Prom 5 (17.7.12): Strauss, Saariaho & Sibelius

[Petrushka]

Having now experienced this concert in the RAH on the radioplayer and the BBC4 telecast via the Beeb’s iPlayer, I feel it’s time to sum it up.

Also Spracht Zarathustra justified its place through its orchestration (organ included) that positively demands the Albert Hall as its venue. Mena’s performance had appropriate Olympian proportions but his attempt at handing on the baton could have caused instant disqualification for his team.

Anne Schwanewilms’ version of the 4 Last Songs turned into Ives The Unanswered Question. And that question remains. Having admitted to Petroc Trelawny in a pre-Concert interview that she wasn’t well, why did she continue? Why risk career & reputation? From this thread, it’s obvious that I was not alone in the RAH in not being able to hear her. Is it fair to the audience to soldier on, in the hope that “it’ll be alright on the night”? What of the denial of a first rung on the ladder for a latter-day Thomas Allen? Did the BBC have a duty to explain the fraught circumstances to the audience in the Hall and those listening live?

I have another more fundamental question that remains unanswered: is the RAH too big a venue for some lyric sopranos who are used to refining a line to a silvery thread of finest silk? I have been disappointed by Renee Fleming “live” in the past and I wonder whether a fully fit Anne Schwanewilms doesn’t fall into the same category? To turn my point about ASZ on its head: is RAH too big for 4LS? Must one sacrifice the voice one craves and install a bigger and coarser singer?

Saariaho’s Magic Lantern piece has sustained my interest through several hearings. I think it is wrong to compare her, possibly unfavourably, with Harrison Birtwistle. Superficial similarities in terms of different layers moving at different speeds are less important than difference in the manner of application and materials. Harrison loads his canvas with mountain ranges of paint using a palette knife, whilst Kaija slowly finesses her filigree patterns using the finest camel-hair brush. Birtwistle is more craggy and Northern than the Finn Saariaho who has absorbed much Gallic spirit in her thirty years spent in Paris. Curiously, Harrison emerged from his “hedgehog” period curled up in a French shed, looking and sounding more British!

Reviewing Mena’s Sibelius, I find that its stature and merits have diminished with repetition, and its vices, too much warmth and a tendency towards sounding disjointed and episodic, have grown.

Great (re)review, edashtav. On the question of the RAH's suitability for the 4LS, I have heard the work on three occasions at the Proms and at no time have I had cause to consider this point, the sopranos in question being perfectly audible from my seat in either 'O' or 'M' stalls.

Like another poster above, I rather thnk that AS's interview with PT was recorded after the concert rather than before as a means of allowing the BBC to broadcast the below par performance on TV and making viewers aware that there was a problem. There was also a rather silly close up of AS having a cough after Beim Schlafengehen. To my eyes this all looked like making an excuse. Despite the removal of the shawl and cough (I've seen several singers have a discreet clearing of the throat between movements - no harm in that) it still seemed to me like a memory lapse rather than being 'unwell'.

[Bryn]

Saariaho was interviewed by Tom Service at the pr-Prom talk at the RCM, and it was hard work for him, as she was rather unforthcoming in her replies. How do you ask a composer about their imaginative sources? There were some excellent young musicians on the platform who gave us to chamber works, one for violin and piano, the other for cello, piano and percussion, I found the latter piece fascinating in its use of the single percussionist's skill. At the Prom I was rather less impressed with Lanterna Magica, with it's dense blocks of sounds and lack of a recognisable structure. Pieces like this might as well never stop, since there is no structure to lead to a resolution.

I thought that the performance of the songs was very erratic. It wasn't just the vocal fluff but the erratic phrasing and lack of that Straussian lyrical flow. I don't think Mena did her much service, he gets good playing from the orchestra, but often fails to create real tension. All in all, an only moderate Prom.

Anyone hoping to hear this Proms Plus item via the iPlayer is advised that the the link to the programme is not currently working. When I accessed the Prom itself via the iPlayer a couple of days ago, the file included both the full concert and all but the last minute or so (applause and closing comments) of the Proms Plus item. Unfortunately they have since trimmed the Prom file to just the duration of the concert. Hopefully they will sort out the Proms Plus file before its falsely claimed availability expires on Tuesday night. If not, and you want to hear it, PM me.

[salymap]

Mary, how right you are, the Proms over the last decade has delivered some very unsuitable voices in these songs. Only Renee Fleming and Soile Isokoski have got near. Anna is probably the best since Felicity Lott!

