Prom 54: 'Beethoven for Three', Ax / Kavakos / Ma

[bluestateprommer]

Saturday 31 August 2024
16:00
Royal Albert Hall

Brahms: Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87 (first performance at The Proms)

Interval

Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 97, ‘Archduke’ (first performance at The Proms)
[Encores:
(a) Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, D. 898 - II. Andante un poco mosso (presented in memoriam Rosemary Gent)
(b) John Williams: Schindler's List - Main Theme (arr. J. Williams for piano trio; first performance of this arrangement at The Proms)]

Emanuel Ax, piano
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e4fcd4

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-54/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022cl2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022npm

[richardfinegold]

First Proms Performance. Actually is there much chamber music at the Proms? And will this be in the main hall or a smaller venue

[Cockney Sparrow]

Its in the main R. Albert Hall auditorium - it doesn't have another performing space - maybe function rooms, but I don't recall any being used. In the past the BBC have used other places - for example, Cadogan Hall, but its not close by the RAH.

There are examples of small scale performances - for example Ibragimova performed the Bach Sonatas and Partitas over two late night concerts. I think the listener "tunes in" and the noisemakers cease their rustling, coughing, etc.

https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-21-bach-ibragimova-august-2015

I don't know if they only sell tickets in the lower parts of the hall for such events - pity an unwary tourist who goes for the Rausing Circle (I speculate - I have never, ever, sat there - up there, for a Prom I'd take a radio, headphones and binoculars...).

[LMcD]

Saturday 31 August 2024
16:00
Royal Albert Hall

Beethoven (arr. Shai Wosner): Symphony No. 6 in F major, ‘Pastoral’ (first performance of this arrangement at The Proms)

Interval

Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 97, ‘Archduke’ (first performance at The Proms)

Emanuel Ax, piano
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e4fcd4

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-54/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022cl2

I wonder how much of a storm they'll manage to whip up in the 4th movement of the Pastoral.

[bluestateprommer]

I don't know if they only sell tickets in the lower parts of the hall for such events - pity an unwary tourist who goes for the Rausing Circle (I speculate - I have never, ever, sat there - up there, for a Prom I'd take a radio, headphones and binoculars...).

Just looked at the RAH's page for this Prom, and every section in the RAH was up for sale. At the time of this post, literally one seat remains, in K circle.

BTW, can't remember if this NYT article from last year on Emanuel Ax got posted in any threads, but just in case not:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/arts/music/emanuel-ax-piano.html

David Allen makes a comparison of Ax to a much-loved artist on the Forum:

"How many have had his ability, not unlike that of his late associate Bernard Haitink, to make music sound so simply right?"

Yo-Yo Ma theorizes in the article about Ax:

"One thing that I can safely say, over the 50 years I’ve known him, is that he operates by a very strict code of conduct...'

Allen then parapharses Ma:

"The code, Ma went on, means that Ax never speaks ill of other pianists, and does what he can to bolster them instead. He insists on being kind, on looking at the brighter side of things. He goes to unusual lengths to build trust with fellow performers because the music, in the end, depends on it."

Ma elaborates about his theory:

'Somewhere along the line, he saw some things that he didn’t like, and he decided that he was not going to be that. He’s seen the consequences, and that’s why the code of conduct exists. It’s not some arbitrary thing.'

I've heard recordings by this all-star trio of other transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies for piano trio. To be honest, I wasn't necessarily a big fan of the transcriptions themselves, even with the high quality of the musicianship involved. The contrast of a piano trio version of a Beethoven symphony with an actual Beethoven piano trio will make for an interesting contrast, though, if nothing else.

[richardfinegold]

I met Ax once. He was in town for a recital( this is over 30 years ago). I was walking past Orchestra Hall (TChicago Art Museum is across the street and I think I was exiting it) the day prior to the concert. A man was staring at a poster advertising the concert and I realized it was him. I asked “Are you Emmanuel Ax” to which he replied “Call me Manny”. I then started talking about a CD of his that I had just purchased, the Shostakovich Second Piano Trio with Stern and Ma, and he then told me in a few sentences how much he loved the work and asked me politely how I liked the recording.
A real down to earth guy. I wound up going to the recital even though I hadn’t planned to

[PaulT]

