Prom 54 (23.8.12): Davies, Delius & Shostakovich

**Simon B** · 23-08-12, 18:23

Looking forward to Maxy Davy 9 (copyright 3VS of these MBs) having also been at the WP in Liverpool a few months ago. Enjoyed it more than the Beethoven 9 in the second half, and that wasn't bad.

Must confess I completely misinterpreted the intended role/meaning etc of the offstage brass (having only read the programme notes and IIRC the composer's own commentary after the performance). Never mind, I found the noise the whole thing made engaging, particularly the conclusion...

Hopefully also some Shostakovich with teeth to come.

**jayne lee wilson** · 23-08-12, 18:31

Yes, don't miss the Max 9! I too was at the Liverpool premiere - it's concise and cogent (under 30'), one of the best things he's given us in recent years...

**Volti Subito** · 23-08-12, 18:34

I don't have any sophisticated equipment. I listen on my computer speakers,(Creative Labs, Soundblaster) so any comments that I may offer this evening will be solely on my enjoyment or otherwise of performance and interpretation , not sound quality. "Did I like it, or not?"

In the days when television was only available to rich Londoners, my mother used to listen on Saturday afternoons to a BBC radio programme called “From a seat in the Circle” The soundtrack of a film (usually from the Odeon, Leicester Square) would be broadcast on the “wireless” and a commentary, “from a seat in the circle”, would describe the action to the listener.

How crazy was that? Still, the memory has given me an idea for others to consider; which is one of my main reasons for signing up to these message boards.

Like many people of my age, I can’t get out to concerts anymore, so it is nice to be able to watch the performance on television BUT the experience is spoilt by the cameras dodging about, with close-ups one moment, zoom out the next, concentrating too much on the bare shoulders of the comely wenches at the back of the violins, or on the facial grimaces and contortions of the sweat-laden conductor.

When physically present at the concert one sees none of those things and misses nothing as a result.

If the camera zooms in, should not the sound grow louder and vice versa?

My answer would be to have a camera mounted in the centre of the circle showing the entire stage and performers exactly as a patron sitting in that position would see(and hear) it.

Have this shot available on the invaluable “red button” for those viewers who would like to feel that they are actually there.

What do others think? Would there be any chance of urging the adoption of this simple extra? Perhaps someone would like to start a new discussion under the heading “Proms 2013: From a Seat in the Circle”

I feel that I am too new on these boards to do this myself, but is it a good idea? I really can’t see that it would cost much extra to provide this facility if enough people ask for it.

V.S. (Turn over - quickly if possible, to a better viewing experience)

**Petrushka** · 23-08-12, 19:50

Greatly enjoyed the PMD 9 and happily saved to hard drive.

**Alison** · 23-08-12, 20:00

Somehow I lost track of the PMD's after number 6.

Was he simply writing too much at one time ? Agreed, this was a stimulating listen.

**Simon B** · 23-08-12, 21:07

Now -that- was Shostakovich. Icy timbre, strings particularly, the RLPO strings giving everything, digging in, brass interjections with an edge that cracks the air, percussion whose compression wave hits you in the guts. Static desolation. Per the timps - DSCH!

**Dave2002** · 23-08-12, 21:32

Superb Shostakovich, one of the best live ever, though I stlll like Haitink a lot. I thought significantly better live than the Naxos CD, and the RLPO sounded magnificent - lots of interesting wind character. I always liked the orchestra, but this seemed to be a new level. Are they playing with minimal vibrato? Wind and strings. Not totally, but pretty straight with a good solid core of sound.

The Delius was beautiful, but ... well... er. .. Delius! Soporific, for me possibly a euphemism for boring. The PMD was loud, and I might listen again. The Shostakovich was, for me, what this concert was about.

ps:The timpanist was Neil Hitt.

**Simon B** · 23-08-12, 21:56

Re the aptly named Mr Hitt - indeed, a familiar presence now and just one of the reasons why the RLPO and Petrenko have for some time been unbeatable in this rep among the British conductor/orchestra combinations. I know I'm a tyrannical bore on both subjects (timps/percussion and RLPO/Petrenko) so will try to leave it there!

Save, that is (!) to say that a) I don't think those Naxos recordings generally do their Shostakovich justice (they need to be heard live as tonight) and b) yes, vibrato was noticeably pared back tonight but only in the Shostakovich. Hence, I suspect, the 'icy" string timbre. The opposite approach was one of a long list of things that was wrong (IMO naturally) with Nelsons' Leningrad on Tues.

Petrenko was visibly "on fire" tonight, living this piece. One of a considerable list of things that depresses me about the future is that it can't be likely that he'll carry on in his Liverpool job beyond the current term. I hope to be proved wrong.

**Roehre** · 23-08-12, 22:10

Originally posted by Petrushka View Post

Greatly enjoyed the PMD 9 and happily saved to hard drive.

That makes two of us then

**Barbirollians** · 23-08-12, 22:55

I thought that the PMD 9 was pretty dreadful . A terrible cacophony with apparently a heavily laden political programme which was imperceptible in the music . His "music" is " Emperor's New Clothes " to my ears .

Little's tone sounded rather strained too .

