Prom 42: Beethoven 9 'By Heart', Aurora Orch/BBC Singers/National Youth Choir, Collon

[bluestateprommer]

Wednesday 21 August 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

A musical and dramatic exploration of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’, op. 125 (all artists performing from memory)
[Encore: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 - IV. Finale, Poco allegro, stringendo il tempo, sempre più allegro – Presto (final section, musicians dispersed throughout the hall)]

Rhiannon May, actor (Proms debut artist)
Tom Simper, actor and BSL interpreter (Proms debut artist)

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, soprano
Marta Fontanals-Simmons, mezzo-soprano
Brenden Gunnell, tenor
Christopher Purves, baritone

James Bonas, director (Proms debut artist)
Matthew Eberhardt, director (Proms debut artist)
Jane Mitchell, director (Proms debut artist)

Aurora Orchestra
BBC Singers
National Youth Choir

Nicholas Collon, conductor and presenter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej6fbp

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-42/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021y2b

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022g49

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022g0q

[Petrushka]

Can someone kindly explain what additional benefits there are to the orchestra playing from memory?

I really can't think of any but can certainly think of a few pitfalls. There is no benefit from listening on the radio and the scope for it to all fall apart doesn't make for a satisfying evening unless you get a thrill from that kind of thing.

[oliver sudden]

I went to their Beethoven 6 here in Köln a while ago, thinking ‘I’m a bit sceptical but no harm giving it a go’. I must say I felt my openness was rewarded. They didn’t just play the thing from the usual orchestral setup but did a few things which could have been cheap tricks but which for me managed to work. The woodwind wandered to the front of the stage to play their birdsong cadenza near the end of the slow movement. The lighting went out for a while at one point revealing little lights on the strings’ bowing hands moving back and forth. They encored the last chunk of the finale but walked out into the hall to play it, so we were surrounded by orchestra. I know that all looks a bit cutesy written down but I very much enjoyed it, somewhat to my agreeable surprise.

I wonder why it only says the orchestra are performing from memory? Last time I was in a choir for Beethoven 9 we didn’t bother to use our books in the gig. Surely they won’t for this either?

[Simon B]

Can someone kindly explain what additional benefits there are to the orchestra playing from memory?

Of necessity, every single player has to have internalised the thing via study and rehearsal sufficiently to get away with it?

Consider how this contrasts with the reputation British orchestras have for being brilliant sight-readers. This is by necessity as the usual route to financial viability is to put together a programme on minimal rehearsal, even with unfamiliar repertoire.

Or consider what tends to happen when e.g. a concert performance of an opera has soloists who have recently sung the role on stage vs the stand-and-deliver with their heads in a vocal score of those who haven't.

The counterargument would be: What's the difference between playing from memory and just having a lot of rehearsals? It's for professional musicians to comment on whether not having a bit of their brain given over to reading the part (as they likely will if it's in front of them no matter how well they know it) affects their freedom and inhabiting of the music etc.

As far as I can see it's only viable for Aurora to do what they do by learning a work this way and performing it lots of times. Inevitable really as the effort and cost would otherwise be prohibitive. That in itself must make a difference.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Can someone kindly explain what additional benefits there are to the orchestra playing from memory?

I really can't think of any but can certainly think of a few pitfalls. There is no benefit from listening on the radio and the scope for it to all fall apart doesn't make for a satisfying evening unless you get a thrill from that kind of thing.

It’s a gimmick to seek attention.

[Petrushka]

It’s a gimmick to seek attention.

That's my view too, to be honest.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I wonder why it only says the orchestra are performing from memory? Last time I was in a choir for Beethoven 9 we didn’t bother to use our books in the gig. Surely they won’t for this either?

You'd think so, although the choir I most often sing with - though rarely nowadays and certainly not LvB9 as it's a b*****d for low basses - still normally use copies even though this piece is something they do very regularly.

It might be considered blasphemy to suggest that the BBCS may not be keen on performing this piece from memory, so I won't do that...

