Proms Saturday Matinee 4 (18.8.12): Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday 18 August
3.00pm – c. 4.30pm
Cadogan Hall

Alexander Goehr: … a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985) … (15 mins)
Oliver Knussen: Ophelia Dances (7 mins)
Oliver Knussen: Ophelia's Last Dance (10 mins)
Simon Bainbridge: The Garden of Earthly Delights (c35 mins) - BBC Commission, World Premiere

Anne-Marie Owens mezzo-soprano
Andrew Watts counter-tenor
Huw Watkins piano
London Sinfonietta Voices
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Nicholas Collon conductor

Linked Ophelia pieces by Oliver Knussen, 60 this year, follow Alexander Goehr's reflection on Bach's compositional procedures which Knussen himself premiered, wearing his conductor's hat. Also born in 1952, Simon Bainbridge has developed an darker, less mercurial kind of idiom. Inspired by Hieronymous Bosch's extraordinary triptych, his eagerly awaited new work is a labrynthine journey featuring mezzo-soprano and counter-tenor.

[edashtav]

80:60:60 Three Birthday Boys at Cadogan Hall

I've always admired Sandy Goehr as a man and a thinker . He's friendly and genuinely interested in the opinions of others. I remember sitting near him at a poorly attended concert and being shocked when he asked my opinion of what we had heard. But, what of his music? Again, I admire it, but I rarely love it. I enjoy complexity in music but I find that bright ideas get submerged in Goehr by over-busy, over-worked textures. His is, essentially, a linear craft, but it takes me time to separate and appreciate the individual strands that clot into an opaque and grey vertical summation. I found that, again, in yesterday's good performance of his JSB tribute, although I felt that Collon did everything they could to keep the textures clean and to lift the lines through clean rhythms. Furthermore, his players understood their part relative to the greater scheme of things.

Poor Olly Knussen: 32 opuses; target 50, but he's hit 60 years. The Ravel of our times, his pieces are masterly in their intricate precision. Ophelia Dances are gems, each diamond has been cut, polished and placed with extreme precision. The work enjoyed lovely, lustrous playing from the Birmingham group.

Wow: Ophelia's Last Dance was something else: Knussen with his hair down, and possibly without his self-critical defences. A tune, so gorgeously sentimental that the young "Mod", Knussen, deleted it from his original set of Ophelia Dances, has been resurrected - partly as a memorial to Knussen's estranged wife, Sue, who died prematurely a few years ago. It can be taken as a companion piece to Sonja’s Lullaby that captured Olly’s love for his daughter. It has something of a similar relationship to his “usual” music as do H.K.Gruber's “MOB-art” pieces to his “serious” music. I suppose I’m thinking, in particular of that neo-popsong that transmogrified into the theme and idée fixe of Gruber’s marvellous 1st Violin Concerto. But, there’s a great difference: Knussen has been obsessively careful to expunge the vulgar from his scores, whereas Nali Gruber revels in and glorifies the banal. Personally, I hope that Knussen will relax a little, will use his rubber less, and risk the ire of music’s taste-police. He’s needs our help to get to 50, and we need those 18 new works, if this is guide to what may come. It was delightful. The prismatic links between the straight presentations of the big tune were marvellous and transmuted the material in unexpected and revealing ways. Huw Watkins, piano, was a sympathetic exponent. He clearly impressed the gaggle of girls that surrounded RCM’s so cool professor, or their Don in shorts, afterwards. Nice Guy – great pianist in 20th/21st century repertoire.

