he "do" emotion with the required subtlety. (Personally, I would much rather be hearing him in the Schoenberg concerto, anyway, than yet another outing for "Windflower".)

The tally runs
Elgar 34
Beethoven 107
Brahms 95
Mendelssohn 105
Tschaikovsky 81
Bruch 45

Even adding 4 perfs (15/128ths ) for the fifteen years the concerto was uncomposed that makes 38 . I would argue , given its greatness it’s underperformed. Hardly surprising as it long, difficult and musically very demanding .
also surprising the relatively small number of Bruch perfs given its popularity.

[Master Jacques]

The tally runs
Elgar 34
Beethoven 107
Brahms 95
Mendelssohn 105
Tschaikovsky 81
Bruch 45

Even adding 4 perfs (15/128ths ) for the fifteen years the concerto was uncomposed that makes 38 . I would argue , given its greatness it’s underperformed. Hardly surprising as it long, difficult and musically very demanding .
also surprising the relatively small number of Bruch perfs given its popularity.

Most interesting, thank you very much for this. I'm also surprised that the Bruch has managed so few. Misguided snobbery? If you strapped me down in a chair and forced me to listen to just one of these six old warhorses, I suspect it would be my first choice. But there we are...

(I'm also surprised that the Beethoven, un-showy, fantastically nuanced and difficult to bring off, comes top. I muse how your figures would look, just for post-1945 performances? But you've got better things to do!)

[smittims]

If we're going to enquire why some works (e.g. Bruch G minor) are not often performed at the Proms, I think the paucity of Schubert deserves a mention. Considering his stature I've sometimes noticed years when no Schubert was played.

Yes, although I love the Elgar concerto and don't consider it overdone, I think the Schoenberg deserves more performances than it gets.

I did genuinely believe Judith Weir was a professor; sorry if I got this wrong. It was not intended as a slight. I make no criticism of her personally. As I've said before, I accept that she is a very knowledgeable and skilful composer and if the BBC want to broadcast her music as often as they do, I wouldn't expect her to object. It's just that every time I try to give her music a fair hearing (and I really do try) I end up wishing I'd done something else. Compared with so many composers whose music I consider immensely more enjoyable than hers but who are almost totally neglected on Radio 3 I have to say I find hers bland and dull.

[Serial_Apologist]

If we're going to enquire why some works (e.g. Bruch G minor) are not often performed at the Proms, I think the paucity of Schubert deserves a mention. Considering his stature I've sometimes noticed years when no Schubert was played.

Yes, although I love the Elgar concerto and don't consider it overdone, I think the Schoenberg deserves more performances than it gets.

I did genuinely believe Judith Weir was a professor; sorry if I got this wrong. It was not intended as a slight. I make no criticism of her personally. As I've said before, I accept that she is a very knowledgeable and skilful composer and if the BBC want to broadcast her music as often as they do, I wouldn't expect her to object. It's just that every time I try to give her music a fair hearing (and I really do try) I end up wishing I'd done something else. Compared with so many composers whose music I consider immensely more enjoyable than hers but who are almost totally neglected on Radio 3 I have to say I find hers bland and dull.

Have to say I agree on Weir, personally finding her work routine, and always have ever since she first came on the scene.

[Pulcinella]

Have to say I agree on Weir, personally finding her work routine, and always have ever since she first came on the scene.

Even Illuminare, Jerusalem?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Most interesting, thank you very much for this. I'm also surprised that the Bruch has managed so few. Misguided snobbery? If you strapped me down in a chair and forced me to listen to just one of these six old warhorses, I suspect it would be my first choice. But there we are...

(I'm also surprised that the Beethoven, un-showy, fantastically nuanced and difficult to bring off, comes top. I muse how your figures would look, just for post-1945 performances? But you've got better things to do!)

In fact that only took a few minutes - it’s all on the Proms archive
But I did get distracted by the Moeran Violin concerto . A nice work - several perfs in the forties and fifties and then nothing then till a stray performance in 2014. The vagaries of fashion ,,

while I’m about it

Lark Ascending 21 (majority since 2000 - the Classic FM influence ?
Berg 19 ( much better work )
which rather surprised me as I thought RVW would be way ahead . Maybe not enough of a showpiece ?

[Master Jacques]

Have to say I agree on Weir, personally finding her work routine, and always have ever since she first came on the scene.

"Routine" seems a curious adjective to choose, for a composer who - if we're picking nits - can be irritatingly quirky, or ostentatiously "different", to a fault. Have you seen her operas? Night at the Chinese Opera remains one of the most interesting British operas of the last half century, with Blonde Eckbert and The Vanishing Bridegroom not far behind. They are full of theatrical and musical surprises, and - for me - anything but "routine". Certainly they inhabit a theatrical world not quite like any other.

[Master Jacques]

In fact that only took a few minutes - it’s all on the Proms archive
But I did get distracted by the Moeran Violin concerto . A nice work - several perfs in the forties and fifties and then nothing then till a stray performance in 2014. The vagaries of fashion ,,

while I’m about it

Lark Ascending 21 (majority since 2000 - the Classic FM influence ?
Berg 19 ( much better work )
which rather surprised me as I thought RVW would be way ahead . Maybe not enough of a showpiece ?

I agree with you wholeheartedly about the Moeran - perhaps his best "major" work, after the 1st movement of the G minor Symphony - and would go to hear it live, for sure. I fancy that in time The Lark Ascending will clock up as many performances as those other warhorses, though we won't be around to compare notes! Nicola Benedetti's Proms performance of it is etched on my memory for good - one of those moments where time (and even the Proms audience) stood still.

[Master Jacques]

I did genuinely believe Judith Weir was a professor; sorry if I got this wrong. It was not intended as a slight. I make no criticism of her personally. As I've said before, I accept that she is a very knowledgeable and skilful composer and if the BBC want to broadcast her music as often as they do, I wouldn't expect her to object. It's just that every time I try to give her music a fair hearing (and I really do try) I end up wishing I'd done something else. Compared with so many composers whose music I consider immensely more enjoyable than hers but who are almost totally neglected on Radio 3 I have to say I find hers bland and dull.

To be fair, you're not wrong Smittims, as she was Visiting Research Professor at Cardiff for about three years from 2006. And she does make sure she shares her compositional experience with students on a regular basis, even now. I dearly wish I could provide you with a key to why I don't find her music either bland or dull (descriptors which like Serial_Apologist's "routine" leave me frankly baffled). Her gossamer-orchestrations, quirky forms and light-bright wit have always enchanted me: I love the way she refuses to take music solemnly - as opposed to seriously - which in my book, is the cardinal sin of too many contemporary composers. But my words aren't going to change anything!