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

[smittims]

I'm abashed to say I haven't watched the Leeds since Radu Lupu won. I'm not specifically against it, as I think Fanny Waterman did a terrific job and helped to bring classical music to non-specialist classical listeners, but I don't like the 'sports-commentator' way it's presented by the BBC.

[silvestrione]

I hope Ben Grosvenor isn't seriously ill, and look forward to hearing him again.

Yes indeed. I have 2 tickets for him with his partner, at Snape on the 28th August!

[Ein Heldenleben]

I'm abashed to say I haven't watched the Leeds since Radu Lupu won. I'm not specifically against it, as I think Fanny Waterman did a terrific job and helped to bring classical music to non-specialist classical listeners, but I don't like the 'sports-commentator' way it's presented by the BBC.

Yes that’s my problem as well. That said it does throw up some superb performers and raises the profile of the piano.

[Sir Velo]

Vladimir Ovchinikov's success in the 1988 competition was my first (and last) initiation into the Leeds. His winning (in every sense) performance of (coincidentally) Rach 2 so clearly outclassed the competition that one never ceases to wonder why it didn't lead to a major international career.

[Pulcinella]

Leeds moves to Bradford for the next competition, at least for the concerto finals, as Leeds Town Hall is being refurbished.

https://www.leedspiano.com/upcoming-competition/

[smittims]

Yes, Ovchinikov's plight contrasts with that of Ivo Pogorevich, who became an overnight celebrity , with a Deutsche Grammophon contract to boot, for failing to get into a final. Truth can be stranger than fiction.

I thought Leeds Town Hall had been refurbished some years ago, when Andrew Davis did a televised Belshazzar's Feast as part of a rare TV series where famous British works were played in the places they were premiered, the best, I thought, being Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis in Gloucester Cathedral.

[Pulcinella]

...
I thought Leeds Town Hall had been refurbished some years ago, when Andrew Davis did a televised Belshazzar's Feast as part of a rare TV series where famous British works were played in the places they were premiered, the best, I thought, being Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis in Gloucester Cathedral.

If it was, it's being done again, at a cost of £15.3 million!

https://www.leedstownhall.co.uk

Both of those performances were released as a BBC MM CD: Volume 7, Number 11.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walton-Belshazzars-Feast-Williams-Fantasia/dp/B00H7YKVMY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36H0PXFQ5SPRD&keywords=walton+bels hazzar%27s+feast+vaughan+williams+fantasia&qid=169 1241414&s=music&sprefix=walton+belshazzar%27s+feas t+vaughan+williams+fantasia%2Cpopular%2C65&sr=1-1

[smittims]

Glad to know they haven't been lost. I have the Vaughan Williams on a VHS tape. It was fascinating to see them experiment with placing the three string groups in different parts of the nave.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Glad to know they haven't been lost. I have the Vaughan Williams on a VHS tape. It was fascinating to see them experiment with placing the three string groups in different parts of the nave.

The Tallis - Gloucester (at night, forces dispersed around an empty cathedral) with Andrew Davis & BBC SO is something of a pre-occupation for me. Why haven't the BBC repeated that series - or that episode? Given that they are dredging their back catalogue, its a mystery.

I have the Magazine CD and as to the Video - it can be found on You Tube - been there quite awhile, I do hope it stays up. If only I'd been recording onto DVD in those days.......

[smittims]

I can imagine that programmes which take classical music that seriously, and aren't afraid to use technical terms, are not in favour in today's dumbed-down BBC. I don't suppose we'll see Bob Simpson's BBC2 documentary on the Rasumovsky quartets again, for the same reason.

[edashtav]

Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps
As a fervent believer in the importance of overtures and other short works to the strucure and balance of concerts, I welcome this late piece by Lili Boulanger. It’s a slight piece but has a charm and perfume all of its own.

Sergey Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
Full marks and warmest thanks to Alim Beisembayev for filling the shoes of the poorly Ben Grosvenor with little notice. It was soon obvious that Alim knew the work and had his own interpretation clear in his head. John Wilson’s splendid band made a wonderful contribution to the performance, bringing confident entries, lovely shaping of melodies and terific brio and rhythmic attack to tutti passages. An old War Horse re-examined and found to bemore than the sum of its parts.
Encore:The Danse Infernale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Ballet was written at much the same time as the Rachmaninov Concerto and it provided a neat contrast.

William Walton: Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor : Thanks to dinner… I heard only the first few ars. I must catch up.

Wonderful sound on BBC SOUNDS. A THRILLING , COGENT PERFORMANCE FULL OF DRIVE, TELLING DETAILS, CRISP RHYTHMS AND WELL BALANCED.

[smittims]

The quality of this concert exceeded my expectations. I had thought Lili Boulanger's music feeble, but John Wilson gave it some strength there. And I thought this the best performance of the Rachmaninov second concerto I've heard for many years

I marvelled repeatedly at the care Wilson takes over the execution of individual notes, which together make a convincing interpretation of the whole work. I feel he is potentially the finest conductor of the traditional English repertoire since Sir Adrian Boult.

And well done the sound engineers for producing such a satisfying balance, particularly in the concerto.

[Serial_Apologist]

Some people are raving enthusiastically about Beisembayev's encore, asking how is it someone can last-minute step in and give so magnificent a performance! The omin-culturally informed Jeremy Vine even asked on his CH5 show this morning what was this marvellous encore music while one of his guests had likewise never heard of "Stravinsky's Firebird". The answer - which another guest asked was it by The Jam? - was of course a famous work of modern music by a composer many presenters in today's inclusive jargon would call iconic, then at the peak of his powers, so of course your average TV host tasked with leading discussion on leading topics of the day would have no knowledge of.

TI had thought Lili Boulanger's music feeble.

Really? Seriously? You clearly have a lot of catching up to do on Lili!

[smittims]

Yes, seriously. People do sometimes have opinions which I find surprising. But I heard another piece of hers and imagined Stanford sayi g 'All Brahms-and-water, me bhoy!'

[LeWoiDeWeigate]

Was in the hall for this one and all I can say is WOW. Arena Promming tickets sold out in minutes so ended up in the Gallery which was actually rather good acoustically and visually. And Ali walked past on his way to be interviewed in the interval...

The Rach 2 was great - I must have heard this in concert and on disk about a hundred times and this was very fresh. This is a name we are going to be hearing a lot more of...

And full marks to the Sinfonia of London - the second movement of the Walton was an absolute tour-de-force with incredibly tight orchestral playing throughout. This is what an orchestra should sound like...

Intriguing that we had a piano reduction of an orchestral piece for the first encore (Stravinsky's Firebird) and an orchestral expansion of a piano piece for the second (Gershwin's 2nd Piano Prelude with a gloriously 'drunk' trombone solo...). Fab concert.