On to the programme’s “big beast” by Simon Bainbridge, a complex cantata for narrator, soli, 8-part chamber choir and large chamber ensemble, if the latter’s not an oxymoron. Mark my words, Simon is a lion in my musical jungle and that’s not because he’s built like a hirsute Usain Bolt. No, I was smitten by the first NMC issue of his works in particular by the Fantasia for Double String Orchestra. What to make of the new piece? What a strange entity. Should it be recorded and then played on a constant loop in the Prado in the room holding The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch? For this new piece is more of a programme note, an explanation of the genesis and content of Bosch’s panels – which to my mind speak so well on their own! Do we need Reger’s tortuous Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin to better understand the latter’s paintings? I fear not. Thus I feel that Simon’s new and colourful piece misses the mark. In a curiously truncated and unhelpful interview with Bainbridge and his collaborator/ librettist, John Ross, we learned that the piece had its inception at a dinner, maybe the wine diluted their judgement. The piece started with a prologue, beautifully spoken by Samuel West that reminded me strongly of encountering the encyclopaediac moment at the start of Tavener’s early cantata The Whale. That prologue dissolved into music. This one started, stopped, West sat down, never to reappear, and the music – Creation of the World - commenced. Did Sam’s part amount to more than could have been achieved in a written programme note? Perhaps not. More than once, I was worried by the libretto. “Listen!” or “Look, Look” recurred time & again – the latter surely only appropriate when the Bainbridge installation is placed in the Prado . John Ross seems delightful and inventive company, an artist-writer. I’d put the emphasis on the art for I found his text to be flat and full of childlike rhymes.

Simon’s music loop was diverting and entertaining but it did not add up to “the Real Deal” as far as I was concerned. I went on to the evening Prom and, for all of its structural flaws, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred drew a more powerful and engrossing picture of a tortured Man who has excessively indulged in “earthly delights”.

The performance by Andre Watts (his treasured voice saved by a bottle of water following his graphic simulation of hell), Lucy Schauffer, and the vocal and instrumental forces under Nicholas Collon’s keen control was very assured. The fault lay elsewhere.

But, brave programming by the Beeb, again. A finely played and enjoyable concert with one Gold "winner" , a Silver for Ophelia Dances, a deserved Bronze for our fit octagenarian and, sadly, no points for the world premiere by the Lion of London .

[jayne lee wilson]

Enjoyable and informative Ed., thanks - and most elegantly cadenced as usual. I've been too busy and tired to listen much since the VW, but reports like this help keep me in touch! Lovely.

Hope to be in position for Nielsen 5 and DSCH 7 though... I look forward to your comments on those!

[edashtav]

THanks JLW . I shall avoid the Leningrad because its obsessive repetitions fill my pen with bile but I shall try to listen to the Nielsen, although, once again, I can be driven mad by those side-drums. It's a difficult work to bring off, I feel.

[amateur51]

I've always admired Sandy Goehr as a man and a thinker . He's friendly and genuinely interested in the opinions of others. I remember sitting near him at a poorly attended concert and being shocked when he asked my opinion of what we had heard. But, what of his music? Again, I admire it, but I rarely love it. I enjoy complexity in music but I find that bright ideas get submerged in Goehr by over-busy, over-worked textures. His is, essentially, a linear craft, but it takes me time to separate and appreciate the individual strands that clot into an opaque and grey vertical summation. I found that, again, in yesterday's good performance of his JSB tribute, although I felt that Collon did everything they could to keep the textures clean and to lift the lines through clean rhythms. Furthermore, his players understood their part relative to the greater scheme of things.

Poor Olly Knussen: 32 opuses; target 50, but he's hit 60 years. The Ravel of our times, his pieces are masterly in their intricate precision. Ophelia Dances are gems, each diamond has been cut, polished and placed with extreme precision. The work enjoyed lovely, lustrous playing from the Birmingham group.

Wow: Ophelia's Last Dance was something else: Knussen with his hair down, and possibly without his self-critical defences. A tune, so gorgeously sentimental that the young "Mod", Knussen, deleted it from his original set of Ophelia Dances, has been resurrected - partly as a memorial to Knussen's estranged wife, Sue, who died prematurely a few years ago. It can be taken as a companion piece to Sonja’s Lullaby that captured Olly’s love for his daughter. It has something of a similar relationship to his “usual” music as do H.K.Gruber's “MOB-art” pieces to his “serious” music. I suppose I’m thinking, in particular of that neo-popsong that transmogrified into the theme and idée fixe of Gruber’s marvellous 1st Violin Concerto. But, there’s a great difference: Knussen has been obsessively careful to expunge the vulgar from his scores, whereas Nali Gruber revels in and glorifies the banal. Personally, I hope that Knussen will relax a little, will use his rubber less, and risk the ire of music’s taste-police. He’s needs our help to get to 50, and we need those 18 new works, if this is guide to what may come. It was delightful. The prismatic links between the straight presentations of the big tune were marvellous and transmuted the material in unexpected and revealing ways. Huw Watkins, piano, was a sympathetic exponent. He clearly impressed the gaggle of girls that surrounded RCM’s so cool professor, or their Don in shorts, afterwards. Nice Guy – great pianist in 20th/21st century repertoire.

