Prom 49 (19.8.12): Gilbert & Sullivan – The Yeomen of the Guard

[marvin]

I have the tv broadcast of the Bernstein marked on my kitchen calendar! (Sept 6th) How can you dislike choral religious music if you like classical music? That seems a very contradictary statement.

Thanks very much for deciding for me what I should like. I happen to dislike most instances where the human voice intrudes into my music. However there are a few exceptions which I won't elaborate on here.
Suffice it to say, I like Mozart Piano Concertos but don't like his operas - it's as easy as that!

[Anna]

Thanks very much for deciding for me what I should like. I happen to dislike most instances where the human voice intrudes into my music. However there are a few exceptions which I won't elaborate on here.

OK, chillax. Different strokes for different folks, sorry to have caused any offence.

[VodkaDilc]

I have the tv broadcast of the Bernstein marked on my kitchen calendar! (Sept 6th) How can you dislike choral religious music if you like classical music? That seems a very contradictary statement.

I hope you enjoy it, Anna. I think the visual side will add to your overall enjoyment. The young choir of Street Singers is especially good to watch, from their 'laid-back' entrance at the back of the stage to their individual solos, for which they leave their seats and come forward. Somehow they manage the casual, hippy feel without the result being embarrassing; and, somehow (unlike many non-American singers trying to put on an accent) their accents are convincing. Could it be that the Welsh intonation is closer to the American one? I recall, by contrast, the cringe-worthy accents of the soloists in some of the John Wilson extravaganzas of the last couple of years!!
I also hope that the sound engineers do justice to the RAH organ, which dominated a number of passages. One thing I'm sure will come over well on television is the
'aah!' factor in the children's choirs. They were quite distant in the hall, but sounded surprisingly strong on the radio repeat.
This broadcast should be the highpoint of the season.

[Northender]

I have the tv broadcast of the Bernstein marked on my kitchen calendar! (Sept 6th) How can you dislike choral religious music if you like classical music? That seems a very contradictary statement.

In common, I suspect, with others, I'm hopelessly inconsistent when it comes to classical music. I can't cope with opera (note that I don't say 'I don't like it') - unless the opera in question is by Mozart or Britten. I like some 20th-century American composers - Copland, Schuman, Piston, Barber - but not others - Sessions and Cage for example. I like some of Beethoven's symphonies more than I like others. I like Bartok's concertante works, but really can't get to grips with the string quartets. I find Mahler's symphonies endlessly fascinating, but Bruckner's terminally tedious. I get something out of Verdi's Requiem, but nothing out of his operas. As for other examples of choral religious music - well, I like some works, but not others.

My musical likes and dislikes - if we must use those terms - are wholly illogical, which increases the chances of my enjoying the occasional pleasant surprise. About a year ago, I borrowed a DVD of Bach's B Minor Mass from our local library to share with our daughter, who was visiting us at the time and who likes Bach's music more than I do. What a revelation - I now think differently about Bach, or at least about that particular work -although I have yet to come to any more general conclusions.

As for The Yeomen Of the Guard - well, I don't think I like semi-staged performances, but I shall give it a try.

(By the way: 'the thoughts of Bernstein's Mass' doesn't mean quite the same thing as 'the thought of Bernstein's Mass').

[Nick Armstrong]

I have the tv broadcast of the Bernstein marked on my kitchen calendar! (Sept 6th)

Thank you for the reminder!

Having been there, I am very keen to see and hear it again

Was the G&S really any good? I caught about 5 minutes by mistake on the radio, thought the singing sounded horribly wobbly (as per the Novello prom) and switched off. I tend to agree that those two televised proms are a waste of time but that's just my personal preference.

[hmvman]

Well, I've just watched the TV broadcast and I must say that I enjoyed it very much. I'd been a bit doubtful in advance about a 'semi-staged' production but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it well sung, well acted and well played by the orchestra. Yes, one could've wished for more 'bite' here and there but overall I found it an excellent, entertaining production. The only thing that I would question was the decision to use Victorian costumes which made references to torture, thumbscrews and beheadings rather incongruous!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Was the G&S really any good? I caught about 5 minutes by mistake on the radio, thought the singing sounded horribly wobbly (as per the Novello prom) and switched off. I tend to agree that those two televised proms are a waste of time but that's just my personal preference.

