Prom 36: Bonis/Mozart/Mendelssohn, BBC SSO/NYCOS Ch. Choir, McGill/Akande/Black/New

[bluestateprommer]

Friday 16 August 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Mel Bonis: Salomé (first performance at The Proms)
W. A. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
[Encore: "Amazing Grace" (arr. Jasmine Barnes)]

Interval

Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Incidental Music (interspersed with readings from the Shakespeare play)

Anthony McGill, clarinet (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Moy Akande, actor (Proms debut artist)
Ewan Black, actor (Proms debut artist)

NYCOS (National Youth Choir of Scotland) Chamber Choir

Soloists from NYCOS:
Emily Kemp, soprano solo (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Beth Sterling, mezzo-soprano solo (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Natalie Rengger, spoken role (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Sarah Greer, spoken role (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Emily Henderson, spoken role (Proms debut artist as soloist)
Florence Gill, spoken role (Proms debut artist as soloist)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Gemma New, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e2r5q9

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-36/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021q1q

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00226nh

[edashtav]

Mel Bonis Salomê op 100
One of several idiosyncratic aural portraits of famous women, this is a colourful miniature.

MOZART Clarinet Concerto
Soloist Andrew McGill of the Met. and now clarinet#1 ,of the NYPO.
Mozart's Concerto was the first great Concrrto for the instrument. Arguably, it remains supreme in its genre.
Andrew McGill has a formidable technique: agile and smooth from top to bottom of t clarinet's range , great ability to float and shape a pp line plus a striking individual personality. Nothing's routine and the music grows organically. The BBC SSO under Gemma New were sympathetic partners: supporters rather self-seeking divas. A wonderful opening movement drew a firm ripple of delighted applause.

The slow moment is Mozart at his most sensitive, a jewel of grace and beauty, the very stuff of Radio 3 in 2024. Andrew drew a spellbinding delicate line. Oh, to have been in the RAH for such an occasion!

The finale was brilliant fun.
Don't miss this prodigious performance on BBC Sounds.
The encore was Amazin' Grace arranged for solo clarinet by Jasmine Barnes.

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine start to this Prom with Mel Bonis' Salomé, where it's a rare thing to say that an orchestral work is too short. Bonis' work is very engaging and inventive, and could easily have stood a few more minutes of material as a tone poem. It would be good for more US orchestras to take it up as a concert opener (such as at a 2022 Detroit Symphony concert). We shall see.

The outer movements of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto struck me as rather glib, for lack of a better word. Anthony McGill certainly had everything in place, and Gemma New and the BBC SSO were with him all the way. No glibness in the slow movement, to be fair. However, AM's encore (well done) may explain the fast pace of the Mozart, i.e. he wanted to work it in to the concert one way or the other.

[Pulcinella]

Mel Bonis Salomê op 100
One of several idiosyncratic aural portraits of famous women, this is a colourful miniature.

MOZART Clarinet Concerto
Soloist Andrew McGill of the Met. and now clarinet#1 ,of the NYPO.
Mozart's Concerto was the first great Concrrto for the instrument. Arguably, it remains supreme in its genre.
Andrew McGill has a formidable technique: agile and smooth from top to bottom of t clarinet's range , great ability to float and shape a pp line plus a striking individual personality. Nothing's routine and the music grows organically. The BBC SSO under Gemma New were sympathetic partners: supporters rather self-seeking divas. A wonderful opening movement drew a firm ripple of delighted applause.

The slow moment is Mozart at his most sensitive, a jewel of grace and beauty, the very stuff of Radio 3 in 2024. Andrew drew a spellbinding delicate line. Oh, to have been in the RAH for such an occasion!

The finale was brilliant fun.
Don't miss this prodigious performance on BBC Sounds.
The encore was Amazin' Grace arranged for solo clarinet by Jasmine Barnes.

Ridiculously fast, we thought here, simply showing the soloist's skill at the expense of any musicality.

[kernelbogey]

Why does anyone at the BBC think that having Kate and Norris talking over interval noise a good idea?

[Pulcinella]

Why does anyone at the BBC think that having Kate and Norris talking over interval noise a good idea?