On to the programme’s “big beast” by Simon Bainbridge, a complex cantata for narrator, soli, 8-part chamber choir and large chamber ensemble, if the latter’s not an oxymoron. Mark my words, Simon is a lion in my musical jungle and that’s not because he’s built like a hirsute Usain Bolt. No, I was smitten by the first NMC issue of his works in particular by the Fantasia for Double String Orchestra. What to make of the new piece? What a strange entity. Should it be recorded and then played on a constant loop in the Prado in the room holding The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch? For this new piece is more of a programme note, an explanation of the genesis and content of Bosch’s panels – which to my mind speak so well on their own! Do we need Reger’s tortuous Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin to better understand the latter’s paintings? I fear not. Thus I feel that Simon’s new and colourful piece misses the mark. In a curiously truncated and unhelpful interview with Bainbridge and his collaborator/ librettist, John Ross, we learned that the piece had its inception at a dinner, maybe the wine diluted their judgement. The piece started with a prologue, beautifully spoken by Samuel West that reminded me strongly of encountering the encyclopaediac moment at the start of Tavener’s early cantata The Whale. That prologue dissolved into music. This one started, stopped, West sat down, never to reappear, and the music – Creation of the World - commenced. Did Sam’s part amount to more than could have been achieved in a written programme note? Perhaps not. More than once, I was worried by the libretto. “Listen!” or “Look, Look” recurred time & again – the latter surely only appropriate when the Bainbridge installation is placed in the Prado . John Ross seems delightful and inventive company, an artist-writer. I’d put the emphasis on the art for I found his text to be flat and full of childlike rhymes.

Simon’s music loop was diverting and entertaining but it did not add up to “the Real Deal” as far as I was concerned. I went on to the evening Prom and, for all of its structural flaws, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred drew a more powerful and engrossing picture of a tortured Man who has excessively indulged in “earthly delights”.

The performance by Andre Watts (his treasured voice saved by a bottle of water following his graphic simulation of hell), Lucy Schauffer, and the vocal and instrumental forces under Nicholas Collon’s keen control was very assured. The fault lay elsewhere.

But, brave programming by the Beeb, again. A finely played and enjoyable concert with one Gold "winner" , a Silver for Ophelia Dances, a deserved Bronze for our fit octagenarian and, sadly, no points for the world premiere by the Lion of London .

What a great review - many thanks, edashtav

[Roehre]

...... On to the programme’s “big beast” by Simon Bainbridge, a complex cantata for narrator, soli, 8-part chamber choir and large chamber ensemble......What to make of the new piece? What a strange entity. Should it be recorded and then played on a constant loop in the Prado in the room holding The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch? For this new piece is more of a programme note, an explanation of the genesis and content of Bosch’s panels – which to my mind speak so well on their own! Do we need Reger’s tortuous Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin to better understand the latter’s paintings? I fear not. Thus I feel that Simon’s new and colourful piece misses the mark.

why? I appreciate music as a stand alone art - It may be inspired by any extra musical impulse, but I need not to know Böcklin's paintings even to enjoy Reger's 4 Tone Poems. I know the Bosch paintings (plural: it's a double triptych) well, and I could connect what I heard on R3-iPlayer with this early 16th C work. But for me the Cantata works perfectly well as a stand alone work - with some nice influences or similarities with works like Penderecki's Devils from Loudron, some of Klaus Huber's scores, or some of Holliger's.

.....The piece started with a prologue, beautifully spoken by Samuel West that reminded me strongly of encountering the encyclopaediac moment at the start of Tavener’s early cantata The Whale. That prologue dissolved into music. This one started, stopped, West sat down, never to reappear, and the music – Creation of the World - commenced. Did Sam’s part amount to more than could have been achieved in a written programme note? Perhaps not. More than once, I was worried by the libretto. “Listen!” or “Look, Look” recurred time & again – the latter surely only appropriate when the Bainbridge installation is placed in the Prado .

