Prom 1: First Night of the Proms

[VodkaDilc]

Does anyone else share the strange feeling I have? The Proms started last night, but now there's a hiatus before serious Proms resume tomorrow evening. I feel in the mood for a good radio concert tonight. If they must stage these gimmicky Proms, couldn't they at least be mid-season?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He was no Stravinsky looking to protect copyright (and income flow) through pseudo-updated editions.

Neither was Stravinsky.

[ardcarp]

Thanks for the Arts Desk review Mr Pee.

Whilst I personally did not see (on TV) " Hough [finding] a throwaway charm to the virtuosity and an ease to the lyric passages that refreshed this war-horse" [the Rach Pag]

..I do agree with:

the musicians of the BBCSO weren’t entirely on board with their conductor's interpretation, and brass blotted and smudged their interjections into Hough’s solo passages, while strings disagreed amongst themselves. It was an issue that also emerged in Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, which lacked the impulsion of Ed Gardner and English National Opera’s performance last year. Storm was scrappy and a bit of a scramble,

I'm sure it takes a while for a new conductor and orchestra to bed in, but Oramo looked a little too benign; maybe he needs to cultivate a slightly more tyrannical persona!

One wonders how much rehearsal time everyone had? With so varied a programme and with such a big cast, I dare say that 'the warhorse' (the Rach) and the Sea Interludes may have got short shrift.

[Nick Armstrong]

I strip myself naked in the grass, on the shore of the sea, in the crowded street.
I am free and naked; the policemen run me in,

Them also do I call brothers!

Love both those parodies, Pabs - new to me. Thanks!

[arthroceph]

Hi,

Anyhow, there's always a special thrill about the first night, even when you have to listen abroad to a rebroadcast. Mr. Trelawny's intro was a bit over the top, when you actually have "the best classical music festival in the world", it becomes boastful if you have to say it also. I suppose it's sour grapes on the part of a non-Brit like me, coming so soon after Glastonbury too .. sour grapes or jealousy or gratuitous bitterness, I don't know which .. :-D

My inkling is that things at the BBC have had to become more commercial, and boastfulness is not a fault in that context, it's a proper tactic. Still, it would have been a laugh to stick an "arguably" in there, because I actually don't think it's arguable .. would have got a few EBU smiles ... they're continually green with envy over the Beeb.

In any case, the single (!) comment I was going to make was Julian Anderson's intro into his piece, which seemed to incorporate the Proms audience almost as an instrument. I was struck by that. I suppose the endless cliché's of "you've been such a great audience" have numbed our ears, but here was an almost official acknowledgement of the audience. I dare say ... it may even be in the score!

Credit where it's due, I suppose :-)

[edashtav]

Neither was Stravinsky.

Not always, I grant you, but sometimes...

Have a peep at this:

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/05/the-absolutely-right-rite-of-spring.html

[edashtav]

Does anyone else share the strange feeling I have? The Proms started last night, but now there's a hiatus before serious Proms resume tomorrow evening. I feel in the mood for a good radio concert tonight. If they must stage these gimmicky Proms, couldn't they at least be mid-season?

I'll drink to that!

[edashtav]

Thanks for the Arts Desk review Mr Pee.
...

One wonders how much rehearsal time everyone had? With so varied a programme and with such a big cast, I dare say that 'the warhorse' (the Rach) and the Sea Interludes may have got short shrift.

I'd be surprised and shocked had the BeeB NOT provided all the rehearsal time that a new conductor requested, especially since this was the First Night of the Proms."

However, it can be appallingly difficult to play string instruments in great heat and humidity. The conditions in the RAH militated against unanimity and great music-making.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not always, I grant you, but sometimes...

Have a peep at this:

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...of-spring.html

OK, I've peeped - not sure how these show "pseudo-updated editions", nor how Stravinsky's "income flow" benefited from an edition published 29 years after he died; but an interesting read, nonetheless.

[Tristan_Klingsor]

No... it's an apprentice work, inconsistent in idiom, a box of tricks to be plundered and refined.

The Sea Symphony was completed when RVW was 37 which is a bit old to still be an apprentice I would have thought; Mozart had already been dead two years!

[EdgeleyRob]

Does anyone else share the strange feeling I have? The Proms started last night, but now there's a hiatus before serious Proms resume tomorrow evening. I feel in the mood for a good radio concert tonight. If they must stage these gimmicky Proms, couldn't they at least be mid-season?

Me too.
Have them all at the beginning (including the last night )and get 'em over and done with.

[edashtav]

The Sea Symphony was completed when RVW was 37 which is a bit old to still be an apprentice I would have thought; Mozart had already been dead two years!

‘It would be hard,’ his composer friend George Butterworth commented, ‘to name any other first-rate composer who had “found himself” with such apparent difficulty.@

I reckon George was right!

[VodkaDilc]

‘It would be hard,’ his composer friend George Butterworth commented, ‘to name any other first-rate composer who had “found himself” with such apparent difficulty.@

I reckon George was right!

As a symphonist, what about Brahms?

[edashtav]

OK, I've peeped - not sure how these show "pseudo-updated editions", nor how Stravinsky's "income flow" benefited from an edition published 29 years after he died; but an interesting read, nonetheless.

Let's home in on one edition:

1947: “revised version” (Boosey; actually just corrections).

Some scores edited by IS in 1947 were genuine new editions driven by a musical need. I put it to you that the 1947 version of the RoS was created merely to print money. Igor loved money and was not above a bit of deception when it came to improving his income.

[edashtav]

As a symphonist, what about Brahms?

A good response!