Saturday Matinee Prom 4: 3rd September at 3.00 p.m. (Tippett, Taverna, Gubaidulina)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Strings and voices are centre-stage in this concert - with a solo cello taking the part of protagonists both human and divine. In Tavener's "Popule meus", the cello represents the all-merciful God in a piece which explores modern man's rejection of the Deity. In Gubaidulina's "Canticle of the Sun", setting the famous hymn to creation by St Francis of Assisi, the cello becomes the saint himself, glorying in the world around him, in life and even death.

Added to this mix, the ever life-enhancing music of Sir Michael Tippett - a suite for strings, together with a part-song setting Gerard Manley Hopkins' celebration of a bird in flight, and a motet which commemorates another formed of winged creature - the heavenly host of angels.

Tippett: The Windhover
Tippett: Plebs angelica
Sir John Tavener: Popule meus (UK Premiere)
Tippett: Little Music for Strings
Sofia Gubaidulina: The Canticle of the Sun

Natalie Clein (cello)
BBC Singers
Britten Sinfonia
David Hill (conductor).

[Bryn]

Is Christopher Cook unwell? He sound as if he is either recovering from a stroke of has be having a liquid lunch. I do hope it's the latter, rather than the former.

[Roehre]

Is Christopher Cook unwell? He sound as if he is either recovering from a stroke of has be having a liquid lunch. I do hope it's the latter, rather than the former.

To me he sounded as having a cold (with doesn't exclude the liquid lunch, obviously )

[Chris Newman]

The members of the BBC Singers often come in for criticism for the alleged individual sounds of their voices. I thought they did Sir Michael Tippett's joyful songs The Windhover and Plebs Angelica a great service today. Thanks to them and David Hill. I need to hear the Tavener again before commenting.

[Roehre]

The members of the BBC Singers often come in for criticism for the alleged individual sounds of their voices. I thought they did Sir Michael Tippett's joyful songs The Windhover and Plebs Angelica a great service today. Thanks to them and David Hill.

I fully agree

[Quarky]

Strings and voices are centre-stage in this concert - with a solo cello taking the part of protagonists both human and divine.

A very interesting concert, which I will have to listen to a few more times to extract what I can from it.

Unfortunately, I have developed an antipathy for Christopher Cook's exaggeratedly intense analyses and overprecise diction - prejudice perhaps, but for me it partly spoilt this series of concerts. Still I guess it was slightly better than the chat last night on H&N between SMP and a South African musician - something about going to bed in her pyjamas with bits hanging out, so far as I recall.

[bluestateprommer]

Very good concert, as have been the Saturday afternoon matinees overall. This is a very underappreciated series within the Proms, for perhaps obvious reasons, since the repertoire for these concerts is for smaller forces and thus tends to be subtler, by default, than the big scale works done in the RAH. Admittedly, there's also the relatively high quotient of contemporary works, which might be an immediate turn off for many (not me, I hesitate to say). Unfortunately, that sense that these concerts are for "the connoisseurs" reflects in the relative lack of # of hits on this forum, and the relative lack of comments on the official Proms website.