I rather enjoyed it. The BBC Singers were better integrated than I have experienced in the past (when they have sounded like a group of wobbly soloists). EVen Felicity Palmer didn't wobble too much.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I thought the singing and the playing of exceptional quality, as was much of the acting. I have not heard such good G&S since Sargent took them on the 50's, and he tended to be rather stately and measured in too much of what he performed (in G&S).

[LeMartinPecheur]

Watching it last night I thought that the effective and 'natural' dancing, acting and costumes must mean that this was a borrowed stage production like the Peter Grimes. Was staggered to find out at the interval that they'd cooked it all up from nothing in about a week. Very well done!

[Ariosto]

Thanks very much for deciding for me what I should like. I happen to dislike most instances where the human voice intrudes into my music. However there are a few exceptions which I won't elaborate on here.
Suffice it to say, I like Mozart Piano Concertos but don't like his operas - it's as easy as that!

I think Anna was only asking a simple question! But we can all hopefully understand that some do not always like vocal music. Singers can grate - especially in big groups as I experienced the other day.

On the other hand - as a musician - I want to study the human voice - as the purest form of music making - (even with the spoken word) so that instrumental performance can be creatively improved.

But maybe vocal sounds along with Beethoven's music are an abhorrence to you!

[amac4165]

I rather enjoyed it. The BBC Singers were better integrated than I have experienced in the past (when they have sounded like a group of wobbly soloists). EVen Felicity Palmer didn't wobble too much.

I saw in the hall and on telly ! Which was of course completely different experiences. Overall it was much funnier in the hall - on tv it sounded like polite laughter. eg The stealing of the keys was much funnier as Sargent Meryll came down the stairs on all fours at one point but you never saw that on tv .

The camera work looked awful - odd cuts and angles - the camera on the track in front of the stage is a waste of time - on tv it looked up peoples noses and in the hall it blocked the view

Casting was not uniformly good - (where was Donald Maxwell for instance !) and I could not understand why Tom Randle was not Fairfax

On balance still enjoyable outing for one of the lesser performed G&S operas though

[salymap]

I thought the singing and the playing of exceptional quality, as was much of the acting. I have not heard such good G&S since Sargent took them on the 50's, and he tended to be rather stately and measured in too much of what he performed (in G&S).

Yes apparently MS borrowed the original G&S scores from Coutt's Bank sometime in his earlier life and felt they should conform more to this and not be changed in any way. Funny, as he wasn't always such a purist in his performances of Brahms'symphonies, etc,later on

[Volti Subito]

Well, I've just watched the TV broadcast and I must say that I enjoyed it very much. I'd been a bit doubtful in advance about a 'semi-staged' production but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it well sung, well acted and well played by the orchestra. Yes, one could've wished for more 'bite' here and there but overall I found it an excellent, entertaining production. The only thing that I would question was the decision to use Victorian costumes which made references to torture, thumbscrews and beheadings rather incongruous!

I would have preferred "Pirates of Penzance" or (pious hope) "Patience" as better examples of Sir Arthur Sullivan's excellent music.

I say "excellent" because whenever I have attended a G & S performance - even local amateur productions, I can't get those tunes out of my head for weeks. Sorry, but I can't say the same about most "classical"(sniff) music (except, perhaps Elgar's Violin Concerto, which seems to haunt me from time to time.)

Volti Subito

Perhaps I should turn over a new leaf (quickly) and start to pay more attention to the erudite opinions of some of our message boarders who have more catholic tastes.

[MrGongGong]

catholic tastes.

Careful now
you might incite the righteous wrath of our Caledonian friend

[makropulos]

I would have preferred "Pirates of Penzance" or (pious hope) "Patience" as better examples of Sir Arthur Sullivan's excellent music.

Both lovely pieces, but Pirates was done at the Proms in 2005 and Patience in 2009, so neither was likely to be back so soon.

I don't quite understand what you mean by "better examples" of Sullivan - for my money, Yeomen is a really fine score (as are the other two - "different" rather than "better" surely?)