Prom 8: Wednesday 20th July 2011 (Czech music)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Presented by Tom Service

A Czech evening with Dvorak's Cello Concerto and a Proms first performance for the six symphonic poems of Má vlast by Smetana.

Dvorák's Cello Concerto is full of melody and heartfelt sentiment, to which French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras will bring both youthful urgency and intimacy, if his recording with tonight's conductor is anything to go by. The work is widely regarded as the finest concerto ever written for the instrument. Nostalgia turns to nationalism in the second half, with Smetana's Má vlast - a glorious musical touchstone for 'the resurrection of the Czech nation, its future happiness and glory'.

Dvorák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Smetana: Má vlast

Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiri Belohlávek (conductor)

[salymap]

I have read several arguments as to why Ma vlast has never been performed complete in the Proms. One was that the prommers would be 'restive' with the length of the work. Surely they sit or stand through much more trying [in severalways] works and they know at least that their favourite parts are never far away. I have two complete recordings and do make a coffee or tea break in the middle but the linking material is one of the surprises of listening to it complete. It could be thought of as a six movement symphony.

[Prommer]

I am going tonight and am really looking forward to it, especially the Ma Vlast. One of my favourite recordings in my collection is the live performance of the Czech Philharmonic when Rafael Kubelik returned to the country from exile in 1990 following the Velvet Revolution. Just wonderful... Only problem is, the bar is now set a teeny bit high now...!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Dvorák's Cello Concerto - wonderful stuff. But I always think the 2nd subject of the 1st movement is similar to the great theme from the finale of Brahms' 1st symphony, whereas traditionally the latter is supposed to resemble the best known them from Beethoven's 9th - something I've never been able to swallow.

[Mahlerei]

Enjoyed the cello concerto, which I hardly know. Is Queyras' recording worth a punt?

[Colonel Danby]

I enjoyed the Dvorak Cello Concerto, and Queyras played it very well: if anybody can conduct this work wonderfully it is Belohlavek, who is steeped in the music of his homeland. And though we are only a little way in to 'Ma Vlast', his reading in very fine. I'm amazed that this is the first time that the whole cycle has been played at the Proms.

One point though about the interval talk from the RCM, "The Cello in literature" which failed to mention one of my favourite books of all eternity, Anthony Powell's marvellous roman a clef "A Dance to the Music of Time" in which General Aylmer Conyers, having retired from duties at Buck House takes up the cello as a hobby. The General is one of my favourite characters in the book, and I think should have been mentioned in the talk...

[Alison]

Ma Vlast:

I thought I could remember Libor Pesek and Liverpool Phil doing it some years ago.

What happened to Libor Pesek anyway ?

[LeMartinPecheur]

One point though about the interval talk from the RCM, "The Cello in literature" which failed to mention one of my favourite books of all eternity, Anthony Powell's marvellous roman a clef "A Dance to the Music of Time" in which General Aylmer Conyers, having retired from duties at Buck House takes up the cello as a hobby. The General is one of my favourite characters in the book, and I think should have been mentioned in the talk...

IIRC General Conyers announces (for no very obvious reason) that he's "an introverted thinker".

Good man! We introverted thinkers must support each other. I too have always liked Conyers.

[This links to a long-dead thread about Myers-Briggs typing. Presumably Conyers had read and digested his Jung Psychological Types and had recognised himself in MBTI terms as either an ISTP or an INTP.]

[Prommer]

Alison, they did four of the six, as noted in tonight's programme. Not sure what happened to Pesek...

[Mahlerei]

IIRC Pesek recorded the work twice. I much enjoyed his RLPO version (Virgin). Have to say i thought tonight's Má vlast via iPlayer was only so-so.

[3rd Viennese School]

Ma Vlast. Went on a bit didnt it?

Bom! Bom! Bo-Bom!!
Finished!!

Not reallly.

Bom! Bom! Bo-Bom!! Bommmmmmmmm!

Finished !! Wait for applause.

Not really. Bom! Bo-Bom Bom...

Etc.

And, of course, so on.

3VS

[salymap]

It shouldn't sound like that in a really good performance. I haven't yet heard this one. Shall listen on Friday.

[Barbirollians]

Enjoyed the cello concerto, which I hardly know. Is Queyras' recording worth a punt?

No idea but I would recommend the BBC Legends duPre/Groves version from a Prom if you can still find it - a wonderful performance.

[Ferretfancy]

In the Arena, I found myself wondering at times what it would have sounded like with the Czech Philharmonic, the hall acoustic is not very kind to the BBC SO strings, at least from that vantage point. I was really interested in hearing Ma Vlast complete. There is quite a lot of rhetorical overstatement which perhaps needs an ear for history, that sort of musical nationalism doesn't wear very well, and the two best known sections are still superior to the rest, in my view. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable performance.
In the concerto I thought that Queyras was very good. He makes a rather resinous sound, and perhaps we could have done with weightier tone in the opening bars, but it was a very lyrical performance. Not an absolutely top notch evening, but worth the risk of getting wet on the way there!
Incidentally the pre-Proms event at the RCM was a discussion and demonstration on the subject " Literature and the Cello" to be broadcast in the concert interval. I have rarely heard such a fatuous discussion, reeking of that peculiarly BBC self regard on the part of the participants -Yuck!

[Chris Newman]

Have to say i thought tonight's Má vlast via iPlayer was only so-so.

Sorry, Mahlerei,

It must be iPlayer and the narrow range of volume which I have grumbled about most evenings since last week.

I was there. The Dvorak Cello Concerto was brilliantly played: rich and powerful at the big moments and so intimate in moments of introspection like the slow movement (based on a Dvoraks song "Leave me alone" beloved by his sister-in-law who died while he was writing the concerto). The duet passages with Andrew Haveron were magnificent. It was clear that soloist, conductor and orchestra were enjoying playing as a highly attentive chamber ensemble. It was a privilege to be there.

And Má vlast ? I cannot give praise enough. I fear that everything I write about it will sound like a cliché. This was was probably the most passionate playing by the BBCSO I have heard since the days of Sir Adrian Boult in the 1960s and 70s whenever he conducted Elgar symphonies. It could have been the Philharmonia. Every string player was repeatedly ripping horse hair from their bows as they produced a sound equal of the Vienna Phil at full cry. The FOUR harpists spoke with the greatest eloquence I have ever heard in any Vyšehrad and spiced the textures throughout. Richard Hosford's clarinet playing was sublime. I thought the BBCSO sounded well drilled in the Janáček's Glagolitic Mass on Friday but this Má vlast featured playing worthy of the best orchestras in the world. Jiří Bělohlávek always conducts with a clear beat. People (I believe unfairly) accuse him of never quite going those extra few yards: last night he clearly did so conducting with all the fire, passion and rightfully expected PRIDE that one could expect from a man presenting a large bunch of foreigners with the two most famous compositions of his native land. At the end the orchestra seemed truly proud of their achievement: there were grins from ear to ear and hugs between colleagues at the sense of what they had pulled off.

For me it was one of THE great Proms and I have over three hundred programmes.

I now anticipate Sunday's Verdi Requiem with this newly stimulated BBCSO and another great conductor, Semyon Bychkov, with the greatest enthusiasm.

bws
Chris.