Prom 1: First Night of the Proms

[salymap]

So they had 3 hand works written or arranged by RVW,Bliss and Arnold. Didn't realise that.

I'll look for that Desert Island Discs prog when I catch up with everything. Thanks.

[amateur51]

He was quite well known as half of a duet with Phyllis Selleck. Didn't he lose the use of one arm (stroke?) and Malcolm Arnold wrote a concerto for piano three hands for them?

That's it Pabs - here's the recording of the Arnold concerto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJWuUWk3Yh4

I think it would make a brilliant Proms piece, perhaps coupled with Britten's Diversions - Hough & Grosvenor

[mrbouffant]

That's it Pabs - here's the recording of the Arnold concerto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJWuUWk3Yh4

I think it would make a brilliant Proms piece

Come to the Prom on 31st July and you can hear it live :)

I remember a previous Proms performance in the mid-1990s. Lots of fun. In fact, the world premiere was at the Proms was it not, in 1969?

[bluestateprommer]

Yes, [Julian Anderson's Harmony] was lovely & succinct but will it have a life post its earliest performances? There are so many terrific "short" choral & orchestral works that just don't get programmed. Choral Societies tend to rehearse "big beasts" and small fry get ignored. A great shame. My advice to Julian: make the piece a focal point of a suite or sequence.'

Totally agree; I hope JA has already had the same idea. I was a touch underwhelmed on first hearing, but it grew on me more on the 2nd hearing. I'll admit that I don't know what texts to add to make a suitable suite, but here's hoping JA goes for it.

Both the Britten and the Rachmaninov were good, if not necessarily more, IMHO. I thought that the concert's interpretative energy level really started to kick in with the Lutoslawski, perhaps reflecting how much rehearsal time it may well have gotten, and no doubt needed, as I'm guessing that it was a first for Sakari Oramo and the BBC SO, though not for Stephen Hough. I question the wisdom of putting the Lutoslawski after the Rachmaninov, since the former had more notes per minute than the latter, but to less effect.

Speaking of energy levels, VW 1 definitely kicked it up a notch after intermission from the start of the fanfare launch. All involved were in very fine form, and which bodes very, very well for Oramo's time with the BBC SO. My one quibble was the slow-to-the-point-of-indulgent tempi in the passage for Sally Matthews and Roderick Williams around the passage bracketed by "O soul thou pleasest me" and "I and my soul to range in range of thee". (Nice quick note from Petroc that the First Night was Sally Matthews' birthday.) But overall, terrific work from the massed choirs, and fine sound from the BBC SO, which bodes well for Oramo's tenure. Granted, this is the start of the honeymoon phase, and the real test begins in the fall at the Barbican, but for now, we can enjoy a good start for this relationship.

BTW, random other thoughts on scattered posts, though relying on the wise words of others who said it better before me in places:

(a) Whether RVW should have reworked A Sea Symphony or not: I'm reminded of Manuel Rosenthal remembering meeting Ravel and showing him some of his very youthful scores, and when Ravel saw that Rosenthal was visibly uncomfortable and borderline embarassed, Ravel told him:

".....there's something you have to keep in your heart; it's a work of your youth, and youth is something we can never replace in life."

Granted, one's late 30's is a bit beyond "youth", but in this context, I trust people will understand why I cite this passage.

(b) Regarding the quality of Walt Whitman's poetry, my one-volume paperback anthology has this quote from the foreword by Mark van Doren:

"The whole of Leaves of Grass naturally has great interest, but the work gains with most readers when it is cut. Much of it is repetition, and much of it is bad."

Fortunately, the advantage that smart composers have is that they can choose their texts carefully :) .

(c) "Gimmicky" Proms, i.e. Doctor Who, and timing: it's also a question of which artists can be lined up throughout the season at which times. If the family Proms are on the first weekend, so be it. If they're in the midst of the season, so be it. If they're on the next to last weekend, so be it.

(d) Critics: The Guardian does allow for comments, so if anyone wants to accuse the critic of blowing off any part of the concert, or accuse him/her of anything else, one is welcome to do so in the Comments section below the review. It is my experience that The Guardian's critics do read comments, and respond when they feel it appropriate.

But overall, the 2013 Proms ship has launched nicely, so happy sailing for the full 8 weeks :) .

[pilamenon]

This was one of the better opening nights in recent years, in my view. Like a few others here, I think the Sea Symphony one of Vaughan Williams' finest orchestral creations, very different in idiom from some of the later symphonies, to which it surely doesn't need to be compared. I have yet to see it live, and this sounded like a very good performance. The opening bars were suitably majestic, the closing bars heavenly.

I would have liked to hear the Sea Interludes follow straight on from the opening commission, but I suppose the composer has to take his bow. I also liked the juxtaposition of the two Paganini variations - again a shorter pause might have had a stronger impact.

[amateur51]

Come to the Prom on 31st July and you can hear it live :)

I remember a previous Proms performance in the mid-1990s. Lots of fun. In fact, the world premiere was at the Proms was it not, in 1969?

Cor cheers mrbouffant

[Lordgeous]

I thought the Anderson was pleasant enough but nothing memorable about it. There seemed to me to be more music in the first few bars of the Sea Interludes than in the whole of the Anderson. Britten's spell has never faded for me.

[Sir Velo]

I've just listened again and am not questioning his playing for a moment but felt he looked stressed.
I'vealso heard the Lutoslawski and enjoyed it a lot.
.

The Paganini variations date from early in Luto's career and were composed originally as a duo for two pianist for him to perform with his old pal, Andrzej Panufnik, during the war years to keep the bread coming in. Have to say I prefer this version to the one for solo piano and orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Paganini variations date from early in Luto's career and were composed originally as a duo for two pianist for him to perform with his old pal, Andrzej Panufnik, during the war years to keep the bread coming in. Have to say I prefer this version to the one for solo piano and orchestra.

I agree.

Lutos and Panufnik were forbidden to play "Classical" repertoire, permitted only light "café" Music. They both made arrangements of classical works and defiantly performed them in their "programmes" - Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations began as a "straight" transcription of the last of Paganini's solo violin caprice that got "out of control" and became an "original" work for piano duet. Together, they made many such arrangements, but this was the only one to survive the destruction of Warsaw.