Prom 14: Monday 25th July at 7.30 p.m. (Mahler 9)

[kernelbogey]

Have to say that the extract this morning on SCDR from Norrington's M9 was sufficiently interesting to tempt me to to travel up to London specially. Will otherwise listen on the wireless. I found it very refreshing. I know he makes a fuss about 'being right' - but so what?

[amateur51]

Have to say that the extract this morning on SCDR from Norrington's M9 was sufficiently interesting to tempt me to to travel up to London specially. Will otherwise listen on the wireless. I found it very refreshing. I know he makes a fuss about 'being right' - but so what?

It's all available to listen to on Spotify, kernel - free too!

[Alison]

Knowing Sir Roger, best not to assume assume Monday's performance will be a carbon copy of the CD.

Let's all give it a try.

[perfect wagnerite]

Have to say that the extract this morning on SCDR from Norrington's M9 was sufficiently interesting to tempt me to to travel up to London specially. Will otherwise listen on the wireless. I found it very refreshing. I know he makes a fuss about 'being right' - but so what?

Except that even on SCDR, Norrington's view was misrepresented. Andrew MacGregor said the aim was to perform the piece with "no vibrato". But that quite obviously isn't the case if you listen to the recording - it's simply that vibrato is used very sparingly, as an expressive device rather than as a constant background sound.

But, yes, this looks like being the Prom of the season, and I'm infuriated that I can't get to London on Monday. For me, the Norrington CD is one of the finest Mahler performances I have ever heard - it's as faithful a rendition of what Mahler wrote in the score as you could wish for and, to my ears anyway, shows a structural coherence that so many other performances simply lack. It's a fine demonstration of how a refusal to sentimentalise reveals so much more of the real emotional force of the music (Klemperer's recording achieves something similar, IMO)

But Alison is right - it surely won't just be a repeat of the CD.

[BBMmk2]

Perfect Wagnerite, so am I missing something completely with RN's interpretations then?

[Anna]

Ever since I was given the boxed set of Norrington's Beethoven I have been a fan of his and this is one Prom I am so looking forward to.

[Bryn]

I strongly recommend that as many as possible boycott this Prom. That way I have a better chance of getting in. I can't get there to join the Arena day queue until 16:45 earliest, and most likely not until 17:15.

[perfect wagnerite]

Perfect Wagnerite, so am I missing something completely with RN's interpretations then?

Well, a response to a performance (or even a performer) is highly subjective. But I agree with Bryn: try listening to the pieces as if they were new. I think it's the shock of hearing something so different from the mainstream performing history that focuses one's concentration on the music.

[Boilk]

Has anyone mentioned that this Mahler 9 Prom
is broadcast on BBC Four this Thursday?

If not, it's on BBC Four this Thursday evening.

[Bryn]

Repeated in the early hours of next Friday, I think.

[perfect wagnerite]

msg 232

And you will mock those on here on your message board? http://www.r3ok.com/index.php/topic,...html#msg112449

Wasn't aware I had a message-board. Funny thing, democracy.

However, while vigorous debate is one thing, some of the stuff that has appeared on this board's predecessor and elsewhere in response to Norrington's performances in the recent past - I mean the ex cathedra claims that the man is not a musician, or even an anti-musician - has been frankly idiotic to the point where it's not really worthy of rational discussion, or respect for that matter. Least of all when you consider Norrington's huge contribution to musical life in Britain over half a century.

[johnb]

I'm looking forward to listening to the Mahler 9 and will do so with as open a mind as I can muster.

The only Norrington Mahler I have heard was a Radio 3 broadcast of Mahler 4 a few months ago. I know it is dangerous to say so but I was disappointed. Everything was there, carefully calculated and thought through but, to me, it came over as a sequence of gestures rather than an interpretation that had coalesced and gestated into something greater. It seemed to be examining the music from the outside rather than performing it from within (if that makes any sense at all). It was still an interesting performance but it wasn't one that moved me or one that I would want to return to very often. Of course, I realise that my reaction is affected by my expectations of how Mahler "should" be performed (I started my Mahler 'journey' with Walter and Barbirolli as guides, more recently Abbado) and that perhaps has blinded me to Norrington's Mahler 4.

Anyway, I look forward hearing him conduct the 9th.

[Bryn]

Of the Mahler performances under Norrington's direction, as issued by Hänssler-Classic, I found the 4th the least engaging. The 9th was, for me, the most profound, by quite some depth.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wasn't aware I had a message-board. Funny thing, democracy.

However, while vigorous debate is one thing, some of the stuff that has appeared on this board's predecessor and elsewhere in response to Norrington's performances in the recent past - I mean the ex cathedra claims that the man is not a musician, or even an anti-musician - has been frankly idiotic to the point where it's not really worthy of rational discussion, or respect for that matter. Least of all when you consider Norrington's huge contribution to musical life in Britain over half a century.

Perhaps the Norrington detractors (like myself) shouldn't knock him the way we do, but neither should people place him on a pedestal he does not deserve.

[StephenO]

Everything was there, carefully calculated and thought through but, to me, it came over as a sequence of gestures rather than an interpretation that had coalesced and gestated into something greater. It seemed to be examining the music from the outside rather than performing it from within (if that makes any sense at all).

It makes perfect sense, johnb. That's exactly my view of Norrington's Mahler but then, as a fan of the Bernstein recordings, I suppose I would say that. I'd certainly give tonight's performance a hearing, and hopefully with an open mind, if only to find out if it's a more convincing interpretation than the CD. But I'm going to see the new Harry Potter film instead!