Prom 4: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons - 16 July 2023

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 16 July 2023 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Andrea Tarrodi: Birds of Paradise
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major
Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, interspersed with folk music improvisations

Ale Carr cittern
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Pekka Kuusisto violin/conductor

[FFAdminMKS]

Topic now open

[kernelbogey]

I thought this was fun. Pekka Kuusisto is a charsmatic dharacter and it was fascinating watching him conduct the Beethoven. The Vivaldi worked well for me - I thought the improvisations were enjoyable and kind of cheeky in their own way.

[jonfan]

Very enjoyable and fantastic standard of playing from everyone. I’m nervous of anyone messing about with V’s Four Seasons, as Nigel Kennedy disastrously did a few seasons ago, but this worked a treat with the improvisations always starting with the composer’s inspiration.

[kernelbogey]

I thought this was fun. Pekka Kuusisto is a charsmatic dharacter and it was fascinating watching him conduct the Beethoven. The Vivaldi worked well for me - I thought the improvisations were enjoyable and kind of cheeky in their own way.

On the other hand, I found the introductions (on tv) and the following comments pretty tedious.

[To do this kind of post you cick Quote, not Reply as we used to.]

[oddoneout]

On the other hand, I found the introductions (on tv) and the following comments pretty tedious.

[To do this kind of post you cick Quote, not Reply as we used to.]

The extraneous baggage was why I decided to listen rather than watch. I was slightly wary of the idea of the Vivaldi as other reworkings/new approaches I have not found to my taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The sense of fun and enjoyment came over the airwaves, and the immaculate(but most definitely not sterile, as that sometimes implies) playing had my ears pinned back throughout the concert.

[Barbirollians]

I really enjoyed this Prom . Pekka Kuusisto laid down a very good marker as a Beethoven conductor in his recording of the violin concerto with Vilde Frang as soloist last year and I thought this Symphony No 1 was a delight. I should love to hear more Beethoven from him and this orchestra.

The Four Seasons was terrific fun , the improvisations worked well . A lovely concert.

[JasonPalmer]

I found the improvisations annoying but was prompted to check iplayer for the program about vivaldi that aired before the prom which i enjoyed.

[smittims]

I know I'm an old fogey from another century but I was perturbed by this concert. It seemed to me that the music was being abused and exploited for the vanity of the principal performer. The packed audience clearly loved it, whooping and shrieking their approval just as they would if live sex or a public execution were on stage . I expect they will react in the same way when the S.Matthew Passion is done on TV at the Proms with Ed Sheeran songs replacing the arias. This is clearly the way to get bigger audiences for classical music.

Yes I know I'm taking it too seriously. I should lighten up , walk away, go with the flow. But I love Vivaldi's music (and the finale of Beethoven's first symphony) and I resented what was done to it . My mind goes back tothe 2002 Proms when the Four Seasons was done by the Venice Baroque orchestra in Armani suits. . That was pretty ideal for me, short of bringing Boyd Neel and Thurston Dart back from the dead. I'm just glad I was born earlier and enjoyed music when it was still treated with respect.

[JasonPalmer]

This prom is repeated on todays afternoon concert.

[JasonPalmer]

I know I'm an old fogey from another century but I was perturbed by this concert. It seemed to me that the music was being abused and exploited for the vanity of the principal performer. The packed audience clearly loved it, whooping and shrieking their approval just as they would if live sex or a public execution were on stage . I expect they will react in the same way when the S.Matthew Passion is done on TV at the Proms with Ed Sheeran songs replacing the arias. This is clearly the way to get bigger audiences for classical music.

Yes I know I'm taking it too seriously. I should lighten up , walk away, go with the flow. But I love Vivaldi's music (and the finale of Beethoven's first symphony) and I resented what was done to it . My mind goes back tothe 2002 Proms when the Four Seasons was done by the Venice Baroque orchestra in Armani suits. . That was pretty ideal for me, short of bringing Boyd Neel and Thurston Dart back from the dead. I'm just glad I was born earlier and enjoyed music when it was still treated with respect.

I agree, such a important piece should be left alone.

[oddoneout]

I know I'm an old fogey from another century but I was perturbed by this concert. It seemed to me that the music was being abused and exploited for the vanity of the principal performer. The packed audience clearly loved it, whooping and shrieking their approval just as they would if live sex or a public execution were on stage . I expect they will react in the same way when the S.Matthew Passion is done on TV at the Proms with Ed Sheeran songs replacing the arias. This is clearly the way to get bigger audiences for classical music.

Yes I know I'm taking it too seriously. I should lighten up , walk away, go with the flow. But I love Vivaldi's music (and the finale of Beethoven's first symphony) and I resented what was done to it . My mind goes back tothe 2002 Proms when the Four Seasons was done by the Venice Baroque orchestra in Armani suits. . That was pretty ideal for me, short of bringing Boyd Neel and Thurston Dart back from the dead. I'm just glad I was born earlier and enjoyed music when it was still treated with respect.

Music has always been messed about with, and opinions will always differ as to whether such interference is sacrilege, incompetent, ill-advised or a valid addition/alteration. In this case I enjoyed the result, but I can appreciate that not everyone would, and I don't know that I would want to listen repeatedly. Having said that there are "straight" performances of the 4 Seasons which I do not enjoy, and in fact as a general rule I tend not to listen to the piece now as too many seem to fall into that category, even though some of them are highly acclaimed or very popular.
At least in this case it was clear that it was not a straight version. I have been caught out by Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata too many times now and so always assume it will be an altered version - and don't listen as I don't like what she does.
So long as there remains the option to hear the straight version I'm not sure that altered ones matter that much, so long as the alterations aren't taken to be the original if they are performer ideas/whims rather than factually based.

[smittims]

Quite so. I think the Beethoven was altered more than the Vivaldi. I imagine some young person listening to Beethoven's first symphony for the first time and , not liking the singing bit, assumed that was what Beethoven wrote, and avoiding it thereafter. I knew someone who said they didn't like Elgar's Falstaff because the first time they heard it, the music was repeatedly interrupted by a narrator giving his views on the 'story'.

Maybe it's a question of where one draws the line on 'interpretation' but it does seem odd to me that in a HIPP age some people are going in the opposite direction.

[Tony Halstead]

I totally agree with everything you have written.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite so. I think the Beethoven was altered more than the Vivaldi. I imagine some young person listening to Beethoven's first symphony for the first time and , not liking the singing bit, assumed that was what Beethoven wrote, and avoiding it thereafter. I knew someone who said they didn't like Elgar's Falstaff because the first time they heard it, the music was repeatedly interrupted by a narrator giving his views on the 'story'.

Maybe it's a question of where one draws the line on 'interpretation' but it does seem odd to me that in a HIPP age some people are going in the opposite direction.

The vocalising of famous Beethoven’s scale based intro to the final movement struck me as pretty much like hearing a one liner from a witty comic being laboriously repeated by a mate who’s had one too many in the pub. The comedy is lost in the re-telling. One curious thing - the audience sang it better than the orchestra - one male player sounding a tad flat.

[smittims]

It's the sort of thing I associate with Hoffnung (and the famous Eric Morecambe/ Previn Grieg sketch). All right there but not at a regular Prom. As I recall, a famous musical humourist, Victor Borge, never actually guyed the music itself.