Prom 33: Elgar / Holst / Stanford / Vaughan Williams, BBC SO, Maltman / Brabbins

[edashtav]

It’s about 45 mins for the revision and 1’ 05 mins for the original . I don’t think interns get to do things like programme timings - even estimated ones - it’s far too responsible a job not least because of the overtime implications of getting it wrong. They might be entrusted with things like bar counting in a TV OB , escorting guests etc - responsible work in itself.

I bow to your greater knowledge of the inner workings of the BBC EH!

[LMcD]

For me, having Simon Heffer discussing tonight's composers in the interval is a definite bonus.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I bow to your greater knowledge of the inner workings of the BBC EH!

I wouldn’t - they’re probably well out of date ! On the other hand I was more recently involved in delineating how work experience people were managed . There are no long term unpaid internships in the BBC . The max length of time was two weeks and there were very strict limits on what WE people could be asked to do. Of course in the independent sector it’s a different matter.

Good concert this - excellent to mix the unfamiliar with the well known. I had no idea , till Simon Heffer mentioned it , that Stanford was such a disagreeable individual - that doesn’t emerge from his rather genial music.

[Ein Heldenleben]

For me, having Simon Heffer discussing tonight's composers in the interval is a definite bonus.

Yes indeed - a wealth of knowledge and historical context. Not much he doesn’t know about late Victorian/ Edwardian England.,

[bluestateprommer]

Mystery of the timing solved: Penny Gore just mentioned that the RVW is the 1920 version of A London Symphony. This will be a treat. Great also that Penny Gore is the presenter today.

[edashtav]

I'm going to quote response to each of the movements of RVW's London Symphony that ere published in the British Press during the week after the work's first performance under Geoffrey [haunted] Toye:

" Pride of place must certainly be “London Symphony.” It lasts about 56 minutes, and in form follows the classical lines. The first movement opens with a quiet passage across which sound the first two quarters of the Westminster Chimes. Then we are plunged into the the noise and turmoil of crowded streets, local colour being added to by the use of rhythms suggestive of popular music of to-day. The movement is intenselv alive —so much so that one has too little time on first hearing to appreciate the abundant artistic resources employed.,"

[Ein Heldenleben]

Mystery of the timing solved: Penny Gore just mentioned that the RVW is the 1920 version of A London Symphony. This will be a treat. Great also that Penny Gore is the presenter today.

So it should be neither 57 ‘nor 45 but about 51’ (of music)

Not sure I’ve heard this version before

[edashtav]

second movement (2x 1914 reviews)

"The second movement is throughout contemplative. Perhaps some quiet street near the Temple, or sunset over Battersea Park pool, were responsible for the original creative impulse. After some beautiful atmospheric writing, phrases resembling the street cries of lavender sellers and others emerge for time from the background, only to fade away again as insensibly as they appeared."
Or...
The solemn elegiac, almost grief-stricken, slow movement (No.2), is perhaps the most striking of all. One would like to know its underlying idea. Was it inspired by the view from a back attic in Bloomsbury on a wet winter day?
Or a raw foggy morning in January?
Or a crowded "strap-hangers' "carriage on the Underground?
It surely must have been one of the minor miseries of London which at times loom so large in our life."

[edashtav]

Now for a short overview from 1914:

Mr. F. B. Ellis brought forward two new works at the Queen’s Hall last night, the most important of these being Dr. Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony.” For nearly an hour the composer led us in fancy through many scenes of London life none of them, however, of a highly exciting character.
The Globe 28.03.1914

[edashtav]

A view of the 3rd Movement from 1914:
With the third movement we are "up West." You can almost bear the taxis rushing about, a brilliant whirl of life around the restaurants and theatres. But here again one feels the composer is looking upon it from without, not really joining in it all, and describing it from the inside. Nevertheless the music is very delightful and charming. Thecmovement has a breadth and dignity and some majestic phrase. relieved by some unmistakable " rag-time" all of which may stand for the two sides of London, its serious business and its fashionable world.

[edashtav]

RVW Finale to Send Symphony
First Impressions from 1914

This melancholy becomes still more evident in the finale, which, founded on solemn march tune, is far more introspective than the other movements, and brings the work to close on note of sad dissatisfaction, though it contains portions vigorously suggestive of conflict. Dr. Vaughan Williams’s harmonic system owes a great deal to the medieval modes and to certain other technical devices current, especially in France to-day—consecutive and bare fifths and fourths, for instance.

The orchestral colouring is always beautifully apt and well-balanced, though, compared with that Balakirew and Ravel (to take two examples readily available [their works accompanied the RVW in the reviewed concert] sounded rather sombre and austere.

[gedsmk]

That was a truly great prom, capped by a fantastic performance of VW London Symphony. Full marks to all the performers. For me this was the highlight of the season. That string sound!

[edashtav]

To sum my feelings of this Prom performance: I thought it was epic and enlightening. The relationship between , especially, the pening and final movements was brought out in a meaningful and moving manner. The balance between bucolic and solemn was wonderfully portrayed.

I suddenly felt a kinship between the solemn march in the finale and Elgar's funeral march in Memoriam to King Edward and his era.

This was no flat picture 'multiiview' postcard of early 20th century London Town but a 3D view of a world that was about to be extinguished by a World War.

Hats off to the birthday boy Brabbins, the wonderful BBC SO and the great visionary British composer: Ralph Vaughan Wllliams.

Tonight's extended version was from the work's 1920 revision. It was nearly an hour in length! Well predicted, BBC Music Staff!

[edashtav]

Not so much Sibelian as Webernian!

I apologise for not spotting your careful correction. I am a very poor proof-reader.

[LMcD]

To sum my feelings of this Prom performance: I thought it was epic and enlightening. The relationship between , especially, the pening and final movements was brought out in a meaningful and moving manner. The balance between bucolic and solemn was wonderfully portrayed.

I suddenly felt a kinship between the solemn march in the finale and Elgar's funeral march in Memoriam to King Edward and his era.

This was no flat picture 'multiiview' postcard of early 20th century London Town but a 3D view of a world that was about to be extinguished by a World War.

Hats off to the birthday boy Brabbins, the wonderful BBC SO and the great visionary British composer: Ralph Vaughan Wllliams.

Tonight's extended version was from the work's 1920 revision. It was nearly an hour in length! Well predicted, BBC Music Staff!