Prom 9: Brahms / Schoenberg / G. Mahler, BBC SSO, Coote / R. Wigglesworth

[bluestateprommer]

Thursday 25 July 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Brahms: Symphony No. 3

Interval

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), op. 4 (first performance of string orchestra version at The Proms)
Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e2m3v2

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-9/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00214j9

[smittims]

If it's the 1943 version of the Schoenberg it should be given with its English title only, as that's how it appeared.

Arnie conducted Brahms 3 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1930s, astonishing the players, as one of them related to Robert Craft, by conducting the first movement in a slow nine-in-a-bar. A well-chosen programme since Mahler knew both the other composers personally, Brahms being the finest composer since Beethoven and Schoenberg the finest since Brahms (in my humble opinion).

[oliver sudden]

“Both Gustav Mahler and Friedrich Rückert lost children. When Mahler came to set Rückert’s grief-stricken poems on the subject as his five Kindertotenlieder, he did so with music that appears emotionally stunned and radiantly consolatory.”

Hang on a tick, he finished the things in 1904 and his daughter died in 1907…

[bluestateprommer]

Good, solid, straight-up no-fuss reading of Brahms 3 from the BBC SSO and Ryan W. to start this Prom, in keeping with what I've heard on R3 of Ryan W.'s conducting in general.

FWIW, a glance at the RAH's page last night showed not too many seats available for this evening's Prom (with considerably more available for the BBC SSO's all-British Prom tomorrow night).

PS: Pretty much the same evaluation for Verklärte Nacht just now, no-fuss and no-muss interpretation from Ryan W. and the BBC SSO.

Separate from this performance, on a whim, I had a look at the Proms performance archive. The shock was that the only other performance of Verklärte Nacht looks to have been the original string sextet version in 2001. The archive does not indicate any prior performances of the string orchestra version. I'm going to edit the parent post accordingly, as unbelievable as it sounds that this looks to have been the first performance of the string orchestra version at The Proms.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Probably not to everyone’s taste but I think Alice Coote’s Mahler singing is one of the glories of the age.

[edashtav]

Good, solid, straight-up no-fuss reading of Brahms 3 from the BBC SSO and Ryan W. to start this Prom, in keeping with what I've heard on R3 of Ryan W.'s conducting in general.

FWIW, a glance at the RAH's page last night showed not too many seats available for this evening's Prom (with considerably more available for the BBC SSO's all-British Prom tomorrow night).

PS: Pretty much the same evaluation for Verklärte Nacht just now, no-fuss and no-muss interpretation from Ryan W. and the BBC SSO.

Separate from this performance, on a whim, I had a look at the Proms performance archive. The shock was that the only other performance of Verklärte Nacht looks to have been the original string sextet version in 2001. The archive does not indicate any prior performances of the string orchestra version. I'm going to edit the parent post accordingly, as unbelievable as it sounds that this looks to have been the first performance of the string orchestra version at The Proms.

I agree with your assessments so I'm content to add a few asides:

Hans Richter gave the first three performances of Brahms's 3rd Symphony in Vienna and London. At the earliest London performance the audience lapped vociferously after its Intermezzo. Richter turned, smiled and repeated the movement much to the disgust of two starchy critics.

I think it was the eminent critic, Hanslick, who noted the simplicity of the inner moments of Brahms' third saying they could have come from one of the composer's serenades. Another identified that ' a flower from Herold's Opera 'Zampa' had been lifted to start Brahms's andante.

Brahms conducted the revised score at the work's 4th performance at a Dusseldorf Festival a month later. A Bradford visitor reported that the composer had a "electric"connection to each player and the playing was the finest he had ever heard.
Brahms' orchestra had 24 first violins, 20 seconds,16 violas, 18 celli ,and 12 double basses. Woodwind were doubled and brass and timpani were as scored. These days we often hear 'Period Performances' and they have scaled down forces. How about creating a 1884 orchestra " as conducted by Brahms"?

