Prom 30: Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto - 6 August 2023

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 6 August 2023 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps
Sergey Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
William Walton: Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor

Benjamin Grosvenor - piano
Sinfonia of London
John Wilson - conductor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

John Wilson and his orchestral supergroup the Sinfonia of London return to the Proms to perform Rachmaninov’s famous Second Piano Concerto with British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. The concert opens with Lili Boulanger’s mercurial tone-poem D’un matin de printemps, composed shortly before her tragically early death at the age of only 24. Walton’s First Symphony provides the arresting conclusion: a young man’s musical manifesto, composed between the two World Wars, it’s a white-hot outpouring of personal conflict that resolves (or does it?) into a glowing ceremonial finale.

[smittims]

I think this is a date for the diary; if all goes well it could be a memorable concert, as it's just the music these artists would be expected to do very well.

The concerto is so well-known that I expect many knowledgeable listeners avoid it. But I've found it well-worth approaching it with a fresh mind, perhaps imagining what it would have been like to hear it when it was new. Co-incidentally 'Brief Encounter' is on BBC2 tomorrow at 1625 BST. Bonus point: who was the soloist on the soundtrack?

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think this is a date for the diary; if all goes well it could be a memorable concert, as it's just the music these artists would be expected to do very well.

The concerto is so well-known that I expect many knowledgeable listeners avoid it. But I've found it well-worth approaching it with a fresh mind, perhaps imagining what it would have been like to hear it when it was new. Co-incidentally 'Brief Encounter' is on BBC2 tomorrow at 1625 BST. Bonus point: who was the soloist on the soundtrack?

Eileen Joyce - she of immaculate technique, outstanding musicianship and a taste in highly coloured concert clothes.

[silvestrione]

Eileen Joyce - she of immaculate technique, outstanding musicianship and a taste in highly coloured concert clothes.

I first heard the Rachmaninov in Bournemouth with John Ogdon and Silvestri. It's been downhill ever since! But Benjamin Grosvenor is just the man to make it fresh.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I first heard the Rachmaninov in Bournemouth with John Ogdon and Silvestri. It's been downhill ever since! But Benjamin Grosvenor is just the man to make it fresh.

Only ever heard it live twice. Simon Trpčeski at the QEH during the RFH closure and local amateur perf with a very good professional pianist. The thing that really struck me was how much of the piano figuration (e.g. the long arpeggio sequence at the beginning) gets lost in Rachmaninov’s orchestration.

[smittims]

Well done, Heldenleben. Two vintage pianists mentioned there: Joyce and Ogdon.

. I was delighted to find a clean copy of the Ogdon/Pritchard HMV disc in a charity shop. I understand that as a boy he once called himself 'John Rachmaninov Ogdon'. His massive (in more than one way ), presence is still missed.

I never heard Eileen Joyce except on disc. I gather later in life she gave up her virtuoso career and , among other things, took up the harpsichord.

[french frank]

This coming Sunday 6 August, at 19.30.

[jbareham]

Just had an e-mail from the RAH. "Unfortunately, Benjamin Grosvenor has had to withdraw from this Prom due to medical reasons. We are grateful to Alim Beisembayev for stepping in as soloist."

[edashtav]

[QUOTE=silvestrione;n1280246]

I first heard the Rachmaninov in Bournemouth with John Ogdon and Silvestri. It's been downhill ever since! But Benjamin Grosvenor is just the man to make it fresh . Something of that performance was captured in a video with Owain Arwel Hughes conducting:

https://youtu.be/U5whWlO35lc

[Ein Heldenleben]

[QUOTE=jbareham;n1280954]Just had an e-mail from the RAH. "Unfortunately, Benjamin Grosvenor has had to withdraw from this Prom due to medical reasons. We are grateful to Alim Beisembayev for stepping in as soloist."
[/QUOTE

That is some substitution.

[silvestrione]

[QUOTE=edashtav;n1280956]

I first heard the Rachmaninov in Bournemouth with John Ogdon and Silvestri. It's been downhill ever since! But Benjamin Grosvenor is just the man to make it fresh . Something of that performance was captured in a video with Owain Arwel Hughes conducting:

https://youtu.be/U5whWlO35lc

Alas, a much later Ogdon in that Youtube version...My experience was early to mid sixties.

[smittims]

I haven't heard Alim Beisembayev, or even of him, until today, but I look forward to hearing him,having admired the playing of a fellow-Kazakhstanian Marat Bisengaliev, in Elgar of all composers.
I hope Ben Grosvenor isn't seriously ill, and look forward to hearing him again.

[Sir Velo]

Beisembayev was the Leeds International Piano Competition First prize winner in 2021, which tends to suggest just how far this event has dropped off the radar.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Beisembayev was the Leeds International Piano Competition First prize winner in 2021, which tends to suggest just how far this event has dropped off the radar.

Yes he won it with a superb performance of the Rachmaninov Rhapsody . He’s something of a Rachmaninov specialist. He is an outstanding musician. He’s doing Rach 2 with the Bournemouth SO in the Autumn . I don’t think his lack of fame is a reflection of how the Leeds has fallen in esteem - perhaps Smittims doesn’t follow the competition or , like me , doesn’t set much store by the importance of such things .
The last Leeds competition produced another top notch pianist Eric Lu - a really superbly gifted musician whose phrasing is of Perahia level expressivity. And yet outside a narrow world very few will have heard of him. Unlike the world’s most famous pianist -Lang Lang - neither do stunts like his (very inaccurate) performance of Rachmaninov’s Bumble Bee transcription on a banged up piano at St Pancras this week . (See YouTube ). Maybe that’s why they are not famous.
The “problem” is that there are a lot of outstanding pianists around and they tend to live a long time.Micheal Roll the very first winner is , I think , still recording and performing.