Something has gone wrong with this. Received an email from Proms Director David Pickard yesterday saying the programme content has changed. This is no longer Beethoven for Three including a transcription of a Beethoven symphony. Recordings have been made of these individuals coming together as a trio and including transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies for piano trio. The original Proms line up was to be a performance of Beethoven’s 1st symphony transcribed for piano trio. That mysteriously changed to Beethoven’s 6th symphony just prior to tickets going on sale. No problem with that. Ticket sales at the top rate of £70 for stalls seats for the likes of the Berlin Phil/Petrenko and BRSO/Rattle concerts were offered and the concert sold quickly in high expectation. Yesterday the programme was changed again. It’s now standard piano trio fare comprising Brahms piano trio no 2 and Beethoven Archduke from a make up trio of admittedly top rate soloists but actually boiling down to three individuals who have had two attempts and two failures at making their promised offering happen as a trio.

Anybody got the inside track on this?

[Retune]

Something has gone wrong with this. Received an email from Proms Director David Pickard yesterday saying the programme content has changed. This is no longer Beethoven for Three including a transcription of a Beethoven symphony. Recordings have been made of these individuals coming together as a trio and including transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies for piano trio. The original Proms line up was to be a performance of Beethoven’s 1st symphony transcribed for piano trio. That mysteriously changed to Beethoven’s 6th symphony just prior to tickets going on sale. No problem with that. Ticket sales at the top rate of £70 for stalls seats for the likes of the Berlin Phil/Petrenko and BRSO/Rattle concerts were offered and the concert sold quickly in high expectation. Yesterday the programme was changed again. It’s now standard piano trio fare comprising Brahms piano trio no 2 and Beethoven Archduke from a make up trio of admittedly top rate soloists but actually boiling down to three individuals who have had two attempts and two failures at making their promised offering happen as a trio.

Anybody got the inside track on this?

That's a shame. I have a ticket and was looking forward to the symphony (either one). Biggest change to a concert I've booked since Yuja Wang swapped out the Hammerklavier for Chopin preludes at the RFH. I think the Archduke was already in the programme? (the radio-lists page shows the Pastoral and this).

[Ein Heldenleben]

Something has gone wrong with this. Received an email from Proms Director David Pickard yesterday saying the programme content has changed. This is no longer Beethoven for Three including a transcription of a Beethoven symphony. Recordings have been made of these individuals coming together as a trio and including transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies for piano trio. The original Proms line up was to be a performance of Beethoven’s 1st symphony transcribed for piano trio. That mysteriously changed to Beethoven’s 6th symphony just prior to tickets going on sale. No problem with that. Ticket sales at the top rate of £70 for stalls seats for the likes of the Berlin Phil/Petrenko and BRSO/Rattle concerts were offered and the concert sold quickly in high expectation. Yesterday the programme was changed again. It’s now standard piano trio fare comprising Brahms piano trio no 2 and Beethoven Archduke from a make up trio of admittedly top rate soloists but actually boiling down to three individuals who have had two attempts and two failures at making their promised offering happen as a trio.

Anybody got the inside track on this?

Who is playing ?

ah just read up on it . Three possibilities

1 - he didn’t finish it
2 - he did and some one doesn’t like it
3 - he did , they liked it but didn’t have time to get it under their fingers ( the last bit unlikely as they could probably sight read it they are so good)

[Retune]

Who is playing ?

ah just read up on it . Three possibilities

1 - he didn’t finish it
2 - he did and some one doesn’t like it
3 - he did , they liked it but didn’t have time to get it under their fingers ( the last bit unlikely as they could probably sight read it they are so good)

Maybe there was a problem with the Beethoven 1 arrangement, but they've already recorded 6 (plus 2, 4 and 5).

Perhaps there is or was some doubt about whether one of the three soloists would be able to perform, so they've gone for standard repertoire to allow a substitution if necessary? The last time I saw Ax at the Proms he was standing in for Perahia at Haitink's last concert.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Maybe there was a problem with the Beethoven 1 arrangement, but they've already recorded 6 (plus 2, 4 and 5).

So strange they didn’t play it given that they must know it..