Switched off, but intrigued to learn what they find to discuss.

c.8.05
INTERVAL: British pianist and composer David Owen Norris joins Kate Molleson to discuss Mendelssohn’s early encounter with Shakespeare’s prose and the ensuing creative journey which resulted in his incidental music to one of the bard’s best-known stories.

Shakespeare's prose?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Switched off, but intrigued to learn what they find to discuss.

c.8.05
INTERVAL: British pianist and composer David Owen Norris joins Kate Molleson to discuss Mendelssohn’s early encounter with Shakespeare’s prose and the ensuing creative journey which resulted in his incidental music to one of the bard’s best-known stories.

Shakespeare's prose?

Oh dear . Well that’s what happens when no one studies Eng. Lit any more . The world’s greatest dramatist , arguably the world’s greatest poet , and the national broadcaster can’t even get a basic fact about him right.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Ridiculously fast, we thought here, simply showing the soloist's skill at the expense of any musicality.

Yes that final movement was presto and his technique wasn’t up to it was it ?

[vinteuil]

Mendelssohn’s early encounter with Shakespeare’s prose and the ensuing creative journey which resulted in his incidental music to one of the bard’s best-known stories.

Shakespeare's prose?

... perhaps his 'early encounter' was with a German - prose - translation

[bluestateprommer]

The second half of this Prom went very well, IMVHO. I wasn't sure how much of the incidental music would be included, but it sounded like a pretty substantial amount, where obviously the Overture and all the greatest hits (Scherzo, Nocturne, Wedding March) had to figure in. One instance of wondering in particular was "You spotted snakes", since no solo vocalists were named in advance. It occurred to me that some young ladies from NYCOS might step out from the choir to sing the solos, which was indeed what happened. Likewise, when additional spoken voices materialized along with the two named actors, the same guess was folks from NYCOS. I've added their names in the opening thread post, to give credit where well-earned credit is due. A very few tiny bobbles from the orchestra (e.g. the French horns, which is par for the course as usual in any orchestral concert), but the BBC SSO were on very fine form, a total programming contrast with last night's concert.

[kernelbogey]

...A very few tiny bobbles from the orchestra....

I read this - it's early! - as Bobbies; and imagined the uniformed branch of the percussion session apprehending Bottom and his Rude Mechanicals for disorderly conduct....

[Pulcinella]

... perhaps his 'early encounter' was with a German - prose - translation

I did wonder that!

[kernelbogey]

Norris mentioned Schlegel's translation:
Schlegel's translation of William Shakespeare, begun in Jena, was ultimately completed, under the superintendence of Ludwig Tieck, Dorothea Tieck, and Wolf Heinrich Graf von Baudissin. This rendering is considered one of the best poetical translations in German.^[3] (Wikipedia)
But he also mentioned that Mendelssohn could speak six languages; I imagine he had read WS in English.

[jonfan]

The second half of this Prom went very well, IMVHO. I wasn't sure how much of the incidental music would be included, but it sounded like a pretty substantial amount, where obviously the Overture and all the greatest hits (Scherzo, Nocturne, Wedding March) had to figure in. One instance of wondering in particular was "You spotted snakes", since no solo vocalists were named in advance. It occurred to me that some young ladies from NYCOS might step out from the choir to sing the solos, which was indeed what happened. Likewise, when additional spoken voices materialized along with the two named actors, the same guess was folks from NYCOS. I've added their names in the opening thread post, to give credit where well-earned credit is due. A very few tiny bobbles from the orchestra (e.g. the French horns, which is par for the course as usual in any orchestral concert), but the BBC SSO were on very fine form, a total programming contrast with last night's concert.

Many thanks for the names of the performers. The whole a sheer fantastical experience as I’m sure Mendelssohn intended. A lovely sound from the young singers, plus great playing from the orchestra.

[rauschwerk]

Ridiculously fast, we thought here, simply showing the soloist's skill at the expense of any musicality.

Agreed, and I found his constant movements distracting. Oh, and (pace Gareth Malone) this was played on an A clarinet, not a basset clarinet.