Prom 48 (18.8.12): Weber, Mahler & Tchaikovsky

[Petrushka]

Surely LEFG should be sung by a man and not a woman. The former makes for a far more effective result.
As for the Manfred, well I have only heard the first movement so far and get the impression that it was far too reined in and not enough freedom of expression. Even Vladimir jurowski's conducting style makes it visually worse. Perhaps that is the drawback of watching this. Perhaps it will sound better in the radio broadcast, if I'm not too late for that and where you haven't got the distraction of a conductor's antics.

The concert is being repeated on R3 this coming Wednesday, Aug 29.

I am with you in preferring a male voice in the LEFG songs. Dramatically, it makes much miore sense though my copy of the Eulenberg score simply says 'voice' leaving the option open.

I seem to recall some time ago, possibly on the old BBC boards, that Roehre took me to task for asserting that Mahler preferred his songs to be performed by a baritone or only performed them that way and came up with evidence that this isn't so. In any event, as with Das Lied von der Erde, the option is there for either male or female voices.

[Volti Subito]

Why should a conductor show restraint? So it was an enjoyable evening. I agree, but it does seem to me that some people listen with their eyes. There was a multitude of imperfections in the Manfred symphony. (But the Weber was very good and so was Alice Coote.)

Volti

I turned to the iPlayer this afternoon and must now apologise for my previous posts regarding Manfred. It sounded much better today and I suspect that I might have been experiencing a degree of interference on my TV on Friday evening. (There was a considerable amount of heavy rain falling outside which could possibly have distorted my fibre optic cable connections box).

I still think there were some dodgy moments where Jurowsky's gestures were not helping the ensemble in the woodwinds, but overall I agree that it was an exciting and memorable performance and the string playing was quite exceptional throughout.

V S

[amateur51]

I turned to the iPlayer this afternoon and must now apologise for my previous posts regarding Manfred. It sounded much better today and I suspect that I might have been experiencing a degree of interference on my TV on Friday evening. (There was a considerable amount of heavy rain falling outside which could possibly have distorted my fibre optic cable connections box).

I still think there were some dodgy moments where Jurowsky's gestures were not helping the ensemble in the woodwinds, but overall I agree that it was an exciting and memorable performance and the string playing was quite exceptional throughout.

V S

It takes a considerable person to change her/his mind publicly after re-consideration, VS - nothing to be embarassed about in my opinion

[bluestateprommer]

In keeping with what VS said, I did notice one near train-wreck moment in the flutes in the slow movement of Manfred, but that was the only really bad moment that I noticed via iPlayer. Perhaps I didn't notice the other dodgy moments that others have seen because I'm very fond of the piece, and it's on my top ten of yet-to-hear-live orchestral works that I may not get the chance to hear live anytime soon. I thought that AC did fine with the Mahler, and likewise the Weber overture came off well. A pretty standard fare program by VJ's standards, I thought, but I'm sure that at least one music critic in Philadelphia was listening via iPlayer with more than usual interest (long story there).