Prom 55: C. Simon / Stravinsky / Gershwin / Ravel, Boston SO, Thibaudet / Nelsons

[bluestateprommer]

Saturday 26 August 2023
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances (European premiere)
Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version)

interval

Gershwin: Concerto in F
Ravel: La valse

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e5gxp6

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2023/prom-55-gershwins-piano-concerto/

[french frank]

Saturday 26th August, 19.30:

"Dance pulses through this second concert from Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (see Prom 52). Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, with its bluesy slow movement and hot, frenzied finale.

"Ravel’s La valse dances to the edge of the abyss, while Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka projects the earthy rhythms and bold colours of Russian folk music. The concert opens with the European premiere of US composer Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, drawing on dances that chart the Black American experience from slavery through to today." [RAH website]

[alywin]

I was looking forward to Promming at this one. Blasted rail strikes!

[bluestateprommer]

Obviously the crowd was very happy at the Carlos Simon concert opener, which to me was good clean fun, but no great shakes. Like with the Julia Adolphe yesterday, I'll give it one more chance later on. For alywin, sorry about the transport issues.

[Petrushka]

Terrific Petrushka in the hall. I've never heard so much detail before, live or recorded. Great playing from the whole orchestra and Nelsons was really inside the score whereas he seemed less engaged last night. What a first trumpet!

[Nick Armstrong]

Terrific Petrushka in the hall. I've never heard so much detail before, live or recorded. Great playing from the whole orchestra and Nelsons was really inside the score whereas he seemed less engaged last night. What a first trumpet!

Sounded cracking on the radio too. As did the Gershwin. Haven’t heard the Ravel yet

[Keraulophone]

A great weekend to have an Arena Pass. The Boston Symphony sounded more like the Boston Pops last night. The expert Principal Trumpet Thomas Rolfs plays in both, so he and his section were well at home in this programme. The ‘Black American Dances’ by Carlos Simon were far more entertaining than the previous night’s ‘Makeshift Castle’, though that had some subtle percussion effects. The kitchen department were another starring section in every piece, at one point involving six players plus the tympanist. The rhythmic discipline and control displayed by the side drummer were particularly notable. At first it looked as if Thibaudet had come onstage wearing a cowboy outfit to play the Gershwin concerto, but whatever it was (light tan but without tassels), the audience loved it and his fleet playing. Meanwhile, Nelsons had conducted a brilliant Petrushka, with the aforementioned sections coming into their own. One could imagine the ballet moves happening right then, such was the clarity and appropriate pacing of the piece. La valse rounded off a generous serving of colourful virtuosity, effectively the encore (there wasn’t one the night before) - hard to follow that climactic ending. Looking forward to Rattle’s Mahler 9 tonight.

[edashtav]

Black American Dances composed by Carlos Simon is a 14 minute, breezy piece of exceptional banality. The composer’s father is a pentecostal minister and wishes that Carlos had followed his profession. Carlos avers that ‘my music is my pulpit’ and looking at his list of works, one can see the truth in his assertion. He’s always ‘on message’ and hangs his works from trending concerns. The four dances are entitled Ring Shout, the Waltz, Tap Dance, and the Holy Dance. Their scoring is masterly, their concerns are trivial and the music comes over as pure dance music, naïve & empty of sophistication. Music that may rock you but won’t rock any boats. Ingratiating stuff that will win commissions, get a few reviews, seem trendy but is, in fact, without merit, or substance. Another piece of 21st century music which is as fresh as refried 20th century beans. If I ever visit Pseuds Corner, I guess I shall bump into Carlos. Oh, dearie me.

[edashtav]

Nelsons’ Petrushka scared me witless: it was colourful, dynamic and tuned by Watches of Switzerland. Clockwork perfection but where were the peasants and their fairground? Nowhere to be seen or heard. Absolutely fabulous on the one hand but also as bloodless as a rag doll. Maurice Ravel would have loved it, Stalin would have awarded it one of his Prizes but, despite being being a Globetrotter, I sense that Igor would have condemned it. Not for me, either, I’m afraid.

David Nice, The Arts Desk, expressed a view similar, perhaps to mine,”Funfairs and dance music, old world and new, should have guaranteed a corker of a second Prom from the Boston Symphony Orchestra with its chief conductor, Andris Nelsons. Glitter it did; but wit, drive and violence took a back seat to showcase sophistication, at least from where I was sitting in the hall (always a necessary qualification).”

[edashtav]

Hearing Ravel’s powerful and urgent La Valse, written in 1919 reminded me how important is “Music in our Time” . Through its phantasmagoria, we experience the dislocations and hell that WWI engendered. Earlier in this Concert, we heard a waltz from Carlos Simon written at around the same period in the 21st century as Ravel was writing his astounding piece in the previous century. It was a plastic confection that had so very little of relevance to say.

Sadly, the BSO under Nelsons treated the Ravel as an in-Concert Showcase encore, robbing it of some if its revolutionary thunder. I first heard it imperfectly played by another BSO under Silvestri in Bournmouth. Now that was awe-full!

[Barbirollians]

I liked the Carlos Simon piece but the final movement seemed to owe a bit to Scott Bradley's marvellous music for Tom and Jerry.

[Barbirollians]

I am rather torn over the Petrushka . I loved the playing and it was immensely balletic but agree all rather a clean fairground and well washed and not struggling peasants

[Barbirollians]

A very suave if not the most exciting performance of the Gershwin. I see edashtav's point about La Valse - rather more orchestral showpiece than fall of Empire about it.