Prom 43: Ravel / W.A. Mozart / Augusta Holmès / Mussorgsky, CBSO, P. Lewis / Yamada

[bluestateprommer]

Thursday 22 August 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Ravel: Mother Goose (Ma Mère l'Oye) – Suite
W. A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595

Interval

Augusta Holmès: Ludus pro patria – ‘La nuit et l’amour’ (first performance at The Proms)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Sir Henry Wood)

Paul Lewis, piano
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Kazuki Yamada, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ep8mzc

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-43/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021y2y

[bluestateprommer]

Fine start to this Prom, where perhaps Kazuki Yamada stretched a passage of "Le jardin féerique" out a bit, but no harm done. Of course, it seems to me that with this music, perhaps even more than most, it's very necessary (a) not to overdo it and (b) to let it blossom, given the very lush nature of Ma mère l'Oye.

The Mozart just finished, with the audience trying to get an encore out of Paul Lewis, who was obviously having none of that ;) . PL's reading of Mozart 27 was generally what I've come to expect of Paul Lewis, namely very self-effacing and without fuss. From the little that I've heard of Yamada-san via R3, I've gotten the sense that he's really at home with big, splashy works like Carmina Burana from last year's Proms. He got a chance to show his more restrained side here.

Fun interval discussion between the National Gallery's Christine Riding and Ian Skelly. Interesting also to hear that this Prom was her first live experiences of the Ravel and Mozart, if I heard it correctly.

[edashtav]

A very restrained first half with Ravel painting Japanese influenced watercolours with unusual harmonies. Yamada conducted with care and precision.

Paul Lewis played Mozart's final piano concerto with a delicate, fastidious touch and the Birmingham orchestra responded in kind. The result was beautiful Mozart almost the antithesis of Ensemble Resonanz's approach a couple of nights ago. I was surprised that Paul Lewis denied the audience an encore.

[parkepr]

Lovely first half and looking forward to the second half with off stage bells

[Pulcinella]

I think that if I hear Skellers say 'live' once more I'll be throwing something at the speakers.
Conducted live at the Proms?

Ye Gods: please spare us.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Shiver me timbers !
Didn’t clock this was the HW arrangement until the first bar .

Great stuff..

[Ein Heldenleben]

I liked the performance ..

…but I didn’t like the bells or the shouting.

[parkepr]

Very interesting to hear... In the hall, the bells were very loud and they'd closed off the gallery in that section due to risk of deafness!!

At the end of The Great Gate, with the bells and organ going at full pelt, you could barely hear the orchestra!!
Amazing though....

[oddoneout]

Paul Lewis played Mozart's final piano concerto with a delicate, fastidious touch and the Birmingham orchestra responded in kind. The result was beautiful Mozart almost the antithesis of Ensemble Resonanz's approach a couple of nights ago. I was surprised that Paul Lewis denied the audience an encore.

It was just what I needed after a trying day - balm to the soul - and I'm so glad I managed to catch it. I agree about "delicate, fastidious", but to me there was also a sense of ease about the performance, that all the performers were on the same wavelength and in the service of the music rather than themselves.
I switched off at the end, not wanting to break the mood, so the lack of an encore wasn't an issue, but I can understand that the audience might have wanted more.

[Simon B]

Timber's orchestrations are generally so far over the top they wrap back round again for another crack at it. Nowhere is this more true than his version of Pictures.

Parts are very much of the "If in doubt play louder" and indeed "If in doubt, add more percussion" genre. It is frequently a demonstration of what a big noise a "modern" symphony orchestra can make and is ultimately tasteless to the point of open mouthed disbelief. As such I absolutely love it .

I've waited many years to hear a real "chuck the kitchen sink in, or indeed over the gallery balustrade" performance, and only the Albert Hall will do as only it has an organ that can thunder through all the other racket that's ultimately going on. The BBCNOW did it some years ago in a Prom performance that was bordering on the genteel so that was no good. The CBSO did it in Birmingham a few months ago and that was also a bit polite compared with what we got this evening.

Yes, Yamada-san overdid it personally by (presumably) assuming he couldn't be heard over the din joining in vocally and I don't approve of his encouraging applause during the last chord as that was the wrong sort of tasteless and could be heard clearly despite the organ at full blast.

I don't have a programme to look, but presumably that was the legendary Graham Johns up in the gallery with his Forever Bells on an away day from Liverpool. Even I started to find them a bit relentless at such enormous volume after most of the Great Gate.

All in all the most decibels per unit admission fee anyone's getting this season. Marvellously ridiculous stuff.

[Pulcinella]

If you found the bells a bit overwhelming, try this instead, where they're perhaps kept in Czech (ha, ha) a bit more: the RLPO's Taras Bulba.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8062073--jana-ek-taras-bulba

[Pulcinella]

Lovely first half and looking forward to the second half with off stage bells

The link appears to be incomplete.

[edashtav]

Timber's orchestrations are generally so far over the top they wrap back round again for another crack at it. Nowhere is this more true than his version of Pictures.

Parts are very much of the "If in doubt play louder" and indeed "If in doubt, add more percussion" genre. It is frequently a demonstration of what a big noise a "modern" symphony orchestra can make and is ultimately tasteless to the point of open mouthed disbelief. As such I absolutely love it .

I've waited many years to hear a real "chuck the kitchen sink in, or indeed over the gallery balustrade" performance, and only the Albert Hall will do as only it has an organ that can thunder through all the other racket that's ultimately going on. The BBCNOW did it some years ago in a Prom performance that was bordering on the genteel so that was no good. The CBSO did it in Birmingham a few months ago and that was also a bit polite compared with what we got this evening.

Yes, Yamada-san overdid it personally by (presumably) assuming he couldn't be heard over the din joining in vocally and I don't approve of his encouraging applause during the last chord as that was the wrong sort of tasteless and could be heard clearly despite the organ at full blast.

I don't have a programme to look, but presumably that was the legendary Graham Johns up in the gallery with his Forever Bells on an away day from Liverpool. Even I started to find them a bit relentless at such enormous volume after most of the Great Gate.

All in all the most decibels per unit admission fee anyone's getting this season. Marvellously ridiculous stuff.

Spot and full of nod and a wink wit.

[parkepr]

The link appears to be incomplete.

Try this one...

https://x.com/Parqueros/status/1826896117532901514?t=kR-oebx-PA9sQwokUw-lPQ&s=19

Just a photo of the forever bells in situ in the gallery.

[Pulcinella]

Try this one...

https://x.com/Parqueros/status/1826896117532901514?t=kR-oebx-PA9sQwokUw-lPQ&s=19

Just a photo of the forever bells in situ in the gallery.