Prom 67: RVW / Schoenberg / Shostakovich, BBC SO, Kopatchinskaja / Peltokoski

[bluestateprommer]

Monday 9 September 2024
19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, op. 36
[Encores:
(a) Giya Kancheli: "Rag-Gidon-Time" (first performance at The Proms)
(b) Jorge Sanchez-Chiong: "Crin" (first performance at The Proms)]

Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Tarmo Peltokoski, conductor (Proms debut artist)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e82n5v

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-67/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022k1y

[bluestateprommer]

While I'm not sure how much (or little) Pat Kop's pre-performance speech helped or otherwise with the audience, she certainly gave a very impressive performance of Schoenberg's op. 36 just now. I wonder if she was playing from memory, so perhaps someone in the RAH tonight can confirm one way or the other. Fine opening from Tarmo P. and the BBC SO of the RVW Fantasia on Greensleeves, quite a contrast with the Schoenberg (which was perhaps one reason for the choice).

Quite the change of pace for Pat Kop's two encores, duly archived above.

[mopsus]

She had a score but didn't appear to use it much and often moved around and turned to face the players when she wasn't playing herself

[Ein Heldenleben]

That interval interview section on the Last Night of The Proms has to win some sort of mealy-mouthed award for not daring to say what you want to say. If Yshani Perinpanayagam doesn’t like the music at the end why not just say it? Rather than hedge all about it with academic double speak. Incidentally there are plenty of people who like the tunes but who think the small jingoistic element a bit of a joke ….

[Petrushka]

Wow! That was a truly sensational performance of the Shostakovich 5. I've rarely heard the third movement played with such poetry and feeling and there were some daring pianissimos in places. Thrilling conclusion to the whole work, too.

I've not heard anything from Peltokosti before but I hope to do so in future.

It's the Shostakovich anniversary next year and BBC Music Mag could do a service in making this performance available as a cover CD.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Got the impression initially that the band were initially going through the motions in Shosh 5 - perhaps they’re just getting tired with the finish line in sight. They’re also following on from some exceptionally committed orchestral playing in the last week. But as the performance went on th8ngs improved very significantly. Excellent last movement - the bit where an awful lot of bands tire - remarkable.

[Pulcinella]

Wow! That was a truly sensational performance of the Shostakovich 5. I've rarely heard the third movement played with such poetry and feeling and there were some daring pianissimos in places. Thrilling conclusion to the whole work, too.

I've not heard anything from Peltokosti before but I hope to do so in future.

It's the Shostakovich anniversary next year and BBC Music Mag could do a service in making this performance available as a cover CD.

There already is one: Volume 22, Number 8 (May 2014): BBCNOW/Otaka

Doesn't stop them providing another, but they tend not to duplicate works that much (though they have with Petrushka!),

[Petrushka]

There already is one: Volume 22, Number 8 (May 2014): BBCNOW/Otaka

Doesn't stop them providing another, but they tend not to duplicate works that much (though they have with Petrushka!),

Yes, I still have that and it's very good, better than some bigger names who tackle this symphony!

[parkepr]

Anyone able to tell me who the timpanist was yesterday as a clip on Facebook showed it wasn't their regular timpanist (Antoine Bedewi).

[smittims]

I don't usually like musicians haranguing the audience (except for Sir Thomas Beecham , who was a special case) but if her remarks helped people to appreciate the work then there's no harm. This performance seemed to remind me more of Schoenberg's contemporaneous opera 'Moses und Aron' than previous performances I've heard. I wonder if her tendency to find extra-musical associations in the music (which I wouldn't think of looking for myself) had anything to do with this.

I wasn't happy with her intonation at some points, and I wondered if she was trying too intensely to put dramatic interpretation into it. I was more impresssed with the orchestra, who did very well. But it was good overall and good to hear it done at the Proms, where it might get more attention than normally.

[gedsmk]

Anyone able to tell me who the timpanist was yesterday as a clip on Facebook showed it wasn't their regular timpanist (Antoine Bedewi).

Erika Ohman was listed in the programme.

[parkepr]

Erika Ohman was listed in the programme.

thanks...

[smittims]

I don't usually listen to interval talks but Heldenleben's comment (with which I wholeheartedly agree) led me to repeat it just now. It did nothing to change my firm conviction that musicians , with a few honourable exceptions, should stick to playing music . The river of embarrassing brainless waffle I've heard in the past led me to avoid these 'I spoke earlier...' moments years ago and it seems nothing has improved since.

[cloughie]

Got the impression initially that the band were initially going through the motions in Shosh 5 - perhaps they’re just getting tired with the finish line in sight. They’re also following on from some exceptionally committed orchestral playing in the last week. But as the performance went on th8ngs improved very significantly. Excellent last movement - the bit where an awful lot of bands tire - remarkable.

Very much a ‘Curate’s egg performance’.

[edashtav]

I don't usually like musicians haranguing the audience (except for Sir Thomas Beecham , who was a special case) but if her remarks helped people to appreciate the work then there's no harm. This performance seemed to remind me more of Schoenberg's contemporaneous opera 'Moses und Aron' than previous performances I've heard. I wonder if her tendency to find extra-musical associations in the music (which I wouldn't think of looking for myself) had anything to do with this.

I wasn't happy with her intonation at some points, and I wondered if she was trying too intensely to put dramatic interpretation into it. I was more impresssed with the orchestra, who did very well. But it was good overall and good to hear it done at the Proms, where it might get more attention than normally.