Prom 49: Dvořák / Suk, Czech Philharmonic, Kobekina / Hrůša

[bluestateprommer]

Tuesday 27 August 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104
[Encore: Vladimir Kobekin: Galliarda - Variations on an Ancient Theme (first performance at The Proms)]

Interval

Suk: 'Asrael' Symphony (Symphony No. 2), op. 27

Anastasia Kobekina, cello (Proms debut artist)
Czech Philharmonic
Jakub Hrůša, conductor

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e8qxp6

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-49/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002246t

[richardfinegold]

I’ve tried to appreciate Asrael through the years, to the point where I’ve accumulated 3 recordings. I tend to lose interest after the first movement. Anyway another good program. I will be interested in Forumites impressions of the conductor. The reviews I’ve seen have been pretty positive

[Cockney Sparrow]

I've only sampled the Suk and left it "to come back to it later". Having said that, I think Hrusa is a persuasive interpreter - when using a 7 day freebie access to the Berlin Phil Digital Concert Hall I thought he gave a very good performance of the Dvorak Stabat Mater (a piece I wasn't 100% sure about when I sang it....). And he did the same with Beethoven 9 (when I sang it - chorus, of course) with the Philharmonia a couple of years ago.

[Serial_Apologist]

I’ve tried to appreciate Asrael through the years, to the point where I’ve accumulated 3 recordings. I tend to lose interest after the first movement.

Just at the point where it starts getting interesting!

[mathias broucek]

Hrusa's BRSO recording of Asrael is good. It's amongst the best played and recorded, although I wouldn't pick it over Kubelik, Ancerl (CPO live) or Flor

[Petrushka]

I've not seen the Czech PO since 1977 (a fine Dvorak 7 with Vaclav Neumann) so hugely looking forward to being in the hall for this. Doubt if any of the 1977 players are still there 47 years on!

[edashtav]

I’ve tried to appreciate Asrael through the years, to the point where I’ve accumulated 3 recordings. I tend to lose interest after the first movement. Anyway another good program. I will be interested in Forumites impressions of the conductor. The reviews I’ve seen have been pretty positive

I've heard Jakub Hrůša twice conducting opera with quiet, confident authority. No obvious idiosyncrasies.

[edashtav]

Here's a report of Dvorak conducting his new concerto in London:
" Dr. Dvorak has returned to conduct several of his works at the Philharmonic concerts, but as the event last Thursday clashed with the last of the London Symphony concerts, and nearly half the Philharmonic band were deputies, unaccustomed to the low pitch, I do not think it fair to criticise [...]Dvorak's new cello concerto."

OUCH! THANK GOODNESS THERE WAS A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE.

No such terrors for tonight's conductor but, do you agree, there were untidy moments in the first movement, tonight? The orchestra took time to settle to the RAH acoustics in its long introduction, later I found the soloist to be wilful and wayward in her use of rubato.

I lost the thread in the slow movement as the tempo stalled. Dvorak's concerto is a true product of the romantic period but it's not self indulgent in the manner of Scriabin. When things gelled there was some lovely woodwind sounds.

The orchestra struck a lively and pert tempo for the finale but the soloist was as slippery as an eel. Her musings were hushed, intense & intimate but, for me, she did not measure up to the grander statements. I needed to hear Dvorak's structure, all I heard was a series of moments. HOWEVER, I do agree with Tom that the end of the work was impressive.

I do hope other listeners got more out of the performance.

Encore :
VLADIMIR KOBEKIN Galliarda Variations on an Ancient Theme (VK is the soloist's father)
c.f. Warlock Capriol Suite

[Ein Heldenleben]

Here's a report of Dvorak conducting his new concerto in London:
" Dr. Dvorak has returned to conduct several of his works at the Philharmonic concerts, but as the event last Thursday clashed with the last of the London Symphony concerts, and nearly half the Philharmonic band were deputies, unaccustomed to the low pitch, I do not think it fair to criticise [...]Dvorak's new cello concerto."

OUCH! THANK GOODNESS THERE WAS A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE.

No such terrors for tonight's conductor but, do you agree, there were untidy moments in the first movement, tonight. The orchestra took time to settle to the RAL acoustics in its long introduction, later I found the soloist to be wilful and wayward in her use of rubato.
I lost the thread in the slow movement as the tempo stalled. Dvorak's concerto is a true product of the romantic period but it's not self indulgent in the manner of Scriabin. When things gelled there was some love woodwind sounds.
The orchestra struck a lively and pert tempo for the finale but the soloist was as slippery as an eel. Her musings eere hushed, intense & intimate but, for me, she did not measure up to the grander statements. I needed to hear Dvorak's structure, all I heard was a series of moments. HOWEVER, I do agree with Tom that the end of the work was impressive.

I do hope other listeners got more out of the performance.

Encore :
VLADIMIR KOBEKIN Galliarda Variations on an Ancient Theme (VK is the soloist's father)
c.f. Warlock Capriol Suite

Fair summary Ed.

and what did that encore do to Peter Warlock ?

