Prom 56: Bruckner, BBC Singers / Berlin Philharmonic, O. Park / K. Petrenko

[bluestateprommer]

Sunday 1 September 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Bruckner:
(a) 'Os justi'
(b) 'Locus iste'
(c) 'Christus factus est'
(d) Symphony No. 5 in B flat major

BBC Singers (a-c)
Owain Park, conductor (a-c)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (d)
Kirill Petrenko, conductor (d)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ewh6gw

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-56/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022c50

[mathias broucek]

Odd programme. Why not a decent amount of Choral material or none at all?

[oddoneout]

Odd programme. Why not a decent amount of Choral material or none at all?

Would an all choral programme get an audience? It's all abut the symphonies with him as far as I can see.

[jonfan]

I think this works really well with three of AB’s greatest motets followed by the symphony which ends with a climactic chorale to dwarf any other chorale!

[Darkbloom]

The last time I heard the Fifth it was with Oramo at the Proms. I'm sure there was something in the first half but I can't remember what it was. It's really hard to know what would go with the Fifth. You feel like it's not quite enough to work as a stand-alone, unlike the Eighth, but there are few pieces that come to mind as natural companions. I remember Abbado and the BPO chose the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto, but I'm not sure that worked either.

[Petrushka]

The last time I heard the Fifth it was with Oramo at the Proms. I'm sure there was something in the first half but I can't remember what it was. It's really hard to know what would go with the Fifth. You feel like it's not quite enough to work as a stand-alone, unlike the Eighth, but there are few pieces that come to mind as natural companions. I remember Abbado and the BPO chose the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto, but I'm not sure that worked either.

Somewhat bizarrely, when Abbado played the Bruckner 5 with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in 1993 he prefaced it with Mussorgsky"s Songs and Dances of Death in the Shostakovich orchestration and sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Great concert, remember it very well, not least because Elvis Costello was sitting behind me to be joined in the interval by Bob Geldof. Who knew they were Bruckner fans?

[frankbridge]

Somewhat bizarrely, when Abbado played the Bruckner 5 with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in 1993 he prefaced it with Mussorgsky"s Songs and Dances of Death in the Shostakovich orchestration and sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Great concert, remember it very well, not least because Elvis Costello was sitting behind me to be joined in the interval by Bob Geldof. Who knew they were Bruckner fans?

I too was that concert in 1993 and I think I was on the rail in the arena as I recall: the Bruckner 5 was wonderful, and the Mussorgsky with Hvorostovsky was to die for (ho ho). Add the fact that the pretty first cello of the GMJO was consumed by a coughing fit in the final movement of the fifth, and Abbado was quick at the end to present her with a cough sweet and presumely took her to his suite after the concert to took after her needs They certainly didn't call him "bawdy Claude" for nothing (as Mullova would rightly say).

[Ein Heldenleben]

Looks like a BBC Singers benefit concert to me . They probably know all three pieces from memory. Can’t be more than 13- 15 mins of music. The fifth isn’t a particularly long work either by Bruckner standards. Tell me there’s no interval. I bet there is - got to keep those overpriced bar tills rattling. It’s a bit of a rip off and no doubt top prices.

Why no decent sized concerto in the first half ? When I think of the hours opera orchestras put in….

[Petrushka]

Looks like a BBC Singers benefit concert to me . They probably know all three pieces from memory. Can’t be more than 13- 15 mins of music. The fifth isn’t a particularly long work either by Bruckner standards. Tell me there’s no interval. I bet there is - got to keep those overpriced bar tills rattling. It’s a bit of a rip off and no doubt top prices.

Why no decent sized concerto in the first half ? When I think of the hours opera orchestras put in….

To be fair, the Bruckner 5 lasts around 75 minutes and I've rarely heard it in concert coupled with anything else.

I do like it when a big work like this is coupled with some music in the first half that is a completely different genre such as vocal, string quartet, organ, wind group or piano. I've heard all of these at some point either at the Proms or elsewhere.

[Ein Heldenleben]

To be fair, the Bruckner 5 lasts around 75 minutes and I've rarely heard it in concert coupled with anything else.

I do like it when a big work like this is coupled with some music in the first half that is a completely different genre such as vocal, string quartet, organ, wind group or piano. I've heard all of these at some point either at the Proms or elsewhere.

Well I once saw the blessed Bernie do Bruckner 9 ( ok 10 mins shorter ) with Perahia Beethoven 4 ( 40 mins) and the VPO. So it can be done

.now that’s value for money.

[Darkbloom]

Talking of the blessed Bernie, I remember when he did the Fifth with the VPO at the Festival Hall (on its own that time) and the concert nearly didn't happen because the lorry transporting their gear got in an accident on the Ringstrasse that morning. You'd have thought they would have got there the night before (I'm sure that would have Germans tutting about Austrian schlamperei) and we could see the musicians on a monitor, hurriedly coming on stage for a brief rehearsal. Of course they play this stuff in their sleep, and they virtually had to that night.

[Darkbloom]

If memory serves, Andris Nelsons did Mahler 6 with Boston at the Proms a few years ago, and coupled it with a very short work in the first half, although I can't remember what it was. Rattle did Mahler 2 with the VPO and something brief by Goldschmidt beforehand. I remember hearing Elder do Mahler 6 once, preceded by a Mozart piano concerto with Angela Hewitt, which felt a bit too much of a good thing.

[LMcD]

Looks like a BBC Singers benefit concert to me . They probably know all three pieces from memory. Can’t be more than 13- 15 mins of music. The fifth isn’t a particularly long work either by Bruckner standards. Tell me there’s no interval. I bet there is - got to keep those overpriced bar tills rattling. It’s a bit of a rip off and no doubt top prices.

Why no decent sized concerto in the first half ? When I think of the hours opera orchestras put in….

Radio 3 schedule indicates that there will be no interval in this concert.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Radio 3 schedule indicates that there will be no interval in this concert.

That makes sense . So no bar break …

[gurnemanz]

The last time I heard the Fifth it was with Oramo at the Proms. I'm sure there was something in the first half but I can't remember what it was. It's really hard to know what would go with the Fifth. You feel like it's not quite enough to work as a stand-alone, unlike the Eighth, but there are few pieces that come to mind as natural companions. I remember Abbado and the BPO chose the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto, but I'm not sure that worked either.

Prompted me out of curiosity to check old programmes and the last (and only) time I have heard Bruckner 5 live was at the Gewandhaus in 1974. It may well have been the first time I heard it at all. It was coupled with Hindemith Sinfonie Mathis der Maler, which lasts about 30 min. Masur was having an evening off and the conductor was Vienna-based Hans Swarowsky. Not so well known - Musicweb has him as a "Forgotten Artist". Born Budapest 1899, so for this concert he would have been 75, coincidentally my present age ... he died a year later. The programme points to an impressive CV: He studied composition with Schönberg, Webern and Eisler and conducting with Weingärtner and R. Strauss. Mehta and Abbado attended his master classes.