**gurnemanz** · 23-08-12, 23:05

Just got back. Good concert. I found myself fully involved in the Davies 9 with the split brass. He came on at the end for an accolade wearing an attractive bluish tie. I didn't know the Delius at all well and it was pleasant enough, if a bit meandering for my taste. DSCH 10 was marvellous with Petrenko, who I have never seen before, totally in control and seeming to get exactly what he wanted from his players. It was a riveting performance with a lot of the DSCH motif touchingly intermingled with the EAEDA horn theme referring to a young student of his called Elmira with whom he was currently unrequitedly infatuated (yes I did study the programme notes)

**jayne lee wilson** · 24-08-12, 00:25

Maxwell Davies' 9th Symphony has an intensity, a density of musical event, that marks it out as exceptional among his works. Not since the 5th Symphony has his music been so compressed, or sounded so fresh. I need to listen again (and again...) before having anything meaningful to say about it, but I wonder if other listeners were struck by the parallel (conceptual rather than musical) with Max's "St Thomas Wake: Foxtrot for Orchestra" where the danceband numbers are assaulted by the orchestral roarings of WW2 air-raids (including broken glass rattled in a tin!).

In the 9th, after an explosive opening which seems full of impending tragedy, the brass sextet's almost affectionate presentation of military marches (Max says in his note that, as Master of The Queen's Music, he has come to love the music of military bands) seems rapidly to bring the destructive effects of war down upon itself (dulce et decorum est pro patria mia...), until the pent-up aggressive energies finally drain away in a percussive decrescendo. In the slower 2nd part, Max's more lyrical and classical strain adapts the op.54/2 Haydn quartet in an attempt to pacify those very forces - forces we carry within ourselves. After the final climax (where the imploration for peace is even more assertive than Beethoven's "pa-cem!" in the Missa Solemnis), grandly integrating the warlike and classical forces with the slow introduction (in my end is my beginning...), the work ends with a gravely eloquent and pacific coup: a second decrescendo, for double-basses alone.

Petrenko guided the RLPO through this labyrinth with warmth, power and clarity; the spaces of the RAH responded vividly to their projection.

Max's 9th has a dark, uncompromising poetry, and a compressed intensity, which I haven't heard so vividly expressed in his orchestral work for some years now. The first section is shockingly violent, condensed and yes, complex - but remains clear in its emotional message and its musical trajectory. The work has no truck with the compromises of accessibilty. As an emotional and political statement (the personal is political) it is rare among today's compositions, certainly by a high-profile composer, in a work dedicated to the Queen...
(One regrets the absence of the 6th, 7th and 8th symphonies on disc to enable a more thorough investigation of its precedents, but I imagine No.9 would still stand apart - and as something of a peak).

The concert was a great one, even allowing for my bias in favour of our local band! The lovely Delius concerto was gorgeously, lingeringly beautiful, so delicately voiced by both soloist (Tasmin Little) and orchestra; the Shostakovich 10th, a reading well-known to liverpudlians after several live performances here, was delivered once again with a clean-edged power and precision, a cold-eyed analytical intensity which took it beyond even the Gramophone award-winning disc.

**Volti Subito** · 24-08-12, 07:10

Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post

I thought that the PMD 9 was pretty dreadful . A terrible cacophony with apparently a heavily laden political programme which was imperceptible in the music . His "music" is " Emperor's New Clothes " to my ears .

Little's tone sounded rather strained too .

An honest opinion from a music lover, as opposed to a glowing recommendation from a musicologist.

I listened from the beginning and, much as I admire PMD for his work in musical education for young listeners, I thought I was eavesdropping on the orchestra all practising at the same time in the band room.

The Delius concerto is a work that I have only heard once, many years ago. Tasmin Little seemed to understand the work and for me - well, it was Delius, wasn't it. A bit of a cult figure among the "British" composers at the moment.

I enjoyed the Shostakovitch hugely. The 10th gets a lot more airing than most of his (some may say) more worthy symphonies, but it's exciting and you can hear a fine orchestra hard at work.

What I really enjoyed was the interval discussion about the late Ken Russell. I actually found myself laughing out loud in places at Glenda Jackson's anecdotes.

A bit overstated perhaps, coming from a new member, but the opening piece really spoilt the evening for me.

Perhaps I should retire into the background and see what the majority think.

V.S.

**Extra Vaganza** · 24-08-12, 07:37

Originally posted by Volti Subito View Post

An honest opinion from a music lover, as opposed to a glowing recommendation from a musicologist.

I listened from the beginning and, much as I admire PMD for his work in musical education for young listeners, I thought I was eavesdropping on the orchestra all practising at the same time in the band room.

The Delius concerto is a work that I have only heard once, many years ago. Tasmin Little seemed to understand the work and for me - well, it was Delius, wasn't it. A bit of a cult figure among the "British" composers at the moment.

I enjoyed the Shostakovitch hugely. The 10th gets a lot more airing than most of his (some may say) more worthy symphonies, but it's exciting and you can hear a fine orchestra hard at work.

What I really enjoyed was the interval discussion about the late Ken Russell. I actually found myself laughing out loud in places at Glenda Jackson's anecdotes.

A bit overstated perhaps, coming from a new member, but the opening piece really spoilt the evening for me.

Perhaps I should retire into the background and see what the majority think.

V.S.

Softly, softly, Volti. You must not decry the learned words of the musical intelligensia among us. Be like those of us who read with wonder the erudite utterances of those who know better - even if they do not appear to have the slightest degree of discrimination between what is new, because it is new, and what is rubbish, because it is rubbish. We, who wallow on the lower deck of musical appreciation can only read with wonderment their authoratative appraisals of that which we are too deaf to understand.

Last night was an extravagance of musical fare, but it was not, for me, an Extravaganza.

E V

Prom 54 (23.8.12): Davies, Delius & Shostakovich

Prom 54 (23.8.12): Davies, Delius & Shostakovich

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