Cloughie, I still have the Renee Fleming 4LS on a video somewhere.

I recorded the Strauss prom last night and have just played the first half. In spite of her notfeeling well I thought the Anne Schwanewilms performance very enjoyable and the proms have now started for me.

[Flay]

In spite of her notfeeling well I thought the Anne Schwanewilms performance very enjoyable and the proms have now started for me.

I agree, saly. The advantage of microphones!

[jayne lee wilson]

Having now experienced this concert in the RAH on the radioplayer and the BBC4 telecast via the Beeb’s iPlayer, I feel it’s time to sum it up.

Also Spracht Zarathustra justified its place through its orchestration (organ included) that positively demands the Albert Hall as its venue. Mena’s performance had appropriate Olympian proportions but his attempt at handing on the baton could have caused instant disqualification for his team.

Anne Schwanewilms’ version of the 4 Last Songs turned into Ives The Unanswered Question. And that question remains. Having admitted to Petroc Trelawny in a pre-Concert interview that she wasn’t well, why did she continue? Why risk career & reputation? From this thread, it’s obvious that I was not alone in the RAH in not being able to hear her. Is it fair to the audience to soldier on, in the hope that “it’ll be alright on the night”? What of the denial of a first rung on the ladder for a latter-day Thomas Allen? Did the BBC have a duty to explain the fraught circumstances to the audience in the Hall and those listening live?

I have another more fundamental question that remains unanswered: is the RAH too big a venue for some lyric sopranos who are used to refining a line to a silvery thread of finest silk? I have been disappointed by Renee Fleming “live” in the past and I wonder whether a fully fit Anne Schwanewilms doesn’t fall into the same category? To turn my point about ASZ on its head: is RAH too big for 4LS? Must one sacrifice the voice one craves and install a bigger and coarser singer?

Saariaho’s Magic Lantern piece has sustained my interest through several hearings. I think it is wrong to compare her, possibly unfavourably, with Harrison Birtwistle. Superficial similarities in terms of different layers moving at different speeds are less important than difference in the manner of application and materials. Harrison loads his canvas with mountain ranges of paint using a palette knife, whilst Kaija slowly finesses her filigree patterns using the finest camel-hair brush. Birtwistle is more craggy and Northern than the Finn Saariaho who has absorbed much Gallic spirit in her thirty years spent in Paris. Curiously, Harrison emerged from his “hedgehog” period curled up in a French shed, looking and sounding more British!

Reviewing Mena’s Sibelius, I find that its stature and merits have diminished with repetition, and its vices, too much warmth and a tendency towards sounding disjointed and episodic, have grown.

I think you have to guard against metaphorical stereotyping, or characterising, of composers' voices here. Just as Birtwistle is capable of great delicacy (On the Sheer Threshold of the Night, Meridian, and what about those chamber-musical textures throughout the supposedly "monolithic" Earth Dances...) so Saariaho has given us works of great power and energy, even within the spacial and sonic stasis they may evoke or circumscribe - the 2nd movement of Graal Theatre, the dazzling, floating apparitions of Lichtbogen, the spiralling colours and almost driving rhythms of Solar... the filigree and the camel-hair aren't so apparent there are they?

Subjectively (how else...) I felt that the density of musical event in Laterna Magica was not quite sufficient unto its length.
I could impertinently suggest a Boulez-style evolving revision, but more frequent performances might tighten it up and reveal more of what remain ,for me, hidden secrets...

(At least, Edashtav, we agree about the Sibelius 7th (see msg 35)...)

[edashtav]

I think you have to guard against metaphorical stereotyping, or characterising, of composers' voices here. Just as Birtwistle is capable of great delicacy (On the Sheer Threshold of the Night, Meridian, and what about those chamber-musical textures throughout the supposedly "monolithic" Earth Dances...) so Saariaho has given us works of great power and energy, even within the spacial and sonic stasis they may evoke or circumscribe - the 2nd movement of Graal Theatre, the dazzling, floating apparitions of Lichtbogen, the spiralling colours and almost driving rhythms of Solar... the filigree and the camel-hair aren't so apparent there are they?

I'm afraid your cap fits me all too well, Jayne Lee - I am guilty of stereotyping and caricature. I'll look for my strait-jacket to impose some order on my flailing nature.