On radio the The Garden of Earthly Delights works well. I am not sure whether this is to be Bainbridge's magnum opus, but it has got unity, balance and humour. IMO even more because of than despite of the libretto. What is against introducing a work by spoken words? Does that mean that e.g. Hartmann's Symphony no.1 "Versuch eines Requiems" (with which The Garden also shares a similarity, btw) which ends with spoken words (unintentionally, but nevertheless) doesn't "work"? It is only a kind of unaccompanied recitativo IMO, just that, not more, not less.

John Ross seems delightful and inventive company, an artist-writer. I’d put the emphasis on the art for I found his text to be flat and full of childlike rhymes.

It is a well known fact that less literature-like texts often work better when set to music than the genuinely "high brow" ones, the selection of Schubert's poets and "librettists" being an example. I personally think, that the exclamations haven't got anything to do with (the desirability/necessity of) playing the Cantata in a loop at the Prado: where would you like to have played "Lo, the Angels sing" then?

Simon’s music loop was diverting and entertaining but it did not add up to “the Real Deal” as far as I was concerned.

I do think it's your own expectation here which plays a negative role in appreciating the Earthly Delights. Just listening to it as a pure piece of music (as I did today, twice throught iPlayer) and I think that you might discover there is more in it than what your more negative than positive description implies.

But, brave programming by the Beeb, again

We agree here fully 100%

A finely played and enjoyable concert with one Gold "winner" , a Silver for Ophelia Dances, a deserved Bronze for our fit octagenarian and, sadly, no points for the world premiere by the Lion of London .

Here I disagree: the diversity of styles presented here IMO means a gold for Goehr, and three silvers for the rest.

[edashtav]

Well, I'm really pleased that you, another listener, has bothered to comment in detail, Roehre - it's dangerous having one person mouthing-off, which I did, if reluctantly because it was Simon Bainbridge and his earlier works that got me off my backside, to buy a ticket and to travel down to London.

I recorded as I heard but I must find time to listen again and to counter some of your views, or maybe to say that I was tired & emotional and totally off-beam.

I will say only one thing for now. Perhaps it's a challenge. Surely, as you partially concede by mentioning the success of Schubert in turning dross into gold, you have to add to, to transmute an existing piece of art, poetry, etc in order to justify putting a "gloss" on it.

My initial reaction is that the two collaborators failed (understandably) to add to Bosch's tremendous achievement, that their version was not an independent work of art per se, but an explanation of, an introduction to, or a commentary upon; that their creation may have utility as a teaching aid but doesn't add much value to the huge artistic achievement of the prototype.

[Roehre]

thanks edashtav, much appreciated
Have you ever seen Bosch's work in the Prado (or a copy in Den Bosch)?

[Roehre]

thanks edashtav, much appreciated
Have you ever seen Bosch's work in the Prado (or a copy in Den Bosch)?

....My initial reaction is that the two collaborators failed (understandably) to add to Bosch's tremendous achievement, that their version was not an independent work of art per se, but an explanation of, an introduction to, or a commentary upon; that their creation may have utility as a teaching aid but doesn't add much value to the huge artistic achievement of the prototype.

No discussion about that. Bainbridge's work -how ingenious and well composed it may be- cannot even stand in the shadow of Bosch's achievement (though IMO not the most brilliant of his works - I reserve that accolade for the Temptation of St.Anthony) . But separated of its picturial context/connotation it IMO certainly is an admirable work .

[edashtav]

No, I've not seen it except in reproduction form, Roehre. But, even in diminshed formats, it is stunning... my major point may be, does this work not say everything that can be said (from one angle )? Why try to add to it? I felt that it would take genius to trump it. Bainbridge is a fine composer and his writer has wit, but summing their talents still leaves their effort not in the penumbra but the umbra of a masterpiece. It was, as I think I said, enjoyable but I did not find it significant. It's a major piece in terms of length, complexity and the forces involved. I do feel that, given the relative paucity of Bainbridge's output, it was meant to be another landmark amongst his works. If I compare to Rimsky's Scheherazade - would Professor Bainbridge by happy with his achievement, or would that thought trouble him for 1001 nights?

