Prom 15: Anna Clyne / Messiaen, BBC Phil / The Swingles, Osborne / Millar / Collon

[bluestateprommer]

Tuesday 30 July 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Anna Clyne: The Gorgeous Nothings (BBC commission, world premiere)
[Encore: 'Bučimiš' (Bulgarian folk song; first performance at The Proms)]

Interval

Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony

The Swingles

Steven Osborne, piano
Cynthia Millar, ondes Martenot

BBC Philharmonic
Nicholas Collon, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eb39hn

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-15/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021bvl

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021l5d

[Pulcinella]

The BBC website (tonight's schedule) seems to have invented a new instrument:

Cynthia Millar (ondes Martinot)

Furthermore,

Nicholas Collon and the BBC Philharmonic are joined by pianist Steven Osborne and ondes Martinot virtuoso Cynthia Millar to perform a work that opens up the heavens even as it brings down the house.....

You have been warned!

[edashtav]

I warm to Anna Clyne as she is like wire with antennae that keep her abreast of devopments across the Arts. I'm expecting the sounds of the orchestra and Swingle Singers to be manipulated in real time by a machine which Anna co-created with assistance from a sound engineer.

Anna is British born but is a citizen of the world having a home in New York. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by The Swingles for 'The Gorgeous Nothings', written specially for the tonight's Proms. It uses Emily Dickinson's vestigial, back of the envelope poems, most as brief as Japanese Haikai.

I'm an admirer of Nicholas Collon's conducting, particularly when guiding his forces through a new score.
Emily sets the scene and the music has an archaic,melodic air which soon mutates to a real 21zt c. rich in synthetic effects which grow out of the existing material in a poignant fashion. The succeeding movement opens with turbulent orchestral sounds and the Swingles are elasticly distorted. Percussion dominate the 3rd piece. Woodwind create thenext envelope. By now we realise that the work is nearly a Swingles' concerto.
The electronic effects are integral to the work's success and not mere glittering effects.
The Gorgeous Nothings are catchy and immediately appealing. Hair-shirted aficionados of yesterday's Avant-garde BEWARE!

No doubt the piece will be taken across the music world on the voices of the Swingles.
Gosh, it ended on a conchord!

The encore was a Bulgarian folksong.Delightful.

[bluestateprommer]

AC's new work sounds very meditative in spirit, which makes a nice contrast to the Messiaen after the interval. I put in a program note from AC located at the Boosey & Hawkes page in the parent post.

The much more outgoing encore from The Swingles, the Bulgarian folk song 'Bučimiš' (also archived above), however, had the perhaps unintended effect of momentarily upstaging AC's premiere, or at the very least providing quite the shock contrast.

[edashtav]

AC's new work sounds very meditative in spirit, which makes a nice contrast to the Messiaen after the interval. I put in a program note from AC located at the Boosey & Hawkes page in the parent post.

The much more outgoing encore from The Swingles, the Bulgarian folk song 'Bučimiš' (also archived above), however, had the perhaps unintended effect of momentarily upstaging AC's premiere, or at the very least providing quite the shock contrast.

Your point re 'very meditative was appropriate, bsp.

Most of the audience were there for the Messaien!

[edashtav]

There was much to enjoy in this evening's performance of Messaien's Turangalila Symphony: the two soloists being exceptional.
Nicholas Collon's interpretation was very ondividual: he drove fast movements with jagged rhythms and fierce attacks. The debt that Olivier undoubtedly owed to Igor was emphasised. Slow movements were luxurious but never descended into saccharine sentimentality.

I've heard better performances at the Proms, notably one with Andrew Davies at the helm.

[Pulcinella]

I thought the Messiaen quite wooden/leaden in places, especially at the start: not much joy.

As for the Clyne: well, it's made me want to dig out Copland's 8 or 12 settings again as I'm sure he did better!
Am I right in remembering having read that Emily Dickinson is (one of?) the most set poets?

[HighlandDougie]

I can understand why the Swingles were keen to show off further their vocal chops but the encore jarred a bit after the serenities of the Anna Clyne. Odd and IMUV insensitive choice. The thought of 'Turangalila' was too much so it will have to wait for another day.

[DracoM]

'jarred a bit'..........crikey...........bit more than a bit, IMO.

[kernelbogey]

I can understand why the Swingles were keen to show off further their vocal chops but the encore jarred a bit after the serenities of the Anna Clyne. Odd and IMUV insensitive choice...

They should not have been indulged in this. Out of proportion to the Anna Clyne.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Watched this on BBC Four this evening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 100 people concentrate so much .
The conductor was very matter of fact - very little emoting at all. It did strike me that the dIvision of labour amongst the array of keyboard players front of stage was a tad unfair with (the peerless) Stephen Osborne tackling a highly virtuosic piano part while others had the odd note here and there.

[Petrushka]

When I first got to know Turangalila around 45 years ago, it had a fearsome reputation as a very difficult piece to play and performances were consequently few and far between. I recall a TV programme in which Andre Previn said how almost impossible it was to conduct. There were disparaging comments made by critics about it filling a hall with noise but not an audience.

Nowadays it seems almost standard rep, a usual sell-out, and it was good to see the younger members of the BBC PO, on TV tonight give such a good account of themselves.

The first time I heard Turangalila live was in Manchester in 1978 and, interestingly, played by a previous generation of this orchestra, then the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. Messiaen was in attendance and Yvonne Loriod played the piano part.

[smittims]

I think it's just that peoplel have become familiar with it, and younger orchestral players have emerged for whom the idiom is no longer strange. A similar change has affected Tippett's music

[oliver sudden]

I saw a performance in Sydney when I lived there (oh gosh, a quarter of a century ago now) in which there was a little exodus after every movement.

Yes, even the ninth. You’d think that having survived that long they would have stuck it out till the finish…

The last two performances I’ve seen have been youth ensembles. The Venezuelans in Köln, and a university orchestra in Montreal.

I missed the 1988 performance with Messiaen present in my home town of Melbourne because I was playing in the school musical that evening

[Braunschlag]

When I first got to know Turangalila around 45 years ago, it had a fearsome reputation as a very difficult piece to play and performances were consequently few and far between. I recall a TV programme in which Andre Previn said how almost impossible it was to conduct. There were disparaging comments made by critics about it filling a hall with noise but not an audience.

Nowadays it seems almost standard rep, a usual sell-out, and it was good to see the younger members of the BBC PO, on TV tonight give such a good account of themselves.

The first time I heard Turangalila live was in Manchester in 1978 and, interestingly, played by a previous generation of this orchestra, then the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. Messiaen was in attendance and Yvonne Loriod played the piano part.

Same here Petrushka! First half was some choral music sung by the BBC Northern Singers conducted by Stephen Wilkinson. The Turangalila was conducted by Gilbert Amy with Tristan Murail on Ondes, Loriod on piano and the orchestra had one Peter Donohoe as a member of the percussion artillery. I do remember Messiaen being called to the stage after the performance, Free Trade Hall.