[PaulT]

Thanks for your feedback - all logical. But the mystery deepens:

1. When did the BBC know about this? I first heard a trail for today's concert on Radio 3 over a week ago and immediately thought "why does the trail start with the last movement of the Archduke Trio as they are not even playing it"

2. If they knew about it a week ago why did it take a further week to tell ticket holders?

3.If they only knew about it two days ago, there is barely time to reprint a programme with all the correct information and charge £6 for it. Using existing programme with a hastily produced meaningful loose insert is unlikely considering the only valid info in the original is the names/bios of the artists and a bio of Beethoven.

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine (if perhaps short, but this leaves room for an encore after LvB's 'Archduke' Trio later, presumably) 1st half to this Prom, with perhaps one slightly dodgy moment of phrasing, where it's nice to think of about 6000 people in the RAH for chamber music, rather than an orchestral blockbuster ;) .

On the question of changing the Shai Wosner arrangement of LvB's "Pastoral" Symphony for the Brahms, I obviously don't have any inside info at all, so what I'm about to type is pure guesswork and speculation. I don't think that the reasons have anything to do with musicianship or whether one or more of this all-star trio is "ready" or otherwise, but may have much more to do with rights' issues of the arrangement. This arrangement of Beethoven 6 for piano trio is obviously a contemporary arrangement, so we might potentially be entering into Lionel Sawkins-ish territory in terms of controlling circulation of any recorded transmission of this arrangement outside the concert hall, such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyr-IE8HmIs

Related to this concern is that this Prom is not only being broadcast on R3, but is also being filmed for BBCFOUR. In other words, video of this concert will inevitably make its way to the internet, i.e. YT, which pretty much means that Pandora's box is unleashed in terms of trying to control circulation of live concert videos. Sony Classical obviously doesn't want to lose sales of the commercial recording of the Shai Wosner arrangement of Beethoven 6 to a "free" video via the BBC. I don't know if any of this makes sense in the typing, but again, it seems to me to be more about recording rights and not the musicians themselves.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very fine (if perhaps short, but this leaves room for an encore after LvB's 'Archduke' Trio later, presumably) 1st half to this Prom, with perhaps one slightly dodgy moment of phrasing, where it's nice to think of about 6000 people in the RAH for chamber music, rather than an orchestral blockbuster ;) .

On the question of changing the Shai Wosner arrangement of LvB's "Pastoral" Symphony for the Brahms, I obviously don't have any inside info at all, so what I'm about to type is pure guesswork and speculation. I don't think that the reasons have anything to do with musicianship or whether one or more of this all-star trio is "ready" or otherwise, but may have much more to do with rights' issues of the arrangement. This arrangement of Beethoven 6 for piano trio is obviously a contemporary arrangement, so we might potentially be entering into Lionel Sawkins-ish territory in terms of controlling circulation of any recorded transmission of this arrangement outside the concert hall, such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyr-IE8HmIs

Related to this concern is that this Prom is not only being broadcast on R3, but is also being filmed for BBCFOUR. In other words, video of this concert will inevitably make its way to the internet, i.e. YT, which pretty much means that Pandora's box is unleashed in terms of trying to control circulation of live concert videos. Sony Classical obviously doesn't want to lose sales of the commercial recording of the Shai Wosner arrangement of Beethoven 6 to a "free" video via the BBC. I don't know if any of this makes sense in the typing, but again, it seems to me to be more about recording rights and not the musicians themselves.

Interesting theory but I don’t think it’s right . In fact a BBC Four transmission of this piece would be a record companies dream - pretty well priceless free publicity, What they might be less keen on is a high quality release of the audio broadcast. But even that isn’t much of a problem because audio of a live performance with all the attendant balance and musical error issues is a very different thing from a perfect studio recording.

One other thing YouTube are very good at taking down BBC material if a copyright holder objects . I’ve done it myself with some amateur natural history footage - it disappeared within a few days .

[LMcD]

Interesting theory but I don’t think it’s right . In fact a BBC Four transmission of this piece would be a record companies dream - pretty well priceless free publicity, What they might be less keen on is a high quality release of the audio broadcast. But even that isn’t much of a problem because audio of a live performance with all the attendant balance and musical error issues is a very different thing from a perfect studio recording.

One other thing YouTube are very good at taking down BBC material if a copyright holder objects . I’ve done it myself with some amateur natural history footage - it disappeared within a few days .

TV presenter is Katja Adler and her guest is Joanna McGregor.