[edashtav]

Fair summary Ed.

and what did that encore do to Peter Warlock ?

Both composers used the same galliard EH.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Both composers used the same galliard EH.

Indeed.But Warlock’s sounded like music not busking

Musically things have perked up in the Suk. The band so far sound a lot more committed

[edashtav]

A Symphony haunted by the deaths of close members of the composer's family including Antonin Dvorak. It has five movements, some over-extended and much of it is as bleak and sad as Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful songs.

The first moment starts will Suk numbed chilled to the marrow: it is as icy and bleak as anything in Shostakovich. Perhaps, Shostakovich might have prolonged the mood, Suk finds some passing get up and fight spirit invoked by jagged lines from strings. I was disturbed by the transition into expressionist, lush late-romantic sounds.

As the music progressed I felt felt oppressive and walled in by its hyper sensitive intensity of personal mood. I suppose that I wanted some classical signposts e.g. sonata form with a contrasting second subject. What I found was Ossia being heaped on Pelion. The conductor pointed to Suk's frequent use of long held notes from which tentacles wind out and then return to form a nest. (So the score has a very distant relationship to Percy Grainger's The Immovable DO written in the 1930s. Grainger's DO is a random happening, like a cipher on an organ but Suk's tonal centre is the inescapable toothache of grief.)

What of the performance? I know the work enough from Supraphon records to say that the conductor and Czech Philharmonic orchestra gave a performance oozing character and angst. They really believed that the work was a national treasure. Perhaps it's a piece like RVW's Pastoral Symphony that's rooted in time and place but 'lost in translation' . More than once I wondered whether it could have influenced the young Korngold as he wrote 'Die Tote Stadt"?

If hope dominates two of the three later movements then the music and its brighter mood was blown away all too soon. Art and music depend on transforming experience not replicating it. Was the piece written too soon before Suk had processed or "worked through" his personal grief and tragedy

I was glad that Radio 3 programmed the work in a fine performance but just as pleased that the broadcast was 'free'. I know that it is a work I should know, admire, and be moved by. The interval talk suggested that the Asrael Symphony is more sincere than R. Strauss's 'Tod und Verklärung'. I find the opposite: the Strauss has a a personal stamp, every note a and chord is pure Strauss to its core - love it, or hate it. The Suk more ill-digested flavours than a Schwarz Spice rack - but mixed Spice ain't my taste

[Petrushka]

I enjoyed this concert in the hall much more than Ed over the airwaves. There's no doubt that Anastasia Kobekina is a bit of a wayward character but she can certainly play that cello.

Perhaps Asrael is a touch overlong but I love it nonetheless and the Czech Philharmonic brought their own love and distinctive aural palette to the work, one of the last of the great European orchestras to retain their unique sound.

There were some thrilling moments in this performance, especially those thwacks on the bass drum towards the end of the first movement. The player didn't hold back and as I was sitting with the percussion pretty close by it made a big impact.

More generally, the level of coughing in the hall is becoming intolerable. It may not come across on the radio so much but in the hall it's insane. One elderly lady sitting in front of me was persistently making a noise opening a bottle of water but in one of Asrael's quieter passages a swig of water went down the wrong way and she had an appalling coughing fit. Why can't people just sit still and listen? It's not hard.

[cloughie]

I've not seen the Czech PO since 1977 (a fine Dvorak 7 with Vaclav Neumann) so hugely looking forward to being in the hall for this. Doubt if any of the 1977 players are still there 47 years on!

Nor Vaclav Neumann. CPO have had a number of great Principal Conductors over the years and indeed Principal Guest Conductors - I see that Sir Simon is taking on the latter role in 2024-5 for a period of five years, with the title of 'Rafael Kubelík Conducting Chair'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I enjoyed this concert in the hall much more than Ed over the airwaves. There's no doubt that Anastasia Kobekina is a bit of a wayward character but she can certainly play that cello.

Perhaps Asrael is a touch overlong but I love it nonetheless and the Czech Philharmonic brought their own love and distinctive aural palette to the work, one of the last of the great European orchestras to retain their unique sound.

There were some thrilling moments in this performance, especially those thwacks on the bass drum towards the end of the first movement. The player didn't hold back and as I was sitting with the percussion pretty close by it made a big impact.

More generally, the level of coughing in the hall is becoming intolerable. It may not come across on the radio so much but in the hall it's insane. One elderly lady sitting in front of me was persistently making a noise opening a bottle of water but in one of Asrael's quieter passages a swig of water went down the wrong way and she had an appalling coughing fit. Why can't people just sit still and listen? It's not hard.

There’s no need to take a drink of water in an hour long performance . It’s possible to go much longer without rehydration unless you’re walking running etc.

Water induced coughing fits excepted.I read a research paper once where psychologists argued that people largely cough at the theatre or concert hall because they are bored. It’s amazing how few people cough when singers like Ermonela Jaho or Angela Gheorghiu are singing.