Prom 30: Saturday 6th August ay 6.30 p.m. (NYO)

[Ferretfancy]

antongould,
I'd love to be able to claim it, but it was actually rauschwerk who told us that he had played the Morton Gould!
( Shum mistake here -Ed. )

[BudgieJane]

I sometimes long for the days when a new piece was so radical (Max Davies Worldes Blis, Birtwistle's Panic) that it got booed out of fear and ignorance.

At least one piece has been booed this year; I can't remember what it was, but I think it was the Dalbavie flute concerto.

[hackneyvi]

The Turntable Concerto was also entertaining, I liked some of the deep bass effects... But... The musical material was quite insubstantial ...
Trouble with "accessible" modern music is it seems so instantly forgettable - partly because it is so derivative.

I was in the hall and second everything that Ferretfancy says. The Gabriel Prokofeiv was a virtuoso piece with a very light heart: absolutely suitable for good youth orchestras ...

Agree with both. I very much enjoyed what seemed like quite a light-weight piece of music. I was really glad to have the idea stuck under my nose that turntables are a virtuoso instrument and would really like to hear a composer like Mark Anthony Turnage try his hand; as an instrument, it felt as though it might have great potential whose surface - forgive me - was barely scratched.

[jayne lee wilson]

Absolutely to the point hackneyvi - Turnage is one of the few composers to make a genuinely new and unified language out of classical, jazz, rock and blues elements. His compositional "voice" is so distinctive, he always has something new to say, and this creative intensity forges something often both cool and hot.

Agree with both. I very much enjoyed what seemed like quite a light-weight piece of music. I was really glad to have the idea stuck under my nose that turntables are a virtuoso instrument and would really like to hear a composer like Mark Anthony Turnage try his hand; as an instrument, it felt as though it might have great potential whose surface - forgive me - was barely scratched.

[Tristan Klingsor]

The British mandolinist Alison Stephens - who died so tragically young quite recently - was a worthy, indeed probably superior successor to Hugo d'Alton.

[Serial_Apologist]

Turnage is one of the few composers to make a genuinely new and unified language out of classical, jazz, rock and blues elements.

I agree partly with that statement, having much respect for Turnage - though for some reason many from both sides of the jazz/classical "divide" don't. I think Turnage's problem is that when orientating more to his favoured jazz/fusion vernacular he compromises both languages somewhat.

S-A

[Roehre]

I agree partly with that statement, having much respect for Turnage - though for some reason many from both sides of the jazz/classical "divide" don't. I think Turnage's problem is that when orientating more to his favoured jazz/fusion vernacular he compromises both languages somewhat.
S-A

S_A, I think you are right. Though I like his music very much, I concur with this observation.

Btw, I'd love to hear more works from G.Prokofiev, as I think that this turntable concerto is just a waste of his talent.

[Barbirollians]

Cracking stuff from the orchestra and the G Prokofiev was quite an entertaining piece although rather a lot of his grandad and Stravinsky in the background of the music !

I found Grosvenor rather disappointing in the Britten - he sounded rather brittle and lacking in power to me . I am afraid it was a performance that explained why it is not a repertory piece whilst Richter's recording makes you wonder why it isn't.

[hackneyvi]

I found Grosvenor rather disappointing in the Britten - he sounded rather brittle and lacking in power to me . I am afraid it was a performance that explained why it is not a repertory piece whilst Richter's recording makes you wonder why it isn't.

I love the melody, the brilliance (and the softness) of the long first movement but the other three seem rather leadenly earnest and even hysterical. The four parts don't really seem to form a whole, are more a mosaic of unrelated orchestral movements.

[Serial_Apologist]

I love the melody, the brilliance (and the softness) of the long first movement but the other three seem rather leadenly earnest and even hysterical. The four parts don't really seem to form a whole, are more a mosaic of unrelated orchestral movements.

Yes, Britten was good on variation form, less hot when it came to developing or cohereing his ideas. Give his love for Mahler's gifts as orchestrator this has always struck me as strange. That inability to sustain or carry forward initiating ideas was common in many 20th century English composers.

[Elion]

Cracking stuff from the orchestra and the G Prokofiev was quite an entertaining piece although rather a lot of his grandad and Stravinsky in the background of the music !

I found Grosvenor rather disappointing in the Britten - he sounded rather brittle and lacking in power to me . I am afraid it was a performance that explained why it is not a repertory piece whilst Richter's recording makes you wonder why it isn't.

I'm surprised by this reaction. I'm very familiar with all three of Richter's recordings, these being the official Decca CD with Britten conducting (5/12/1970), their live performance (13/6/1967) and his live performance with Svetlanov (28/5/1967) and Grosvenor's could hold up against all of these three, also finding his own fresh insights. You may not be aware that the RAH piano is always voiced within an inch of its life in order to aid projection in the massive hall, which nearly always results in some brittleness via the broadcast sound. But I found considerable power in Grosvenor's performance, and bearing in mind he was playing with a National Youth Orchestra of over 100 players, whereas Richter played this with the much smaller ECO. I see on another forum that someone has uploaded a recording (in wav) of Grosvenor and NYO/Jurowski playing the Britten in Aldeburgh two nights before, on 4th August. This strikes me as an even finer performance, even surpassing Richter in places, though it's a shame it's only in unofficial sound. https://rcpt.yousendit.com/119080028...15148f3e744c19

Elion

[Chris Newman]

In the hall I found Benjamin Grosvenor's playing in the Britten stunning. I have never before been "switched on" by the piece until Saturday. It was very powerful playing and any brittleness was the usual cry of pain from a Steinway under stress (not my favourite concert grand).

Since the concert I have heard Michel Legrande and Shura Cherkasky playing the Morton Gould Boogie Woogie Etude which was new to me. I agree that the Frenchman gets more swing and the Ukrainian more fun from it but as an encore and at his high speed Grosvenor's version was a thrilling minute or so.

[Petrushka]

From my seat in M Stalls the whole concert sounded terrific. The Gabriel Prokofiev was highly entertainng - yes, I also spotted Stravinsky and (Sergei) Prokofiev references - but it got the concert off to a great start. The Britten Piano Concerto was entirely new to me but it was clearly well played and am looking forward to hearing it again. The R&J excerpts were stunning from all concerned. A great Prom!

[Norfolk Born]

I tuned into BBC2 tonight specifically for the Britten and was most impressed with the soloist's way with his namesake's concerto! I think it's a remarkable work, although like others I rate the violon concerto even more highly. It seemed to me that Benjamin Grosvenor was equal to the demands the Op. 13 makes of the soloist. He's really, as they say, 'something else' - an extraordinary talent.

[marvin]

I enjoyed the shear pianistic skill of Ben last night but thought the whole thing was too highly paced and blame rehearsals for that. The conductor should have used his skills to slow the orchestra down and give more light and shade because, as it was, it was too monochrome.