Prom 21: 'All-American Prom', Sinfonia of London, Osborne / J. Wilson

[LMcD]

The hype on this concert continues with Georgia Mann on Essential Classics today describing it as “life-changing” - that’s just ridiculous hyperbole. The birth of a child or death of a parent can be described thus but the concert , though good wasn’t as good as several other proms including the LPO’s last night.

Presenters on R3 need to calm down a bit - they’re getting worse than those doing the Olympics and that’s saying something.

The same goes for those presenting televised concerts. Apparently I'll never hear Barber's Adagio played better.

[burning dog]

I could live a happy life never hearing Rhapsody in Blue again. Same for the Barber Adagio.. His violin concerto played by, for example, Hiliary Hahn is a different matter.

Wynton Marsalis -
I'd rather hear him in person playing Haydn, Hummel or Handel.
OR small group post-bop when he still played that sort of thing

[Lordgeous]

[QUOTE=
Presenters on R3 need to calm down a bit - they’re getting worse than those doing the Olympics and that’s saying something.[/QUOTE]

AND why do they not allow at least a few seconds of applause before barging in and ruining it?! No doubt the producer/director has control of that. Fingers crossed for the War Requiem!

[Ein Heldenleben]

AND why do they not allow at least a few seconds of applause before barging in and ruining it?! No doubt the producer/director has control of that. Fingers crossed for the War Requiem!

I think the presenters give the cue . In fact I seem remember that they used to actually work the controls via a small sub mixing desk.with mic fader and main output on it . As they’re in the comm box in the stalls they can’t be seen doing the traditional fade down the applause / arm wave from the far away main control room. Or maybe they have CCTV these days.
I think it has to be the presenters call really . Apart from anything else they need time to prepare the now standard full on gush mode. It’s all a long way from the days I got mildly ticked off for only leaving a two second pause between the presenter and the disc on Matinee Musicale (or Homeward Bound ?)

[Lordgeous]

I think the presenters give the cue . In fact I seem remember that they used to actually work the controls via a small sub mixing desk.with mic fader and main output on it . As they’re in the comm box in the stalls they can’t be seen doing the traditional fade down the applause / arm wave from the far away main control room. Or maybe they have CCTV these days.
I think it has to be the presenters call really . Apart from anything else they need time to prepare the now standard full on gush mode. It’s all a long way from the days I got mildly ticked off for only leaving a two second pause between the presenter and the disc on Matinee Musicale (or Homeward Bound ?)

Interesting. Thanks for that. Of course, silence has never been golden at Aunties!

[Nick Armstrong]

The clarinet opening of Rhapsody in Blue - very virtuosic and highly coloured and jazz inflected (maybe to the point of parody - the great jazz clarinet players were more restrained ) ….

I have to say I loved that intro, having tuned into the radio broadcast just at the end of the Copland… so much so that I hastened to set the TV broadcast to record. The principal clarinettist’s neighbour seemed to love it too - nice to see a grin break out on his face when his mate unleashed that outrageous (& perfectly executed) gliss up to the highest note near the end of the solo

(It was interesting to note from the TV that the unfortunate squawk a few moments later was from a different clarinettist )

Not a piece I’d necessarily seek out any more but certainly this performance was excellent enough to keep me listening. (Big fan of the prominent banjo strumming too, btw )

[Ein Heldenleben]

I have to say I loved that intro, having tuned into the radio broadcast just at the end of the Copland… so much so that I hastened to set the TV broadcast to record. The principal clarinettist’s neighbour seemed to love it too - nice to see a grin break out on his face when his mate unleashed that outrageous (& perfectly executed) gliss up to the highest note near the end of the solo

(It was interesting to note from the TV that the unfortunate squawk a few moments later was from a different clarinettist )

Not a piece I’d necessarily seek out any more but certainly this performance was excellent enough to keep me listening. (Big fan of the prominent banjo strumming too, btw )

Yes I liked it as well and heavily influenced by the original player.

Your liking for banjos was not shared by Eric Morecambe in his celebrated order to Andy Preview in their perf of the Grieg Piano Concerto.
”in the second movement , not too much of the banjos , I don’t like that oom shanger , shanger .”

[Nick Armstrong]

Your liking for banjos was not shared by Eric Morecambe in his celebrated order to Andy Preview in their perf of the Grieg Piano Concerto.
”in the second movement , not too much of the banjos , I don’t like that oom shanger , shanger .”

