Prom 1 (13.7.12): First Night of the Proms

[subcontrabass]

What was the Turnage piece like?

Sounded to me like some of the orchestra warming up before the first proper item.

[Simon B]

Sounded to me like some of the orchestra warming up before the first proper item.

House!

[RobertLeDiable]

Apart from that you enjoyed it...?

I have a softish spot for the Tippett, though in this context it was a bit of a yawn (Brabbins conducting it dutifully with his head in the score and not a lot of flair). As I said, I don't mind hearing the Delius occasionally and there was at least a rationale for it. The trouble is, if you start with the idea of an olympic relay, then add the jubilee and the first night requirement for something loud, British and choral plus the Delius anniversary, you're on a hiding to nothing - your programme is going to be a ghastly hotch potch before you've even decided what pieces to include. Cockaigne is very poor stuff next to the symphonies, Enigma, the concertos and Falstaff and it simply doesn't work if you meander along the way Norrington did - and he's such an unmusical conductor. The Ode is beyond awful, really. It's time we stopped pretending that these jingoistic period pieces are worth reviving.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... i make no apology for finding all the bbc2 broadcast of this prom gahstly [royal toady katy d etc] and the Delius was especially dire i found but not as repulsive as the royalty guff ....totally cringed me out

did you see the repeat of Roy Orbison with Friends on BBC4 ... now that was great

[pmartel]

Being a seasoned video camera operator, I would not have tolerated that from my director. Shoddy camera work during a live event is just not on. I've seen some nasty 'power zooms' which got to air

[Barbirollians]

Caliban - I thought the tenor was OK but that the other were excellent - just wasted on a terrible period piece of a work .

[jayne lee wilson]

Whilst the programme was an ill-judged miscellany, I listened to part one, and heard an invigorating, jazzily energetic mini-overture from Turnage, a freshly-read, expressively moulded and brilliantly played Cockaigne (I thought the piece was lost to me through familiarity, but RN refreshed it), and a Sea Drift remarkable for Bryn Terfel's very clear, articulate, meaningfully sung reading of the Whitman text. He didn't sing it like an aria - something closer to a cantabile sprechstimme. In the famous line where "loved" is repeated 5 times, he traced a careful course from remembered joy to eternal sadness, daringly quiet in the last utterance.

Why can't more listeners recognise Sea Drift for the masterpiece it is? Is it all too free-flowing and organic, do you want some sonata-formality imposed upon it? It's gorgeous - but you need a quiet mind for it to work on you...

With Norrington... too many here are listening through a filter of preconception, he changes his approach frequently, and tonight employed a surprisingly spontaneous and expressive rubato. Yet some criticise him for that, as at other times for his rigidity...

[Nick Armstrong]

With Norrington... too many here are listening through a filter of preconception, he changes his approach frequently, and tonight employed a surprisingly spontaneous and expressive rubato. Yet some criticise him for that, as at other times for his rigidity...

I was just judging it by what it sounded like...

[amac4165]

Whilst the programme was an ill-judged miscellany, .

It never really got off the ground as a classical program. The Coronation ode certainly comes off a lot better live than it does in recording, I listened to the 1977 recording a few days ago and thought it a monumental Edwardian bore ! But it was much better-than-expected in the hall. Although I couldn't help thinking that the soloists would have been better used on something else!

Oh well one down 91 to go!

[jayne lee wilson]

I was just judging it by what it sounded like...

I think you were in the hall, Caliban? Perhaps we got a better balance at home..?
Unless you were still hung over... (brandy in the queue to keep warm perhaps?)

[Nick Armstrong]

I think you were in the hall, Caliban? Perhaps we got a better balance at home..?
Unless you were still hung over... (brandy in the queue to keep warm perhaps?)

No, I was listening at home too... and I haven't touched a drop today! Honeshhht!!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Ode is beyond awful, really. It's time we stopped pretending that these jingoistic period pieces are worth reviving.

Well I think it's well worth reviving. And it isn't particularly jingoistic if you bother to look at the words, unlike the version of Land of Hope and Glory sung on the Last Night.

[Pabmusic]

Well I think it's well worth reviving. And it isn't particularly jingoistic if you bother to look at the words, unlike the version of Land of Hope and Glory sung on the Last Night.

How I agree with you! The Coronation Ode is a fine piece of occasional music, and it deserves the occasional airing. It's odd that the mores of Edwardian times seem to affect some of us so acutely, 110 years on. We don't have any qualms about performing other, far more jingoistic pieces - 1812 (groans aside), Finlandia or the 'Leningrad' Symphony. And yet the piece isn't - as you say - particularly jingoistic anyway, given that it was written for the gala concert for the new king. It's actually a little neurotic in places. It is a bit of an oddity, but hardly an inappropriate one in this jubilee year. There's also a tendency to dismiss the music because we don't like the words, which seems a little unthinking to me.

[teamsaint]

How I agree with you! The Coronation Ode is a fine piece of occasional music, and it deserves the occasional airing. It's odd that the mores of Edwardian times seem to affect some of us so acutely, 110 years on. We don't have any qualms about performing other, far more jingoistic pieces - 1812 (groans aside), Finlandia or the 'Leningrad' Symphony. And yet the piece isn't - as you say - particularly jingoistic anyway, given that it was written for the gala concert for the new king. It's actually a little neurotic in places. It is a bit of an oddity, but hardly an inappropriate one in this jubilee year. There's also a tendency to dismiss the music because we don't like the words, which seems a little unthinking to me.

I agree, in theory, that we should be able to put the words to one side and still enjoy the music. But for a lot of people, it doesn't work that way.
I listen to a bit of Brahms Choral music/songs, and seldom understand the words....perhaps I would get some nasty surprises if I read translations of them all, but it doesn't stop me enjoying them .
For me , though, something called "Coronation Ode " is doomed before it starts. my loss perhaps.
Personally, instead of yet more "celebration" of two over celebrated events, the first night would have been better spent addressing some other issue..or none at all.
I really couldn't bring myself to listen. Sad, because I usually enjoy the First Night.

[MrGongGong]

I agree, in theory, that we should be able to put the words to one side and still enjoy the music. But for a lot of people, it doesn't work that way.t.

really ?
then they must be superfluous then ............
So how about the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" then ?

it's a cracking good tune

(and we've been round the DOG track enough..........)