Prom 16 (26.7.12): Elgar, Wood, Ravel & Debussy

[Barbirollians]

I have to sound a dissenting note . Sounded like , unsurprisingly, most of the rehearsal time had been spent on the Wood which struck me as a very well played worthless piece of banging and clanging.

The La Mer sounded very prosaic to my ears and the tempi in In the South were pulled all over the place though the solo violist deserved their plaudits .

[cloughie]

How common is the name "Wood" in the musical world?

Henry Wood, Charles Wood, Haydn Wood, Hugh Wood. Any more?

How common is Wigglesworth in the musical world and is Ryan related to Mark - could he be Mark II?

[jayne lee wilson]

I have to sound a dissenting note . Sounded like , unsurprisingly, most of the rehearsal time had been spent on the Wood which struck me as a very well played worthless piece of banging and clanging.

The La Mer sounded very prosaic to my ears and the tempi in In the South were pulled all over the place though the solo violist deserved their plaudits .

Maybe give the Hugh Wood another spin? That gorgeous strings-led slow movement doesn't bang and clang much, does it...? You could go to youtube and listen to "Sweet Lorraine" a few times (Nat King Cole, Peterson Trio), then try to pick it up in the concerto again (most obvious on trombones in (ii)). The Chester Novello website has a very good note on the Wood piece...

I hop we get the sort of weather on Friday that the La Mer performance suggested (to me at least)!

[pilamenon]

An enjoyable Prom - generally I prefer the midweek, bread-and-butter ones that slip under the radar a bit more.

Particularly fine Alassio, I thought - a stirring rendition.
The Henry Wood orchestration of Debussy's was surprisingly effective, too - made it sound like an extract from an undiscovered Respighi tone poem Le catedrali di Roma.

Big fan of Joanna McGregor, and always receptive to any contemporary music on the programme, but the Hugh Wood piano concerto did little for me.

Excellent stuff considering Ryan Wigglesworth had to step in at very short notice.

[RobertLeDiable]

I have to sound a dissenting note . Sounded like , unsurprisingly, most of the rehearsal time had been spent on the Wood which struck me as a very well played worthless piece of banging and clanging.

The La Mer sounded very prosaic to my ears and the tempi in In the South were pulled all over the place though the solo violist deserved their plaudits .

I have to agree. I found the Wood piano concerto only a notch more interesting than the sort of thing several now-forgotten British composers turned out in the 60s, in an attempt to keep up with the European modernist mainstream. And the Henry Wood arrangement didn't work at all - Colin Matthews has done a far better, more subtle and idiomatic job. La Mer went neatly through the motions but sounded stiff and lacking in tension and momentum. Wigglesworth may have stood in at short notice, but there wasn't much spontaneity in his conducting. I've heard him do other things which came across as rather bland, so it may just be how he conducts.

[cloughie]

How common is Wigglesworth in the musical world and is Ryan related to Mark - could he be Mark II?

Well is he related or not - anybody know? Anybody care?