Your note about the first Proms Performance of Transfigured Night in its glorious full string band garb is astonishing, bsp

[edashtav]

Probably not to everyone’s taste but I think Alice Coote’s Mahler singing is one of the glories of the age.

Coots receive mixed reviews: crazy as a coot on the one hand to the careful coot. Alice Coote is neither crazy nor is she careful. She can tickle the ears with high notes from the stratosphere but also touches our emotions as she plumbs depths that Heineken can't reach. She is a risk taker and those who love her admire her reluctance to rely on a safety net.

The modern world is dominated by cautious perfection and risk takers can be sidelined by their occasional crash landings.

i heard a soloist in Verdi's Requiem the other night who was an admixture of soaring brilliance with passages sounding as if she'd lost her bearings.

Fortunately for her 'believers', Alice Coote was terrific in Kindertotenlieder this evening.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Coots receive mixed reviews: crazy as a coot on the one hand to the careful coot. Alice Coote is neither crazy nor is she careful. She can tickle the ears with high notes from the stratosphere but also touches our emotions as she plumbs depths that Heineken can't reach. She is a risk taker and those who love her admire her reluctance to rely on a safety net.

The modern world is dominated by cautious perfection and risk takers can be sidelined by their occasional crash landings.

i heard a soloist in Verdi's Requiem the other night who was an admixture of soaring brilliance with passages sounding as if she'd lost her bearings.

Fortunately for her 'believers', Alice Coote was terrific in Kindertotenlieder this evening.

I think the key difference was that one singer was consistently sharp and the other sang in tune !
Alice Coote has that attractive plaintive “clarinet “ note in her mezzo voice - something she shares with Ferrier , Callas , Baker , and Garland amongst others . Lucky her..

[richardfinegold]

Probably not to everyone’s taste but I think Alice Coote’s Mahler singing is one of the glories of the age.

Agreed. Her Pentatone disc is special

[richardfinegold]

“Both Gustav Mahler and Friedrich Rückert lost children. When Mahler came to set Rückert’s grief-stricken poems on the subject as his five Kindertotenlieder, he did so with music that appears emotionally stunned and radiantly consolatory.”

Hang on a tick, he finished the things in 1904 and his daughter died in 1907…

Mahler had at least one sibling that he was very close to die as a child, and I had always read that this was why the poems resonated with him

[Simon Biazeck]

Coots receive mixed reviews: crazy as a coot on the one hand to the careful coot. Alice Coote is neither crazy nor is she careful. She can tickle the ears with high notes from the stratosphere but also touches our emotions as she plumbs depths that Heineken can't reach. She is a risk taker and those who love her admire her reluctance to rely on a safety net.

The modern world is dominated by cautious perfection and risk takers can be sidelined by their occasional crash landings.

I heard a soloist in Verdi's Requiem the other night who was an admixture of soaring brilliance with passages sounding as if she'd lost her bearings.

Fortunately for her 'believers', Alice Coote was terrific in Kindertotenlieder this evening.

I quite agree. Her presence is utterly engaging and disarming. She gives everything to the text and the music without a hint of vanity. Oh, to have been there.

[oliver sudden]

Mahler had at least one sibling that he was very close to die as a child, and I had always read that this was why the poems resonated with him

Yes indeed, his brother Ernst in particular I believe.

Fair enough that Alma might not have seen it that way, of course. But a programme note ought to be able to get that across.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Arnie conducted Brahms 3 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1930s, astonishing the players, as one of them related to Robert Craft, by conducting the first movement in a slow nine-in-a-bar. .

Hmmmm, I'd have loved to see that, as much of the first movement is in 6/4.

[cloughie]

Probably not to everyone’s taste but I think Alice Coote’s Mahler singing is one of the glories of the age.

She is rather good, always sounds a singer sure of her craft, with tuning to match!

[smittims]

I thought this one of the best-sung KIndertotenlieders I've heard: vivid and dramatic. It's not a work I care for and haven't heard it often . Ferrier is the classic for me.