Prom 6- 16.07.13: David Matthews, Rachmaninov & Nielsen

[jayne lee wilson]

Thank goodness there's another Nielsen fan around! He really seems to need them .

[Barbirollians]

Another fan here .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Another fan here .

And here. I've just replaced my missing copy of Simpson's study and have started my own exodus of the Symphonies. (Joy-of-Joys, Simpson rewrote entirely his chapter on the Sixth, which was the real blemish of the first edition.)

[Anna]

I see that David Matthews' Vision of the Sea joins Lachenmann's Tanzlied as another victim of the TV Censorship of Difficult Modern Music, edited out of the BBC4 broadcast
I think its time to start a TV Proms 2013 List, we could call it Entartete Musik...

I thought perhaps you'd got it wrong as last Saturday's paper's tv and radio review clearly said it included David Matthews, and the Proms tv coverage page didn't say it was going to be omitted so I turned on .......... and was disappointed. I so wanted to hear it again (and see it)
I can't believe they're editing the Proms. Does anyone here belong to FaceBook, could some comments be posted on the R3 FB page to express our feelings?

[french frank]

And assuming he wasn't exaggerating, it's remarkable that the blind soloist keeps track of rhythm by listening to the conductor's breathing.

It says on the Proms website that he's 'a regular collaborator with the orchestra' so they have obviously worked out their system.

Re the Lachenmann and Matthews, the TV broadcast listing on the website simply links to the Proms programme for information. I wonder whether there has been a bit of politics behind the scenes re the broadcasts.

[bluestateprommer]

My own modest take on David Matthews' new work is that it is, in the literal and not the debased sense of the word, a nice piece of music. It obviously harkens back to more "old fashioned" works for almost a standard Romantic era orchestra, so it could also be considered "modern music for people who don't like modern music". On this side of the pond, obviously the issues of whether or not to broadcast the work on TV don't apply to me, since I can't see the videos anyway, but it is disappointing if indeed BBC TV chooses not to broadcast it. (But then back in 2008, they didn't videotape Job at the RVW concert on August 26, of all the works on that program, a huge mistake. They should have aired all of it.)

I'll admit that it's hard to comment on Nobuyuki Tsujii without keeping his handicap in mind, and all that he's done to overcome it to make a career for himself in music. I say this by way of preface to note that IMHO, he certainly gave a good performance, though not without some slips, in particular some scrambled passage work in the first movement. But then I've also heard Stephen Hough stumble over passages in Rachmaninov live in concert also, so Tsujii is in good company there. Tsujii did a lovely job in his encore.

Likewise, generally good work from Mena leading Nielsen 4. I'm one of those who's definitely interested in Nielsen's music, although I don't necessarily claim to be a "fan". If nothing else, in New York, Alan Gilbert is trying to do his bit for Nielsen, in a multi-season "Nielsen Project":

http://nyphil.org/ConcertsTickets/season/nielsen-project

[Anna]

Re the Lachenmann and Matthews, the TV broadcast listing on the website simply links to the Proms programme for information. I wonder whether there has been a bit of politics behind the scenes re the broadcasts.

What do you mean by 'politics'? Surely it's simple: A Prom takes place, it's recorded, it's broadcast from start to finish. (Unless, of course, there are copyright issues re broadcasting visuals which would be unlikely) If I were David Matthews I think I would feel mightily aggrieved.
(Edit: would it have anything to do with it being a BBC commission?)