Prom 42 (13.8.12): Prokofiev, Neuwirth & Bartók

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Monday 13 August at 7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet – Suite No. 1 (30 mins)
Olga Neuwirth: Remnants of Songs ... an Amphigony (20 mins)- UK Premiere
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (37 mins)

Lawrence Power viola
Philharmonia Orchestra
Susanna Mälkki conductor

Susanna Mälkki returns to the Proms with genre-defining 20th century favourites. Revisiting the doomed love of Verona's most romantic couple, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet effectively revived the evening-length ballet, just as Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra cemented the potential of an apparently contradicitory title. Between these classics, Lawrence Power joins the Philharmonia Orchestra to tackle the fiendlishly difficult solo part in Olga Neuwirth's recent work for viola and orchestra, comprising five breathtaking, seething, allusion-rich movements.

[jayne lee wilson]

Terrific Bartok wasn't it?

From its delicate explorations of texture and rhythm, to a superbly weighty, sharply-defined delivery of those big, brassy climaxes, this was a fresh and individual reading by a conductor who had her own view of the piece, with an orchestra easily equal to the task. It's a great compliment to say that it didn't really remind me of any recording... I loved the slow-virtuoso, transparent yet sinuous combinations of (ii), the intensity of the nocturne in (iii) which had a marvellous, subtle gradient of colour and dynamics - truly out-of-the-ordinary!
Malkki always had time to relax, to let the music breathe in its quieter lyrical passages, turning up the volume effortlessly for the brass cadenza in (i), or those piercing nightmares in (iii). The lower strings were wonderfully idiomatic in the intro to (i) or all those shades from the slavonic palette in (iii), singing out the Hungarian folktune in (iv), as beautifully as I've ever heard it live.

Excited and very entertained by Olga Neuwirth's "Amphigory"! I'll have to listen again to say much more, but I was fascinated to (try to) follow the viola's careful threadings through some vivid, even uproarious, amazingly varied textures and musical allusions. How many other concertante pieces end with the soloist alone - or almost? The only one I can think of is Lutoslawki's Cello Concerto.
Best new piece this season, I think - but it needs another go, and my slightly shaky health and exhaustion will mean coming back to it tomorrow.
But - "Remnants of Songs" - highly commended - and recommended!

(And as Jon Swain said at the end of the broadcast, a namecheck for the sound-balancer tonight: Susan Thomas )

[Bryn]

... a namecheck for the sound-balancer tonight: Susan Thomas )

Who used, at least, to work for the Beeb directly, and Radio 3 in particular. Whether she is now one of SIS Live's audio engineers I do not know. This year's sound is certainly a significant step forward from some of that on offer last year.

[jayne lee wilson]

Just google on "SISlive Case Study Proms" and you'll find a detailed account of what SIS have done in 2010/11 at The Proms. They only seem to have responsibility for the BBC2 and HD TV balances (including extra mics, and not only for the 5.1 HDTV feed!) and, as I discovered last year, make clear that Radio 3 has its own audio feed, which is sent on to BBC4.

If you find your way to the SIS homepage, look under "About us>Music&Events>case studies>proms."

If you want to read some in-depth analyses of all this, comparing different BBC TV and Radio feeds, check out Jim le Surf's Audio Miscellany webpages. Technical with a capital "T" now!
(audiomisc.co.uk, link don't work as ever.. Under HFN 2011, look at "2011 proms iPlayer still rules", lots of other good stuff too.)

[Bryn]

The link:

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/BBC/Proms2011/iPlayerRulesAgain.html

seems to work from here, and saves a fair bit of digging around.

Many thanks for the pointers. To save me searching around there for ages, jlw, do you know off-hand whether the subject of dynamic limiting applied during some of the early Proms last year has been discussed there?

The pdf at http://www.sislive.tv/download/case%20studies/Proms.pdf is also useful. It seems my informant re. SIS taking over responsibility for Radio 3 sound was way off the mark. My apologies therefore to SIS. It would seem that the BBC's own Radio 3 audio engineers would have responsible for the hard dynamic limit imposes on Proms 1 and 4 last year.

[EdgeleyRob]

Terrific Bartok wasn't it?

I though so Jayne,and an equally terrific review by your good self.

[jayne lee wilson]

Bryn - no, I've never seen those specific concerts dealt with there...

Paul Miller's editorial in HFN points out that the video resolution on Freeview BBC4 and News24, and the audio bitrates on BBC 1,2,3 and 4 were reduced during the Olympics, audio at 192kbps. He's asked le Surf to look at it all again soon...

I can enthusiastically report that Neuwirth's Remnants of Songs is even better second time around, inventively unpredictable, like the slow rotation of layered kaleidoscopes, letting through sudden shafts of brilliant light.

Shame only 3 of us and the cat seem to have heard it...

[Petrushka]

Shame only 3 of us and the cat seem to have heard it...

Not at all, Jayne! Also thought this was a terrific Bartok (a piece I associate indelibly with Sir Georg Solti) but will need to hear the Neuwirth again.

Can't match your great reviews though. Keep 'em coming!

[gedsmk]

unfortunately Listen Again on the Iplayer is only at 128kb AAC so it is hard to judge.
all sounds a bit pedestrian to me (actually the word "plodding" came to mind a few times). Imagine how the Budapest Festival would do it!

Not at all, Jayne! Also thought this was a terrific Bartok (a piece I associate indelibly with Sir Georg Solti) but will need to hear the Neuwirth again.

Can't match your great reviews though. Keep 'em coming!

[Bryn]

unfortunately Listen Again on the Iplayer is only at 128kb AAC so it is hard to judge.
all sounds a bit pedestrian to me (actually the word "plodding" came to mind a few times). Imagine how the Budapest Festival would do it!

Are you in the U.K.? If so there is a 320kbps version available on the iPlayer. I have just checked the data rate and it averages 322kbps for this Prom. Remember, you have to select "HI" Bandwidth.

[gedsmk]

sorry, missed that!! what a difference that could be!