Prom 15 - 23.07.13: Wagner – Die Walküre

[RobertLeDiable]

And yet I still find Barenboim very stylishly matter-of-fact.

Extraordinary. What do you want him to do exactly?

[Flosshilde]

stylishly matter-of-fact.

What is that, exactly? I can understand matter-of-factly stylish, but not the reverse.

[slarty]

No comments yet? I thought that Sieglinde was showing signs of strain at the end, but altogether very exciting. I'm hearing lot's more detail in the music than usual.

It's quite possible that she is feeling a little tired as she is in full rehearsals for the new Walküre at Bayreuth in which she will be singing Sieglinde on this coming saturday.
So she is playing truant from Bayreuth at the moment. It will be interesting to compare the two broadcasts being only days apart.

[EdgeleyRob]

Is it possible to just listen to something of this magnitude without giving it full attention,which for five hours would take some doing.
I started to listen,I know the music is fabulous, but don't feel as though I'm doing it justice and I've now given up.
I have owned the Bohm set of the ring for a long time,tried to get to know the music ....dipped in and out....perhaps I'm just not ready.
At this moment in time the sheer scale of Wagner's work is just too much for me but I'm sure one day,when I have the time to sit down and listen properly without any distraction,it will click.
Off to walk the dog with Mozart Piano Sonatas on the i pod.

[RobertLeDiable]

Actually this performance is just completely inspired. This is a great opera orchestra being given a rare chance to play music that's in its bones out of the pit, on stage, in front of a huge, packed audience in one of the greatest musical events on earth. They are absolutely loving it.

We're privileged.

[Tristan_Klingsor]

My attitude for most of my life. But I eventually did give it a go and it's really worth the effort. It takes quite a long time though!

[amac4165]

Actually this performance is just completely inspired. This is a great opera orchestra being given a rare chance to play music that's in its bones out of the pit, on stage, in front of a huge, packed audience in one of the greatest musical events on earth. They are absolutely loving it.

We're privileged.

I see Rupert Christiansen picked up on the spat at the end of act 2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/proms/10198336/Proms-2013-Wagner-Die-Walkure-review.html

Otherwise it was utterly compelling - Stemme and Kampe simply outstanding!

[Nick Armstrong]

I see Rupert Christiansen picked up on the spat at the end of act 2

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...re-review.html

And hearsay as to the cause, in the comment under the piece. I was only able to hear part on the radio, the male singers I heard and the orchestra seemed pretty magnificent, the female singers less so, indeed caused me to switch off. My loss I'm sure.

Interesting pre-Walküre preparation régime for Barenboim, the well-known Cigar-Burton-Hill Technique:

[DracoM]

Stemme fine-ish, Terfel on top of everything, band hefty, Valkyries awful, Sieglinde star of the show.

[Belgrove]

A satisfying performance by the end. The first act seemed underpowered and was marked by peculiar dynamics which failed to make any musical or dramatic sense to me. Things picked up from act 2 onwards with the arrival of Stemme and Terfel, both excellent, and they bootstrapped everyone else. This is the best I have heard Terfel sing the role - he is now reaching into its subtleties and interstices. I particularly appreciated Ekaterina Gubanova's Fricka in her encounter with Wotan, a marvellous and fascinating scene, one of my favourites in the entire Ring.

Act 2 is dramatically pivotal, and also long, requiring a sense of line to shape the drama and music. Barenboim achieved this, I think. The Annunciation scene's long arc from stacis to frenetic animation was expertly judged. Barenboim is not an elegant or particularly interesting conductor to watch. His gestures are punctuated many head scratching and brow moppings (it was a very hot and packed hall) and an extraordinary movement that recalls casting bread upon the waters for the ducks! But he gets impressive results with plenty of goosebumps along the way. This was the best performance of a Ring opera I have witnessed in London since Haitink in the 1990's. Roll on the next instalment.

[Nick Armstrong]

Valkyries awful

I think I fell among the Valkyries when I switched on...

[Prommer]

Barenboim does feed the ducks, but he also has a motion akin to the Lone Ranger hoisting and hurling a lasso at a recalcitrant steer, to cue the brass or the timps.

He was cross with the leader at the start of Act II, for some unknown reason (I thought it was because he had led the orchestra offstage after Act I, before any solo bows could be had), but had also started talking to Anja Kampe in Act I before the final scene - I think to get her to move over to interact with Simon O'Neill. The latter Barenboim was extravagantly baton-jamming with, I think to get him to act/animate more. Bryn decided to take the fight to him by going and perching on the front of the rostrum at one point, to indicate dejection with Brunnhilde.

DB also is fond of cueing in the soloists with a jab of his baton in their general direction, on occasion yesterday over his shoulder or behind his back as if smuggling a basketball out of sight of the oppo. The whole style is self-consciously 'impetuous' (channelling Furty?) but the results are not nearly as wayward as the gestures would imply.

All seen and enjoyed from the back of Grand Tier box over the orchestra!

[Zucchini]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jul/24/die-walkure-proms-barenboim-review

[Prommer]

And hearsay as to the cause, in the comment under the piece. I was only able to hear part on the radio, the male singers I heard and the orchestra seemed pretty magnificent, the female singers less so, indeed caused me to switch off. My loss I'm sure.

Interesting pre-Walküre preparation régime for Barenboim, the well-known Cigar-Burton-Hill Technique:

'At the end of me ole cigar, hoorah hoorah hoorah...'

[slarty]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013...renboim-review

It's not often I find myself agreeing with reviews, but this one just about nails it. I could not have written it better myself.
I would quibble with the Staatskapelle Berlin being the orchestra with the deepest understanding of the Ring - that is Barenboim's legacy to them from his long experience at Bayreuth. I would suggest that the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera orchestras have as much as/or even more than the Berlin Band.