[Roehre]

I share your opinion that Bainbridge's work doesn't add anything to increase enjoying/appreciating Bosch's Earthly Delights, it is the big question even whether ANY such musical work would be able to succeed in such a thing (Nigg's Hieronymus Bosch-symphony of 1960 fails in that respect in a similar manner e.g. - also using unusual instrumentation and a whole range of -then rather new- electronic devices).
But I do appreciate Bainbridge's work as an attractive stand-alone musical world - cut loose from the pictorial associations as mentioned/intended by composer and librettist. IMO that's the work's raison-d'etre.

[edashtav]

I share your opinion that Bainbridge's work doesn't add anything to increase enjoying/appreciating Bosch's Earthly Delights, it is the big question even whether ANY such musical work would be able to succeed in such a thing (Nigg's Hieronymus Bosch-symphony of 1960 fails in that respect in a similar manner e.g. - also using unusual instrumentation and a whole range of -then rather new- electronic devices).
But I do appreciate Bainbridge's work as an attractive stand-alone musical world - cut loose from the pictorial associations as mentioned/intended by composer and librettist. IMO that's the work's raison-d'etre.

The few pieces of Serge Nigg that I've heard ( e.g. his Violin Concerto) have impressed me - I'm fascinated by the thought of his Bosch Symphonie - what a shame SB appears not to have listened to it!

Well, I've listened to last Saturday's piece, again and would like, now to separate the music from the text. It's the pseudo-mediaeval, sheer banality / naivety of the latter than jeopardies and undermines the whole, as far as I'm concerned, Roehre. Take these lines:

On & on,
to the devil's pass,
black crows fly from the dead man's arse.

or...

Mary, Mary, full of grace
why, she has a pig's fat face.

or ( & surely , the need for a rhyme has determined this couplet):
can you smell
the bells of hell,

I concede that Bosch's world is unsophisticated, and John Ross's text is somewhat similar. But... Simon Bainbridge's music is highly sophisticated. Chalk' n Cheese, Roehre - for me an indigestible mixture.

So, I tried to listen purely to the music and it works, it communicates a consistent vision, some of the instrumentation is original ( e.g. its use of the bass oboe) but it remains illustrative stuff, ideal to accompany a Ken Russell H.Bosch bio-pic: "The Devils of Bosch", perhaps.

[bluestateprommer]

Just a quick note to add to the praise for the high quality of this Cadogan Hall PSM, with sterling performances from the BCMG and Nicholas Collon, as well as the guest soloists and London Sinfonietta Voices. This is especially gratifying given that the BCMG was almost budget-cut out of existence several years back. I also wonder: how full was the hall for this PSM? If attendance remains high for these contemporary-focused concerts, then that's obviously justification for continuing the brave programming commented upon here.

[edashtav]

Just a quick note to add to the praise for the high quality of this Cadogan Hall PSM, with sterling performances from the BCMG and Nicholas Collon, as well as the guest soloists and London Sinfonietta Voices. This is especially gratifying given that the BCMG was almost budget-cut out of existence several years back. I also wonder: how full was the hall for this PSM? If attendance remains high for these contemporary-focused concerts, then that's obviously justification for continuing the brave programming commented upon here.

This Concert was almost full with a surprisingly eclectic mix in the audience of young and old, singletons and families. Some, I think were taking in a Prom as part of the cultural background to their visit to the Olympics. The programme was not "easy meat" but the audience maintained focus and attention, throughout.

I agree with you hat the BCMG were a group well worth saving and the conductor - Nicholas Collon showed remarkable talent and confidence. It was easy to see how much the players loved working with him.

[Simon Biazeck]

Just a quick note to add to the praise for the high quality of this Cadogan Hall PSM, with sterling performances from the BCMG and Nicholas Collon, as well as the guest soloists and London Sinfonietta Voices. This is especially gratifying given that the BCMG was almost budget-cut out of existence several years back. I also wonder: how full was the hall for this PSM? If attendance remains high for these contemporary-focused concerts, then that's obviously justification for continuing the brave programming commented upon here.

Thank you!