“RUGGISH” !

[Pulcinella]

[/B]

The same goes for those presenting televised concerts. Apparently I'll never hear Barber's Adagio played better.

My partner's reaction: Oh dear.

[Paulie55]

I wish those people who should know better STOP commissioning works by Wynton Marsalis. A gifted performer and jazz musician for sure but as a composer, nothing special. I absolutely hated the Violin Concerto he composed for Nicola Benedetti....what a mess, with far too many blaring blues chords. The same was heard in this fanfare and shouldn't fanfares be rather more upbeat with a stirring conclusion. No time to be clever when creating a short, occasional piece.

HERALD, HOLLER AND HALELUJAH
The Herald is a fanfare which starts reflectively but becomes rhythmic, jazzy and insistent as HOLLER swings in only to be supplanted by a three note swagger HALELUJAH which surprised
me as every time I've sung the word it had four syllables. A harmless, very American curtain-raiser by the prolific Wynton Marshal's.
Aaron Copland's Billy the Kid soon typified American Cowboy music: swung, rhythmic, bold tunes seemingly played in an in the open air in the middle of a Prairie. Aaron is never glutinous: any superfluous notes having been 'rubbed out' by his eraser. I loved John Wilson's ability to create a picture, in one section before the shootin' I could sense a cool guy lolloping along on his horse, animal and rider at peace but... ever ready for action. How many composers learned how to write for a 'Western' by listening to Copland?
A time there was when Britisg Orchestras and their conductors could not loosen sufficiently to sound truly Amercan. John Wilson has ensured that you can't put a fag paper between the sound of 'his' band and say the Dallas Symphony orchestra which introduced me to Billy the Kid.

I once sang 2nd bass in a Choral arrangement of Barber's Adagio which was the set piece for Mixed Choirs at Tommy Armstrong's Bedford Festival. Sir Thomas loved our long, expressive lines and great intonation. We won: it had taken a lot of preparation. I was surprised how well John Wilson kept sentimentality at bay.
Rhapsody in Blue has,perhaps, the most 'iconic' opening flourish in all American music. JW' clarinet milked his monent but ensured that he his cream stayed at the top of his glissando. Steven Osborne entered like sparkling star.Tight and swung described the Orchestra's mood. Steven Osborne was delightfully free and idiosyncratic which kept everyone on their toes.
The performance kept me 'in the moment' and only once did fret over form. Sunday Night at the Palladium was never this good, was it?

Encore"Things Ain't What They Used to Be" by the Duke.

[Oddball]

I wish those people who should know better STOP commissioning works by Wynton Marsalis. A gifted performer and jazz musician for sure but as a composer, nothing special. I absolutely hated the Violin Concerto he composed for Nicola Benedetti....what a mess, with far too many blaring blues chords. The same was heard in this fanfare and shouldn't fanfares be rather more upbeat with a stirring conclusion. No time to be clever when creating a short, occasional piece.

The BBC has “targets” (quotas) to fulfil. A percentage of new commissions MUST be by composers who are what they call “ethnically diverse”.
Similar “targets” apply to conductors, performers and presenters.

[Barbirollians]

So far

Marsalis - pretty lightweight forgettable piece
Billy The Kid - I rather enjoyed this albeit it was Billy the Kid on the prairie rather than at the hoe down
Barber - Adagio for Strings - brilliantly played - emotionally dead bring on Lenny

[Barbirollians]

This is an Emperor's New Clothes concert . What a terrible Rhapsody in Blue - a parody clarinet glissando to start and then musically garbled and rushed throughout . Splendidly virtuosic no doubt but not at the service of the music - just compare Gershwin's piano roll account with MTT or Bernstein again or Previn and the LSO - there the blues is innate not laid on with a trowel.

[Barbirollians]

This is a concert I would much rather had been conducted by Marin Alsop but I thought the second half was better . Harmonielehre is made for an ensemble like S of L .

[esmondo]

I happened to catch Harmonielehre on the telly and was riveted by it, as were my house guests who are most definitely *not* classical music fans. Oddly, I caught the same performance another day on R3 and wasn't impressed, as I wasn't the first time I heard it years ago. Funny that.

I also thought Steven Hough's bluesy encore a highlight of the show.

The Barber though - just too fast for my liking, with not enough "espressivo cantando" as is marked in my copy.