Prom 43 (14.8.12): Delius, Saint-Saëns & Tchaikovsky

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tuesday 14 August at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Delius: Paris (The Song of a Great City) (22 mins)
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor (21 mins)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor (45 mins)

Benjamin Grosvenor piano, New Generation Artist
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Dutoit conductor

Charles Dutoit, noted interpreter of French music, begins with the Parisian memories of an Englishman abroad: anniversary composer, Frederick Delius was particularly fond of the city and his unfairly neglected nocturne for orchestra has not been heard here since 1984. Benjamin Grosvenor, who hit the headlines in 2004, aged 11. when he won the keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, made sensational Proms debut appearances last year. He returns in a Gallic concerto for which he has a special affinity. Finally to St Petersburg for Tchaikovsky's rousing but equivocal triumph.

[Sir Monty Golfear]

Bravo !! Benjamin Grosvenor

Yet another great Proms performance By Benjamin Grosvenor . Saint-Saens never sounded so fresh......the 2nd movement was equisite. And even though he took the Tarentella at a real lick, it really made perfect sense musically.

Bravo Benjamin !!

[Alison]

Seconded. Fresh and exhilarating.

[Pianorak]

Yet another great Proms performance By Benjamin Grosvenor . Saint-Saens never sounded so fresh......the 2nd movement was equisite. And even though he took the Tarentella at a real lick, it really made perfect sense musically.

Bravo Benjamin !!

Hear! Hear!!

Pity about that dreadful encore though. Godowsky really knows how to ruin a lovely tune!

[Sir Monty Golfear]

Perhaps it should be called The Swine not The Swan !

[jayne lee wilson]

Gave up at the interval I'm afraid...
Dutoit and the RPO presented us with a rich, overripe orchestral texture which was identical for the Delius and Saint-Saens, and arguably unidiomatic for either. With some apology to Grosvenor's fans here, I missed a degree of sparkle, wit and grace in his playing tonight... the whole concerto just didn't sound Gallic enough, and this Paris would have gained much from a vintage 1960s Conservatoire character too. The orchestral blend needed thinning out and brightening up.

What a contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of Malkki and the Philharmonia last night!

[french frank]

Prom & Grosvenor threads now merged.

[Alison]

Is this the dullest, least alive performance of Tchaikovsky 5 imaginable ?

My goodness me, a shocker.

[Petrushka]

Is the dullest, least alive performance of Tchaikovsky 5 imaginable ?

My goodness me, a shocker.

O for a muse of Fire ... but we waited in vain. Can't disagree, Alison. On top of all that both Delius and Saint-Saens must do well in the dullness stakes.

As JLW points out, how very cruel to follow the Philharmonia/Malkki on top form with this.

[PJPJ]

I just caught the Saint-Saens and thought it a pretty exciting performance in the outer movements.

[edashtav]

Gave up at the interval I'm afraid...
Dutoit and the RPO presented us with a rich, overripe orchestral texture which was identical for the Delius and Saint-Saens, and arguably unidiomatic for either. With some apology to Grosvenor's fans here, I missed a degree of sparkle, wit and grace in his playing tonight... the whole concerto just didn't sound Gallic enough, and this Paris would have gained much from a vintage 1960s Conservatoire character too. The orchestral blend needed thinning out and brightening up.

What a contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of Malkki and the Philharmonia last night!

And so say all of us! Spot on, JLW.

[Ferretfancy]

In the hall the Tchaikovsky got off to a dull start from which it never really recovered, although the last movement wasn't bad. Dutoit seemed to be working hard but the orchestra seemed unresponsive. This is not my favourite Tchaikovsky symphony, but I've heard many finer performances at Proms on other occasions. The Saint-Saens was riveting, and I enjoyed the chance to hear a live performance of Paris, but it did clearly show the difficulty of clarifying Delius's noisy climaxes.
I simply cannot agree with Jayne about the Malkki performance with the Philharmonia last night. From their foursquare performance of the Prokofiev I had the feeling that might has well have been giving it a quick run through - very disappointing. I draw a veil over the new work.

[jayne lee wilson]

Sorry, should have clarified that I avoided hearing the Prokofiev suite - it's on my overfamiliar list...

Delius' climaxes (or anyone's climaxes) are only noisy if the conductor overdoes it. Katie D., breathlessly informal as ever (you REALLY feel that she's talking to YOU...) informed us that this was the first time Dutoit had conducted 'Paris'. He performed it as a late-Romantic tone poem in a Straussian manner. Which it isn't.

Why draw a veil over the Neu-wirth new work? Just plunge in, and dream as you drown...

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

My thoughts on Prom 43 are now up on Classical Source: http://www.classicalsource.com/db_co...w.php?id=10379

I felt the Tchaikovsky got better as it went on, but the opening really limped along. The Saint-Saëns did lack sparkle, especially in the second movement, although Grosvenor was tender and poetic in the recit like passages of the first.

[Extra Vaganza]

This is the first concert I have listened to since signing up, so I jotted down a few of my thoughts to go with Jayne Lee (message #6) Alison (#8) Petrushka (#9) edashtav (#110 Ferretfancy (#12) and Grande Inquisitor:

I felt the Tchaikovsky got better as it went on, but the opening really limped along. The Saint-Saëns did lack sparkle, especially in the second movement, although Grosvenor was tender and poetic in the recit like passages of the first.

I did not hear the Delius so no comment, but this last quote sums up the various misgivings that I had throughout the evening.

In the SaintSaens concerto, it sounded to me as if Mr Grosvenor was having a race with himself in places. More haste, less speed and he was tripping over himself at times. Dreadful encore. How could anyone do that to a lovely tune and why did the soloist choose it?

The symphony was too quiet in the opening for me and I thought the tuning of the solo clarinet was suspect. "Statictissimo" is how I would describe some of Duthoits passages in the first two movements, but it got better thereafter - suggesting to me that the orchestra decided to take over and get the whole thing wrapped up.

I would say that the whole concert demonstrated a lack of maturity from the soloist and a lack of "rapport" between the conductor and orchestra.

I think perhaps I've said too much already and will retire into the background to let others have their say for a few days.

E-V