Originally posted by gradus
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Prom 4: MacMillan/Mahler, Hallé/Hallé Choir & Youth Choir & Children’s Choir, Elder
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That opening trumpet call is one of the most arresting openings to a work: I always think of it as announcing the Twentieth Century, with all that that implies. Yet it's actually a quotiation from Mendelssohn: no, not the Wedding March (!), but the Song Without Words in E minor, op. 62 no.3.
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Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post
It seemed very carefully prepared this performance - so many subtleties in the orchestral textures . The Hallé have set a standard in this major symphonic work that the rest of the season might well not surpass and there are some illustrious names coming up. It wasn’t about orchestral sheen or superficial virtuosity but something a lot deeper than that - esp the strings.
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Originally posted by cloughie View Post
Very well described Held. Also I felt that the Adagietto was spot on - neither rushed nor too slow.
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Originally posted by smittims View PostThat opening trumpet call is one of the most arresting openings to a work: I always think of it as announcing the Twentieth Century, with all that that implies. Yet it's actually a quotiation from Mendelssohn: no, not the Wedding March (!), but the Song Without Words in E minor, op. 62 no.3.
just looked up the Mendelssohn and it’s subtitled Trauermarsch which fits the death feel. Have to say apart from the opening triplets (4 notes) I don’t see a parallel quote.
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Originally posted by smittims View PostThat opening trumpet call is one of the most arresting openings to a work: I always think of it as announcing the Twentieth Century, with all that that implies. Yet it's actually a quotiation from Mendelssohn: no, not the Wedding March (!), but the Song Without Words in E minor, op. 62 no.3."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink
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I was at the concert, but watching the MacMillan just now on the iPlayer was a revelation. I thought it was well produced - and they didn't have the usual large array of cameras in the hall. I am going deaf and starting to use hearing aids - the iPlayer subtitles were helpful.
May try the Mahler later - the concert was actually packed out - but generally the audience was concentrating and well-behaved, unlike this concert in Sweden https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...attack-ensued/
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Originally posted by Brixton Dave View PostI was at the concert, but watching the MacMillan just now on the iPlayer was a revelation. I thought it was well produced - and they didn't have the usual large array of cameras in the hall. I am going deaf and starting to use hearing aids - the iPlayer subtitles were helpful.
May try the Mahler later - the concert was actually packed out - but generally the audience was concentrating and well-behaved, unlike this concert in Sweden https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...attack-ensued/
As has been remarked in other posts the scale of the work may prove an issue for those wanting to perform it in future, but even in these benighted times there are places where there is still a combination of orchestral and choral forces that could be mustered to provide a really good community performance(in the sense of working together, not a tickbox Arts Council grant funded "experience"). Birmingham was my first thought, but even in my rural backwater, the nearby city has good orchestral and choral resources(of all ages) if the wish to perform it was sufficient to sort out the logistics.
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Originally posted by Master Jacques View PostListening to this highly respectable but oddly uneventful Mahler 5th this afternoon, I find myself wishing that The Elder was giving us a corking Rubbra 5th instead. Much more his thing. And it seems to my jaundiced mind that there's more music in it - at about half the length!
But - I'm not with you on the Mahler: it's on another level, for me, so much richness and inventiveness, bar by bar. And Elder and his players brought this out.
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Originally posted by silvestrione View Post
Ah, if only someone like Mark Elder would restore the Rubbra to the repertoire!
But - I'm not with you on the Mahler: it's on another level, for me, so much richness and inventiveness, bar by bar. And Elder and his players brought this out.
As for the Mahler ... I apologise for breaking my general rule, of trying to shut up about music which I don't particularly like. In this case my feeling is something (but not everything) to do with the fact that so many other supreme symphonists don't get a hearing, squeezed out by the Proms' annual Mahler-fest - but that's the 'jaundiced' thought I acknowledged, so I'll keep quiet now!
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Originally posted by burning dog View PostI have just listened to the Mahler and think it was superb.
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I chose to watch & listen to the tv Mahler in chunks - just finished - and agree with those who've praised the performance: especially the Laendler and the finale. I don't have comparisons at my fingertips, but I loved it. What musicians! I get what EH has said about preparation.
Btw I have never seen clarinets and oboe held aloft (like horns) before.
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