Prom 61 (29.8.12): Howells & Elgar

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wednesday 29 August at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Howells: Hymnus Paradisi (44 mins)
Elgar: Symphony No. 1 in A flat major (53 mins)

Miah Persson soprano
Andrew Kennedy tenor
BBC Symphony Chorus
London Philharmonic Choir
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins conductor

Two masterpieces by English composers: Herbert Howells' exquisite Hymnus Paradisi and Elgar's noble First Symphony. Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC SO, two choirs & soloists.

Following his triumphant conducting of Havergal Brian's 'The Gothic' Symphony last year, Martyn Brabbins brings another British magnum opus to the Proms. Herbert Howells wrote Hymnus Paradisi 'for the drawer' in the wake of the tragically early death of his son. Only years later was he persuaded to release a finished score to the public.

After this light-filled memorial from a composer closely identified with Gloucester Cathedral, we revisit the masterpiece that, in 1908 - the year of the first London Olympics - announced a Worcester man's arrival as perhaps the greatest of British symphonists.

[mrbouffant]

Howells: Hymnus Paradisi (44 mins)
Elgar: Symphony No. 1 in A flat major (53 mins)

I am looking forward to being in the hall for this one.

The Howells is very lush to my ears and the Elgar very noble with that super tune which underpins the whole thing. A 7PM start also means I can get a nice dinner afterwards. Can anyone recommend a decent Italian restaurant near the hall?

Thanks :D

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I am looking forward to being in the hall for this one.

The Howells is very lush to my ears and the Elgar very noble with that super tune which underpins the whole thing. A 7PM start also means I can get a nice dinner afterwards. Can anyone recommend a decent Italian restaurant near the hall?

Thanks :D

Depending on the direction you are heading towards, you have a choice of several; two pretty good examples are

http://www.daspago.com/ - Gloucester Road

http://www.damario.co.uk/ - South Kensington

Hope you enjoy the Prom, Mr B. It's good that the lack of a Proms Hymnus is being rectified; it's lush, yes, but this piece packs quite an emotional and musical punch!

[Nick Armstrong]

I am looking forward to being in the hall for this one.

Me too, Mr B - very much looking forward to this one

....A 7PM start also means I can get a nice dinner afterwards. Can anyone recommend a decent Italian restaurant near the hall?

Thanks :D

Agree with the above restaurant recommendations. Another 'local' which is more than decent and based on my one visit there, very memorable indeed, is Zafferano: http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaura...1415/Zafferano

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elgar 1 is still my favourite symphony.

[Petrushka]

Elgar 1 is still my favourite symphony.

It's hard not to agree. Somehow the Elgar 1 is everything you want a symphony to be. The sheer ingenuity of the multiple transformations of the motto theme -just about every theme in the piece actually - is breathtaking. As has been said about the Howells, the Elgar too packs quite a musical and emotional punch. Little wonder that reports of the first London performance speak of a wild ovation with people standing on chairs cheering.

Best Proms performance I've heard in the hall: Haitink and the BBCSO, July 29 1982. An unforgettable evening. Sadly, my recording of that night bit the dust many moons ago.

[Simon B]

As a programme, one of the highlights of the season IMO. Much looking forward to it, Worst Late Western trains permitting.
The Howells is an underperformed profoundly moving work (again IMO etc etc). In particular, the final section from "Holy is the True Light..." really hits home in a good performance.

Elgar 1 is remarkable in many ways - not least for the apparent effortlessness of its coherence in contradiction of the labours it cost the composer.

Hopefully, if the much improved BBCSO and the rather underrated Martyn Brabbins are on form it should be a good evening.

[Pabmusic]

Elgar 1 is still my favourite symphony.

Mine too.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I will be there tonight for the last of my 3 Proms, up in the Circle this time.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'd completely forgotten it was Miah Persson tonight...

[Northender]

This Prom will be shown on BBC4 on Friday.
I have several recordings of the Elgar 1st, which has long been one of my favourite symphonies. (I can't bring myself to nominate one favourite!).

[salymap]

Yes Howells' young son, was it David? died of polio very suddenly. Sad comment by Malcolm Sargent to HH.

You were lucky, my daughter lingered on for,[I think],about eight years. Thank God less polio about these days.

I shall record this concert from BBC4 on Friday.31st.

[mrbouffant]

Yes Howells' young son, was it David? died of polio very suddenly.

It was Michael I think - as in the name of the Howells hymn tune...

[Simon B]

Yes, it was indeed Michael - whose death, as you probably know, led Howells to write Hymnus Paradisi, for some time with no intention other than that it should remain "a personal, almost secret document".

[Simon Biazeck]

Yes Howells' young son, was it David? died of polio very suddenly.

Michael Kendrick Howells died in September 1935 after contracting polio on a family holiday. HH's daughter, Ursula, suggested he should write something in order to deal with his grief. Between 1936 and 1938 he wrote what would become Hymnus Paradisi, using material from an unaccompanied (then unpublished) Requiem written in 1932, three years before Michael's death. In 1949, Herbert Sumsion asked Howells if he had anything which could be performed at the 1950 Three Choirs Festival. He brought out the earlier work, and after some reticence was (HH claimed in later life) encouraged by Vaughan Williams to complete and orchestrate it for the festival. The title was apparently suggested by Sumsion. It was premiered on 7 September 1950, the day after Michael's 15th anniversary. It has never been performed at the Proms. A couple of years ago, Simon Heffer, a recent and enthusiastic devotee of the work, noted this omission, so perhaps his advocacy has something to do with the idea for this evening's Prom.