[Prommer]

I am quite happy for the conductor or the orchestra not to have a score... but not both.

[Darkbloom]

Can someone kindly explain what additional benefits there are to the orchestra playing from memory?

I really can't think of any but can certainly think of a few pitfalls. There is no benefit from listening on the radio and the scope for it to all fall apart doesn't make for a satisfying evening unless you get a thrill from that kind of thing.

I suppose it's what's known as a 'USP' but I can't see the point of it either. I'd like to see a blind tasting where people listen to several performances and have to guess which one was performed from memory, and I'm sure nobody would be able to tell the difference. Of course, classical music has never been immune to gimmickry, with the young Mozart playing the piano with the keyboard covered in a cloth, and the early days of the Proms had all sorts of novelty performances too, but this whole 'from memory' thing makes me yawn.

[smittims]

I can see only a danger of making mistakes unawares. Many years ago on the BBC Light Peogramme Sandy MacPherson often played what he called 'The Trumpet Voluntary' (actually The Prince of Denmark's March) and he always played the two middle sections in the wrong order. He didn't seem to notice that this resulted in an incongruous modulation.

[Barbirollians]

I am looking forward to it . Collon is a very fine conductor IMO heard an outstanding Beethoven 7 he conducted a few years back with the Halle

[Ein Heldenleben]

The over-acting in this recreation of the lead up to the first performance of the Ninth is excruciating,
The producer should be telling them to rein it in as it doesn’t work for the radio audience which is at least 20 times bigger.

[Bert Coules]

I thought it worked perfectly well: it was an aural window into what was happening in the hall, not a made-for-radio production. And no-one was overacting.

[edashtav]

I thought it worked perfectly well: it was an aural window into what was happening in the hall, not a made-for-radio production.

Sorry Living Hero, I"m in Bert's corner: it was tightly scripted and varied in tone from light-hearted to serious. It was on message but didn't talk down to its audience. The.introduction to the recitative opening of the Ode to Joy was beautifully judged. Using the audience as a tonic solfa choir was fun. THE BEST INTRODUCTION TO AN AURORA CONCERT WHICH I HAVE HEARD.

[edashtav]

I'm old enough to know that at my birth nobody in my hometown of Bournmouth had heard all four movements of Beethoven's Choral Symphony in the Concert Hall: its Municipal Choir of 150+ was considered not up to standard for the demands of the Ode to Joy. (Sir Dan Godfrey had often conducted "complete" Beethovrn Symphony cycles but always left the 9th as a torso). Later, wben I was teenager, I attended a full version but its Conductor, the late George Hurst became scared during rehearsals and hired and paid for some professional sopranos from London. The finale almost turned into an Ode agin Scabs.

All that is to introduce my twofold admiration: that an Orchestra can play the whole work from memory and that the National Youth Choir can be trusted with much of the stressful choral burden.

I loved the first movement and the scherzo's explosive games. Both movements were dynamic with great energy and thrust and the trio looked back to the Pastoral's rustic simplicity. (And the timpani thwacks were appropriately weighted unlike those of a visiting expert group.)

The theme and variations benefited from hairpin phrasing. The introductory bars pre-echo Brahms. Later, I thought Brahms must have loved this movement. The coda was delicious and delightful.

The strange Celli and Bass recitative that allows Beethoven almost to construct the Ode's great tune in real time having reviewed highlights from earlier made so much more sense after the pre-performance staged explanation. The woodwind counter melody to the great tune was gorgeous.
The entry of the soliost was stentorian but not without initial hazard.I felt the test of the soli could have benefited from a more relaxed tempo,they sounded more stressed than exultant. The choir's youthful confidence with the high tessitura was magnificent.

The orchestral fugue was brilliant ininhibited as it was by music stands.

A triumph- many thanks to everyone and the highest possible plaudits to conductor, Nicholas Collon

Encore: the Coda played and sung by 700+!
near to chaos but thrilling!