Prom 1 (13.7.12): First Night of the Proms

[Pabmusic]

I've watched the opening night on iPlayer now. I thought Norrington's Cockaige was sluggish - too much lingering over the scenery - it never took off.

Here's a curiosity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FND1COgyV6w It's from the old film Battle for Music, and there's Sir Adrian giving the first two minutes or so with the LPO , but even this short excerpt has more life.

The rest of the programme was OK (the Turnage was rather slight, I thought). I was most struck by the Coronation Ode, which I thought would hold no surprises - its principal emotion was nervous anxiety. To dismiss this as a jingoistic piece is not to have read the text. Not great poetry indeed, though not absolutely dire, either. But the sentiments... Remember. this is a piece celebrating the crowning of a new king after 63 years of the old queen (no titters, please) and what do we get? "Through our thankful state let the cries of hate die in joy away! Cease, ye sounds of strife!"(cries of hate? - sounds of strife? - Fenians? Socialists? Republicans? Tottering monarchy?). "Britain ... see that thy sons be strong if ever the war trump peal ... Under the drifting smoke and the scream of the flying shell, when the hillside hisses with death, and never a foe in sight ...". "Peace ... when comest thou, our brethren long for thee? ... give back the father to his children's arms" (this is just before the end of the South African war - a modern war that had shocked Britain so much, and in which the German Empire had openly armed the Boers). Elgar's music is very much in his Caractacus mode, by which I mean quite gentle, and the first appearance of the Land of Hope tune is quite beautiful.

I'm glad I watched it.

[Bax-of-Delights]

... 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

I switched on to see KD gushing and over-pronouncing Bryn Terfel, Bryn Terfel, Bryn Terfel and moved back to BBC4's "The Passions of RVW" which I had missed first time round. Returned much later to hear the final bars of Elgar and, true to form, KD gushing with superlatives and telling me that I won't want to miss something or other. Oh really?

[Mary Chambers]

This concert was very much NOT my taste in music, though I suppose the performances were quite good. The Turnage was all right. Wonderful singers wasted on Elgar, and Terfel couldn't bring the Delius to life for me - but then I've never been a Terfel fan. Choir was good on the whole, though. I don't think it's possible to put the words out of your mind in the Elgar. If a composer sets words, they are part of the music, not separate from it. I quite like Whitman, but I don't think the text Delius used was very suitable for setting - or maybe he just didn't do it very well. I've always liked the title Sea Drift, and then feel let down by the actual piece. The Tippett wasn't bad, but not as interesting as much of his work.

Thank goodness Britten, and Tippett to a lesser extent, came along to put some bite and life into English music. As you can tell, I was underwhelmed by this first night!

[teamsaint]

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..........)

not sure what you are saying. are you saying we need to agree with every sentiment to enjoy the music? Are you suggesting that we can't sometimes put our own opinions to one side to appreciate a lyric or song?

[MrGongGong]

not sure what you are saying. are you saying we need to agree with every sentiment to enjoy the music? Are you suggesting that we can't sometimes put our own opinions to one side to appreciate a lyric or song?

I wasn't being serious
though some things can't be put aside (as I find with DOG)
it's interesting to notice which (and I think this might be completely personal ?) can and which can't
I don't have any belief in god but think that the Matthew Passion is a work of genius
but can't "put aside" the dreadful poem in the Elgar .......... nuff said

It is odd to find enthusiasts for radical music who are entirely opposed to it's stance...... you don't get many Crass fans in the Tory Party for example

[PJPJ]

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.

I thought it well worth reviving, too. Especially in such a fine performance and in that location.

I'm not sure the First Night really needed a Jubilee-Olympics theme - certainly the four conductors seemed to make heavy weather of the "joke" early on in the introduction. Sir RN clearly loves Cockaigne, I not heard it come across quite so con amore before. [The side-join in the Van Beinum recording is imprinted so deeply, I hear it in all performances.]

Good to hear some light Tippett as well. "Sea Drift" was wonderfully paced, though Terfel seemed to me to be struggling at times, the sprechstimme perhaps a necessity due to the inability to have a damned good cough and spit. He was also a little too closely miked for my taste, at least on the R3 mix.

[MrGongGong]

Sir RN clearly loves Cockaigne,

not something one usually admits in public

(when my daughters youth orchestra played it there was conspicuous sniffing in the rests !)

Claptons version is good as well

[JohnSkelton]

Thank goodness Britten, and Tippett to a lesser extent, came along to put some bite and life into English music.

Watching the Coronation Ode, with subtitles: the texts for Purcell's Odes are hilariously and rampantly sycophantic (the idea of Divine Right continues a posthumous existence in the texts as both practical joke and political threat), but Purcell's settings are so quick-witted and rich in invention and there's none of that awful sense of a manly breast doing a bit of controlled heaving under a starched shirt front that the Coronation Ode has in both music and text. IMHO, of course .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXpC9kfyZNE

[BBMmk2]

I thought the First Nighty was really good.Ok looking back RNwas probably being rather self in dulgent in the Elgar, but I think he practically left the BBCSO do 'get on with it'.

[Contre Bombarde]

I thought it well worth reviving, too. Especially in such a fine performance and in that location.

It (the Elgar) has always been one of my favourites and long overdue an airing. It was a fine performance last night.

My parents were members of CUMS in their post-grad years and sang on the 1977 recording under Philip Ledger from KCC. I don't have the LP here but think that Felicity Lott and Richard Morton were two of the soloists. The family story is that I was born an appropriate time after the final recording session and precipitated a slightly earlier than planned wedding... They're still together and happy so that's OK then.

That was probably my only live Prom visit this year - Madame CB and I are off to Île Saint-Louis and les parents dans la loi for a break from London as the crowds arrive.

Cavaillé-Coll, here we come...

[teamsaint]

I wasn't being serious
though some things can't be put aside (as I find with DOG)
it's interesting to notice which (and I think this might be completely personal ?) can and which can't
I don't have any belief in god but think that the Matthew Passion is a work of genius
but can't "put aside" the dreadful poem in the Elgar .......... nuff said

It is odd to find enthusiasts for radical music who are entirely opposed to it's stance...... you don't get many Crass fans in the Tory Party for example

I can think of one or two people who who fall into the "tory Crass loving " type of category.......but generally i agree.
In a longer life, I would spend a lot more time on those lyrics that Brahms uses.....crazy romantic stuff, and full to the brim with blacksmiths' stories ! Magic !!

(Re the passion, its still a great human story).

[JohnSkelton]

I thought the First Nighty was really good.Ok looking back RNwas probably being rather self in dulgent in the Elgar, but I think he practically left the BBCSO do 'get on with it'.

Are you at sea in choppy waters this morning, Bbm?

[teamsaint]

not something one usually admits in public

(when my daughters youth orchestra played it there was conspicuous sniffing in the rests !)

Claptons version is good as well

[BBMmk2]

Are you at sea in choppy waters this morning, Bbm?

Ah, looks that way JS!!

[Northender]

I switched on to see KD gushing and over-pronouncing Bryn Terfel, Bryn Terfel, Bryn Terfel and moved back to BBC4's "The Passions of RVW" which I had missed first time round. Returned much later to hear the final bars of Elgar and, true to form, KD gushing with superlatives and telling me that I won't want to miss something or other. Oh really?

Let's hear it for the inventor of the fast-forward button! (I'd already planned to ignore all the waffle when watching it on my PVR. It's a principle that I also apply to 'Countdown' ).