Prom 1 (13.7.12): First Night of the Proms

[BBMmk2]

Someone atR3 really needs to have a word withKD abiut her prounciations!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

forgot to say that i watched the rerun of the Passions of RVW before the Roy Orbison ... each time i flicked back to the Prom to check it out switched back pretty instantly

[PJPJ]

not something one usually admits in public

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

........

[Barbirollians]

It was a ragbag of a concert . How much better it might have been with one conductor - preferably Gardner or Elder - with Cockaigne replaced by the Serenade to Music and Coronation Ode by Falstaff !

[Roehre]

What was the Turnage piece like?

Not his best, I'm afraid. But as opening for an occasion like this very passable I think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How much better it might have been with one ... Coronation Ode by Falstaff !

Or, to keep the choir involved, The Music Makers: infinitely better piece, inexplicably under performed?

[Ravensbourne]

The Music Makers

Or, to keep the choir involved, The Music Makers: infinitely better piece, inexplicably under performed?

The BBC forces are performing it later in the year.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The BBC forces are performing it later in the year.

Thank you, Ravens, this is good news: do you know who's conducting it?

[Nick Armstrong]

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...

I had (have ) that Ledger recording on cassette: good stuff

Great organ (not C-C but still) in the local on the Île Saint-Louis, as I'm sure you know http://www.saintlouisenlile.catholiq...5#.UAFJGI5Z-Ng

As used to great effect in these lovely recordings: http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Regent/REGCD254

(I envy you very much, I lived on the Île Saint-Louis for a year, rue le Regrattier, in a house previously occupied by Robespierre's number two)

[Petrushka]

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.

I'd go along with this. I really don't know why people find it so difficult to listen to a piece of music without always looking at it from a modern perspective and try to imagine it in the context of the time. What we heard last night was the 1911 version for the coronation of King George V and listening to the magnificent Gerald Finley in 'Britain ask of thyself' I felt acutely aware that just 3 short years later the First World War began.

The programme would have been far better without the wretched Delius and Edward Gardner should have been the sole conductor.

All in all, then, the least memorable First Night for many a year but not, unlike the summer, a total write off.

[Pabmusic]

I..What we heard last night was the 1911 version for the coronation of King George V and listening to the magnificent Gerald Finley in 'Britain ask of thyself' I felt acutely aware that just 3 short years later the First World War began.

Yes, I agree. But I don't really get the reference to the '1911 version'. It's appeared here several times. The only difference between the 1902 and 1911 versions was that Elgar replaced the second movement (Daughter of Ancient Kings - for Alexandra) with The Queen, for Mary. Last night we heard both - so it was really the 1902 and 1911 versions.

[PJPJ]

Or, to keep the choir involved, The Music Makers: infinitely better piece, inexplicably under performed?

Those who'd have preferred other pieces of music played on the First Night would also need to change the Olympics-Coronation-London-relay theme, of course. Otherwise, The Music Makers, Falstaff, Serenade to Music or almost anything else doesn't fit in with that.

Perhaps some would have liked another outing for Foulds' World Requiem. Come on, hands up....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Those who'd have preferred other pieces of music played on the First Night would also need to change the Olympics-Coronation-London-relay theme, of course.

Ahh, would that I could, PJX2, would that I could!
I don't dislike Coronation Owed because it's jingoistic (so is the end of Meistersinger!) but because I think it isn't a very good piece. Bronze Medal at best! Hornspieler in another thread refers to a "bread and butter" piece of Elgar: well, that sums up my attitude to this piece - only the bread has gone stale and the butter rancid.

HOWEVER, others seem to have enjoyed it, so the blazes with my opinion.

Perhaps some would have liked another outing for Foulds' World Requiem. Come on, hands up....

<handsupemoticon>

[Contre Bombarde]

I had (have ) that Ledger recording on cassette: good stuff

Great organ (not C-C but still) in the local on the Île Saint-Louis, as I'm sure you know http://www.saintlouisenlile.catholiq...5#.UAFJGI5Z-Ng

As used to great effect in these lovely recordings: http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Regent/REGCD254

(I envy you very much, I lived on the Île Saint-Louis for a year, rue le Regrattier, in a house previously occupied by Robespierre's number two)

Thank you Caliban, the Île Saint-Louis is indeed a magical place - we'll be there for around 5 weeks from Monday before coming back to England when I usually play for a few services on the 2 manual Father Willis in the church in my parents village to give the organist there a break. The Aubertin organ in Saint Louis is a dream; looks utterly fantastic, is voiced to perfection and I don't think Bach could sound better, certainly in France, at least. I love the coupler for the manuals which resembles slightly the "H gate" gear change on a classic Ferrari! I have a recording of the Bach Trio Sonatas from by Benjamin Alard, the Titulaire at Saint Louis, which I don't think has been bettered in recent years.

I use this break partly to revisit some of my old haunts, especially the café near St. Sulpice where I first met my wife, and to catch up with my teacher and other mentors and friends from my time in Paris - no doubt some keys will be pressed and wine downed across the city Madame CB will be shopping with her mother and sisters...

Best wishes to all for the rest of the Proms season.

CB

[Ferretfancy]

Someone atR3 really needs to have a word withKD abiut her prounciations!

I'll give the PROUNCIATION Unit a call, maestro! ( Sorree! I always mistype remember for some reason! )