Proms 2013: advance info

[Flosshilde]

Also with Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle? With Bayreuth on at the same time I wonder if there will be enough singers to go round.

Perhaps Bayreuth will close up for a couple of days & decamp to the RAH?

[EdgeleyRob]

Looking forward to loads of Richard Hoddinott, Edmund Rubbra, Grace Williams, Walter Mathias, John Foulds, Stanley Bate, Arthur Butterworth, Benjamin Frankel and all kicked off by Tippett's Mask Of Time.

We ought to consider ourselves lucky that we are able to give preference to our boys and girls over Johnny Foreigner. Well, the Proms are British, what do you expect?

One day they will play all this stuff at the Proms Beefy,you'll see.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

One day they will play all this stuff at the Proms Beefy,you'll see.

Even less likely in the case of Richard Hoddinott...

[David-G]

Well of course you were impressed. RN was waving the stick:

I didn't know there was a DVD! I must look out for it. Kent Opera was a wonderful institution, and I have many happy memories of RN with them.

[Bryn]

Even less likely in the case of Richard Hoddinott...

Would you expect anything other from the source? Not a particular fan of Alun's music myself, but ...

[Come to think of it, the only works of his I actually have on commercial CD are the 1st and 2nd piano sonatas etc, and I only have them because they came in the same package as some John White sonatas (a far more interesting composer in my book).]

[Bryn]

I didn't know there was a DVD! I must look out for it. Kent Opera was a wonderful institution, and I have many happy memories of RN with them.

It's a not too brilliantly transferred version of what was originally issued on VHS, but well worth getting, nonetheless. I might just give it a spin this afternoon.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, but---- I sat through the Tippett Piano Concerto at the Barbican recently with the excellent Steven Osborne, and it isn't one for the archive for me. I'd like to hear all four symphonies again though.

Oh no, ff - the Piano Concerto is gorgeous but needs sensitive, carefully-balanced playing and good recorded sound; maybe try again? Go for the Chandos one with Hickox/Shelley/BSO, set graciously and spaciously in the Winter Gardens. I love the piece and think it one of his finest creations. It was inspired by hearing a Walter Gieseking rehearsal of the first movement of Beethoven's G Major. This gave Tippett the idea for "a contemporary concerto" which used the piano for its "poetic capabilities". It speaks the language of Midsummer Marriage, and the piano is delicately threaded through the first movement which is full of highly original textural and structural features. A tranquillo slow movement of great emotional depth balanced by a rhythmically lively, jazzy finale. For me it's a "what more do you want" piece.

Stick with it, it'll come to you if you do...

[Beef Oven]

One day they will play all this stuff at the Proms Beefy,you'll see.

[Flosshilde]

It's a not too brilliantly transferred version of what was originally issued on VHS, but well worth getting, nonetheless. I might just give it a spin this afternoon.

I did have it on VHS - an off-air recording from a broadcast - but I can't remember which channel - either BBC or Channel 4 (remember their Saturday matinee opera broadcasts? - in my memory mostly of Arena di Verona productions, but none the worse for that.)

[Flosshilde]

English Touring Opera are going to perform King Priam next season. I am not generally a great devotee of Tippett's music, but I was greatly impressed by King Priam in the Kent Opera production (early 80s?). I saw it twice and it was very powerful.

Totally off-topic, but I feel a visit to Durham or Harrogate coming on in November - http://englishtouringopera.org.uk/to...es/autumn-2013

[Bryn]

It would have been Channel 4. Though the video quality betrays its origins, the audio (stereo LPCM (from analogue(?))) is reasonable enough.

[bluestateprommer]

Getting back to the original thread (ahem.....):

I've heard that Tristan und Isolde is scheduled for performance in the midst of the Ring (the 27th, I believe).

Managed to dig up confirmation of IGI's statement above regarding TuI for The Proms this summer. Many of you may be pleased to know whom the conductor in question will be :) :

http://www.kulturkompasset.com/2012/...122013-season/ (kind of embarassing that if we trust the date of this blog post, this information has been out on 'teh internet' since last August (......).

"Finally, Violeta Urmana will herald the 2013 festival season with a concertante performance of Tristan und Isolde under Semyon Bychkov on July 27, 2013 at the BBC Proms in London."

http://www.violetaurmana.com/calendar/calendar.php/en

"July 27

Wagner: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE/ Isolde (in concert), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov
London, BBC Proms"

But wait: there's more (to use common American phraseology), namely confirmation of the 3rd non-UK ensemble to The Proms this summer, c/o the website of the young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki:

http://www.janlisiecki.com/calendar.html

"July 19

London, England
Royal Albert Hall
BBC Proms
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Antonio Pappano

R.Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh no, ff - the Piano Concerto is gorgeous but needs sensitive, carefully-balanced playing and good recorded sound; maybe try again? I love the piece and think it one of his finest creations. It was inspired by hearing a Walter Gieseking rehearsal of the first movement of Beethoven's G Major. This gave Tippett the idea for "a contemporary concerto" which used the piano for its "poetic capabilities". It speaks the language of Midsummer Marriage, and the piano is delicately threaded through the first movement which is full of highly original textural and structural features. A tranquillo slow movement of great emotional depth balanced by a rhythmically lively, jazzy finale. For me it's a "what more do you want" piece.

Stick with it, it'll come to you if you do...

Tippett wrote many works that I adore, none more so than the Piano Concerto - up there with the "Corelli Fantasia" and The Midsummer Marriage (the very prospect of which makes the next Proms season unmissable). Do listen again, I beg, ferretf - the Osborne disc will do very nicely, as will Ogdon's premiere recording with Colin Davis if you can find it. Ben Frith plays the piano part superbly on NAXOS, but the conductor doesn't quite match the soloist's zestful mastery of Tippett's rhythms, and the recording isn't as clear as it needs to be. A great shame.

[teamsaint]

The version of the Tippett PC that Jayne recommends, (Hickox/Shelley/BSO) is available on Naxos online.

[Ferretfancy]

Tippett wrote many works that I adore, none more so than the Piano Concerto - up there with the "Corelli Fantasia" and The Midsummer Marriage (the very prospect of which makes the next Proms season unmissable). Do listen again, I beg, ferretf - the Osborne disc will do very nicely, as will Ogdon's premiere recording with Colin Davis if you can find it. Ben Frith plays the piano part superbly on NAXOS, but the conductor doesn't quite match the soloist's zestful mastery of Tippett's rhythms, and the recording isn't as clear as it needs to be. A great shame.

Ferney

I have both the Ogden and Shelley recordings in my collection, so I will certainly try again. Maybe the Barbican acoustic was a bit unhelpful when I heard it. The performance of Shostakovich 8 after the interval was superb, which raises the question, why are BBC SO concerts so rarely reviewed ?

For the record, I love the Triple Concerto, and have heard it live several times, and I'm fascinated by the symphonies and the string quartets which certainly deserve to be heard more often, so I'm not quite a lost cause !

I was lucky enough to meet Tippett when he came to spend a day recording commentary for a biographical film in the old series One Pair of Eyes. He was very charming and approachable. a very good listener who assumed you could do your job well. It was a little sad that even then his sight was so bad that he had to read an enormously enlarged type using a magnifying glass.