Prom 31: Brahms / Schubert, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Mutter / Barenboim

[bluestateprommer]

Sunday 11 August 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77
[Encore: J. S. Bach: Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 - III. Sarabande]

Interval

Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major (‘Great’), D. 944

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/egfcd4

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-31/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021pr8

(BBC FOUR link to be added later)

[Darkbloom]

I'm in two minds about going to this concert. The security at these events is something else and it really detracts from one's enjoyment. I noticed that they have extra security dotted around the hall since I last went a few years ago, scanning the audience for potential trouble, and in my experience the WED usually come with its own contingent of scary-looking bodyguards too.

[Petrushka]

I'm in two minds about going to this concert. The security at these events is something else and it really detracts from one's enjoyment. I noticed that they have extra security dotted around the hall since I last went a few years ago, scanning the audience for potential trouble, and in my experience the WED usually come with its own contingent of scary-looking bodyguards too.

That aside, I decided to skip attending this Prom in view of Barenboim's precarious health situation and possible risk of cancellation.

Shades of Jansons and Tennstedt in past seasons and ticket prices are just too high now to chance it as I did in those days.

[bluestateprommer]

Can understand both Darkbloom's and Petrushka's points. However, perhaps ironically enough (and this is easy for me on which to pontificate, since I'm obviously not in the UK now), all those reasons would be motivations for me to go for this one. IMVHO, the security would be worth putting up with not only for everyone's safety, but for the sense of occasion. Also because, at the risk of queasy thinking, in terms of opportunities to see Barenboim live in concert, this could be it. I don't doubt that a backup conductor is on stand-by just in case, but I would also hope that Barenboim is saving his resources for this occasion quite carefully.

(There is also the question of who will keep WEDO going in the future, but that's a whole separate issue.)

[richardfinegold]

I can’t remember encountering DB in any Schubert. He was of course Conductor here for a good stretch and the local FM Classical station used to play his recordings with other orchestras frequently. Given his frequent Bruckner recordings that is a bit of a surprise, since most Bruckner owes such a debt to the Schubert.
OTOH, given his health, the thought of him standing in the hall on a hot August night trying to get through this as he indulges his inner Furtwangler is anxiety provoking.
Speaking of anxiety provoking, while the initiative that gave rise to the WED is now needed more than ever, there are just to many crazies in the World that would like to sabotage it. Which I guess might be a reason to attend, to make a statement as an audience member, says rfg from the safety of him home in America Midwest

[smittims]

'Danny', as we used to call him when he used to conduct the Halle and let go of his baton , to fall in the cellos , recorded all the Schubert violin sonatas(or sonatinas) with Isaac Stern and all the Symphonies, his 9th with the Berlin Philharmonic dating from October 1985.

I hope he turns up, as I'd like to compare his mature view of the work with Bernard Haitink's, who gave a Prom performance of Delphic serenity a few years ago. It's odd that this symhony attracts older conductors (Sir Adrian Boult especially) and it's well to remamber that the Composer was in his twenties when he wrote it.

If it's a no-show' who will step in? And will the programme change?

[Petrushka]

If it's a no-show' who will step in? And will the programme change?

Daniel Harding seems to be the substitute of choice these days, but seriously, do hope that Barenboim is well enough to do this Prom.

[Prommer]

Well, today's the day... They have been in Berlin and Bremen with this programme earlier in the week, so fingers crossed!

[pastoralguy]

Looking forward to hearing this on the radio tonight.

[Darkbloom]

From your reporter, live from the scene:

I can report that I've seen WED musicians filing into the RAH. One of them (I think it was DB's son) survived an encounter with a prommer on entering the building and managed to escape with only a minor case of bemusement. As far as I can tell it's on.

I tried to get a proms ticket for the arena but failed, for the first time ever, so I'm stuck up in the gallery. You could always get in if you showed up early enough, now we're stuck with this miserable system. Ugh!

I'm a Barenboim sceptic. I heard him do a very good Mahler 1 with the WED many years ago but I have never understood the acclaim as I've heard too many ho-hum performances. I'm guessing it'll be very broad and magisterial for the Schubert but whether he's healthy enough to hold it all together tonight (and it's going to be hot in there) remains to be seen. I hope we don't get another of those performances when he just tries to emulate a Furtwangler recording, as he did with Tchaikovsky 4 at the Proms.

[Darkbloom]

Daniel Harding seems to be the substitute of choice these days, but seriously, do hope that Barenboim is well enough to do this Prom.

If DB cancels and Harding shows up I'm going home. Does anyone actually like anything he does? I'm sure he's very gifted, technically, but everything is so dry and sterile. He even managed a dull Mahler 2 here a few years ago, which takes some doing.

[LHC]

If DB cancels and Harding shows up I'm going home. Does anyone actually like anything he does? I'm sure he's very gifted, technically, but everything is so dry and sterile. He even managed a dull Mahler 2 here a few years ago, which takes some doing.

The Bruckner 4 he did in 2022 with the BPO (substituting for the indisposed Petrenko) was very good indeed.

Edited to change the year to 2022 instead of last year, was it really two years ago!

[smittims]

Sorry you don't care for Harding, Darkbloom, but many do. An acquaintance of mine is a dedicated fan and thinks very highly of his abilitty I remember an outstanding , very moving, Elgar 2 at the Proms some years ago. He will do an excellent job tonight with these two works if called on.

[Darkbloom]

The last time I saw DB conduct at the Proms with the WED he was barely conducting anyway. He started them off but then frequently stood back with his arms on the rail of his podium and watched.

I'm guessing the people who like Harding probably like Rattle too, but for me I've often felt there's too much emphasis on detail at the expense of the overall picture. I didn't hear either the Elgar or the Bruckner, though, and I'm always open to having my mind changed.

With DB, there's always (at least for me) the sense that he can't get out of his own way when he's conducting. You always hear the mental map in his head of the way he wants the music to go, instead of the music itself.

[edashtav]

Well,we all bring different ideas to the Proms. I'm indifferent betwixt Uncle Joe a.k.a. Daniel Barenboim and fast flyer Daniel Harding but I do care if Anne-Sophie Mutter has the room and support to recreate her thoughtful, Germanic interpretation of the work. Since retirement I've views the world as an HISTORIAN. These thoughts will colour tonight's listening:

"The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's." [J.J.]

Brahms' only violin concerto was corrected by his friend Joseph Joachim. Joachim held exclusive rights over the work and Brahms did not send it to his publisher, Simrock for some time. Brahms was trapped in a 'love' quadrangle: touchy and jealous Joachim was his mentor and friend but Brahms had toured with Joachim's wife, the wonderful singer and prolific child-bearer, Amalie, whom Joachim thought was having an affair with Simrock, Brahms' sole rights publisher. Ever naieve & innocent, Brahms supported Amalie in a letter which she produced in the Divorce proceedings. Ouch! The symphonic violin concerto sustained collateral damage: it was becalmed in a quad. Two great soloists shunned it : the Spanish Sarasate hated having to wait, violin in hand, whilst the oboe stole 'his' tune in the slow movement whereas the Polish wizard, Wieniaski, declared it to be 'unplayable'.

A happy ending was engineered by Brahms's 1887 Double Concerto for two members Joachim's String Quartet. BUT... Joachim held all of the copies of "his" cadenza for the first movement of the V.,C..and only published his 'authorised' version in the 20th century. Will tonight's soloist use it? PROBABLY!