[french frank]

I'm afraid your cap fits me all too well, Jayne Lee - I am guilty of stereotyping and caricature. I'll look for my strait-jacket to impose some order on my flailing nature.

Congratulations on your rapid assimilation of the essential 'spirit' of this place, edashtav!

[amateur51]

Congratulations on your rapid assimilation of the essential 'spirit' of this place, edashtav!

[Simon B]

Great (re)review, edashtav. On the question of the RAH's suitability for the 4LS, I have heard the work on three occasions at the Proms and at no time have I had cause to consider this point, the sopranos in question being perfectly audible from my seat in either 'O' or 'M' stalls.

While not wishing to pick a fight (honestly!) - they would be from stalls O/M! If a soloist can't be heard from there then much of the audience doesn't have a hope.

Never mind a soprano, the entire LSO at full blast sounds like a weedy chamber group from large parts of the hall. Ok, so in wisely chosen positions it is possible to hear things with clarity, just with no presence or impact - rather like listening on a decent HiFi but at way below a realistic volume. For listeners at the back of the stalls and most of the circle I suspect even Birgit Nilsson in laser mode (hardly appropriate to the FLS) would have struggled to make any real impact. IMO the RAH isn't really a suitable venue for anything subtle other than for a minority of the audience closer to the stage or in lucky acoustic hotspots elsewhere - of which there are some.

[cloughie]

Having now experienced this concert in the RAH on the radioplayer and the BBC4 telecast via the Beeb’s iPlayer, I feel it’s time to sum it up.

Also Spracht Zarathustra justified its place through its orchestration (organ included) that positively demands the Albert Hall as its venue. Mena’s performance had appropriate Olympian proportions but his attempt at handing on the baton could have caused instant disqualification for his team.

Anne Schwanewilms’ version of the 4 Last Songs turned into Ives The Unanswered Question. And that question remains. Having admitted to Petroc Trelawny in a pre-Concert interview that she wasn’t well, why did she continue? Why risk career & reputation? From this thread, it’s obvious that I was not alone in the RAH in not being able to hear her. Is it fair to the audience to soldier on, in the hope that “it’ll be alright on the night”? What of the denial of a first rung on the ladder for a latter-day Thomas Allen? Did the BBC have a duty to explain the fraught circumstances to the audience in the Hall and those listening live?

I have another more fundamental question that remains unanswered: is the RAH too big a venue for some lyric sopranos who are used to refining a line to a silvery thread of finest silk? I have been disappointed by Renee Fleming “live” in the past and I wonder whether a fully fit Anne Schwanewilms doesn’t fall into the same category? To turn my point about ASZ on its head: is RAH too big for 4LS? Must one sacrifice the voice one craves and install a bigger and coarser singer?

Saariaho’s Magic Lantern piece has sustained my interest through several hearings. I think it is wrong to compare her, possibly unfavourably, with Harrison Birtwistle. Superficial similarities in terms of different layers moving at different speeds are less important than difference in the manner of application and materials. Harrison loads his canvas with mountain ranges of paint using a palette knife, whilst Kaija slowly finesses her filigree patterns using the finest camel-hair brush. Birtwistle is more craggy and Northern than the Finn Saariaho who has absorbed much Gallic spirit in her thirty years spent in Paris. Curiously, Harrison emerged from his “hedgehog” period curled up in a French shed, looking and sounding more British!

Reviewing Mena’s Sibelius, I find that its stature and merits have diminished with repetition, and its vices, too much warmth and a tendency towards sounding disjointed and episodic, have grown.

I'd rather hear an unwell AS than many others too fully on form!

[dajhilton]

Suitability of RAH for 4LS . . .

On the question of the RAH's suitability for the 4LS, I suppose I don't have to mention it for the readers of this forum, but it does seem a little surprising that no one has yet mentioned that the Four Last Songs were of course given their world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall, by Flagstad, with Fuertwangler conducting, in 1950.

I don't think anyone complained at the time.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'd rather hear an unwell AS than many others too fully on form!

I would agree. Did you hear Alice Coote trying to sing Fauré &c. in the chamber concert today?

[cloughie]

I would agree. Did you hear Alice Coote trying to sing Fauré &c. in the chamber concert today?

I like Alice's singing too!

[Nick Armstrong]

I like Alice's singing too!

[Richard Tarleton]

I see from today's ST that by a remarkable coincidence Anna S has just recorded FLS with other Strauss bits. Brief review by Hugh Canning but in view of the paywall I daren't quote from it.