Prom 33 (7.8.12): Wagner, Bruckner & MacMillan

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tuesday 7 August at 7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde – Prelude (Act 1) (9 mins)
James MacMillan: Credo (c25 mins) - BBC co-commission
- World Premiere
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A major (55 mins)

Manchester Chamber Choir (Proms debut)
Northern Sinfonia Chorus (Proms debut)
Rushley Singers (Proms debut)
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena conductor


A dramatic world premiere by James Macmillan is set alongside tragically romantic music by Wagner and one of Bruckner's most expansive symphonies.

A world premiere at the Proms is always exciting and this is no exception. Hot on the heels of his "Gloria", composed for the 50th anniversary of the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral, is James MacMillan's dramatic and full-blooded "Credo", performed by the BBC Philharmonic, their chief conductor Juanjo Mena and the combined Manchester Chamber Choir, Northern Sinfonia Chorus and Rushley Singers. Bruckner's Sixth Symphony was one of his favourites - bold and expansive and entirely befitting of the space of the Royal Albert Hall. The concert opens with the Prelude to Wagner's landmark tale of tragic love - Tristan und Isolde - performed here with Wagner's rarely heard concert ending.

[kernelbogey]

Juanjo Mena conducts Tuesday's Prom. Previous comments on his conducting his earlier Prom suggest his approach to the Bruckner will be interesting.

[kernelbogey]

Tonight's Prom.

[Flosshilde]

A rather a subdued Tristan prelude I thought - it does need some dramatic tension, which was distinctly lacking.

[Flosshilde]

Is there anything in the fact that this prom featured the work of two intensely Catholic composers - and Wagner?

[Petrushka]

No timid timps tonight! Overcoming my usual resistance to hearing British orchestras in Bruckner this was an enjoyable 6th, strings and winds nicely blended, horns a trifle recessed in the overall picture perhaps but the trombones going a bit too much the other way for my liking. I missed the rounded tone in the brass that you get from the very best Bruckner bands. Great timps though as I say and so important in Bruckner (as in Beethoven and Sibelius).

Looking forward to JLW's contribution on this one.

[Petrushka]

Is there anything in the fact that this prom featured the work of two intensely Catholic composers - and Wagner?

Don't know. If they wanted a to make up a trio of intensely Catholic composers a short work by Messiaen could have opened the concert.

[Alison]

Ashamed to say I craved greater monumentality in the Bruckner symphony

[amac4165]

No timid timps tonight! Overcoming my usual resistance to hearing British orchestras in Bruckner this was an enjoyable 6th, strings and winds nicely blended, horns a trifle recessed in the overall picture perhaps but the trombones going a bit too much the other way for my liking. I missed the rounded tone in the brass that you get from the very best Bruckner bands. Great timps though as I say and so important in Bruckner (as in Beethoven and Sibelius).

Looking forward to JLW's contribution on this one.

Just back form the hall - a very creditable performance of Bruckner conducted without score btw. A world of difference to the 8th last week The timpani made me jump at one point !


To be honest I did not care one way or the other for the rest of the program - I wonder if the Credo is a step on the way to a full mass ?

amac

[jayne lee wilson]

When I heard Mena conduct the Bruckner 6th in the recent MediaCity broadcast, I wondered if his creation of such beauty of tone was a little too sensuous and caressing, and the climaxes a little fierce. I also felt that the RAH might be a better setting for the reading he was aiming at. And so it proved!

Tonight, Juanjo Mena showed himself to be a true Brucknerian, able to achieve an effortless sense of climactic weight and power with a full, slightly muted orchestral palette crowned by fairly prominent brass at exactly the right moments. With the tender beauty of the strings, achieving a rare softness of attack in the broadly-paced adagio, or a lovely light balletic, playfulness in the trio, I began to wonder if Mena had Karajan's Bruckner in mind. Listening to the finale of HvK's 6th from 1980 confirmed that impression - that Mena and the BBC Phil were worthy of such an exalted comparison. Whilst I tend to prefer a steadier pace in the finale, the naturalness of Mena's Rubato meant that it always sounded truly Brucknerian - unfolding naturally with time to explore - to admire the scenery even as we hurtled toward the brusque conclusion; the dancing little 5-note figure which helps to drive the second half of the movement danced in so lightly and gracefully, recalling the trio before developing weight and speed.

I had similarly admired the relaxed, exploratory way Mena unfolded the splendid vista of the 1st movement, but still managed to control the surging waves of the coda, where one of Bruckner's greatest inspirations can too easily overshadow the whole piece. (You can see why Jochum said that this was, problematically, the main climax of this symphony). Difficult, too, for a conductor to achieve continuous audibility of the little rhythm that opens the piece, but Mena made a terrific stab at it. This rhythmic clarity, and the balance of relaxed breadth against momentum in the majestoso, underlined the movement's top-down dominance. So together with the quickish pace for the finale, there was an almost Haydnesque cast to the performance. The horn solos were lovely throughout, but especially touching in the adagio, cushioned with gorgeous softness by the strings.

The performance - so effortlessly, naturally Brucknerian - sounded ready for the studio... if only they could hire out the Musikverein or the Konzerthaus to tape it in.

[jayne lee wilson]

Very impressed with Macmillan's Credo too!

The Pater and Filius sections are quite starkly instrumented, vocally almost ritualistic, with some startling leaps and high choral registers; and delicate, intimate voicings for three solo violas towards the end of Filius. The Spiritus Sanctus is more textually elaborated - I felt a slight sense of anticlimax here which wasn't entirely dispelled on a second hearing - but it draws the musical threads together tightly for a fulfilling end.
The three choruses soared impressively and expressively around the sympathetic space, the winds and brass seeming to comment on their intense declamations.

It's a striking piece - do catch up with it if you missed it live.

[kernelbogey]

The performance - so effortlessly, naturally Brucknerian - sounded ready for the studio... if only they could hire out the Musikverein or the Konzerthaus to tape it in.

Jayne, you write beautifully.

[EdgeleyRob]

Jayne, you write beautifully.

I couldn't agree more.Jayne's reviews are by far the best thing on this forum.

[Petrushka]

I couldn't agree more.Jayne's reviews are by far the best thing on this forum.

[jayne lee wilson]

Blushing a little now... (metaphorically anyway, the wine already did that - but it was a rather nice ribeye, so...) I listened again last night to the last 2 movements of Mena's Bruckner 6 and was even more impressed. Then I played Karajan's finale on the bedside Tivoli as I was getting up. Yes, the steadier pace is telling, but Mena has plenty of time.

It always takes me 2 or 3 listens to get the hang of the finale each time I return, an astounding quicksilver flow of constantly varied and developing main ideas, with short subsidiary motifs used to give rhythmic impetus (often related to AB's signature 2+3 rhythmic shape eg. No.4 (i)), as it moves through many changes of mood and direction to achieve its tonal goal. Remarkable piece, very advanced as a structure - no wonder Robert Simpson rarely sticks a "rondo" or "sonata" label on a Bruckner movement. You can't really apply formal grids to this music.
It probably took Mahler till the 1st movement of the 7th to achieve a comparable fluency and integration.

I sometimes think the most useful term ever invented for late 19th/early 20th century symphonic achievements was "developing variation" - courtesy of Arnold Schoenberg.

So - just go with the flow...