Prom 27 - 2.08.13: Naresh Sohal, Rachmaninov & Tchaikovsky

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

7.30pm – c. 10.45pm
Royal Albert Hall

Naresh Sohal
The Cosmic Dance (c45 mins)
BBC Commission, World Premiere
INTERVAL
Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (41 mins)
INTERVAL
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 5 in E minor (45 mins)

Nikolai Lugansky piano
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian conductor, Proms debut artist

The Proms Tchaikovsky symphony cycle continues with a performance of the melancholy Fifth Symphony. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is conducted by Peter Oundjian who makes his Proms debut. The concert begins with a commission by Punjabi-born British composer Naresh Sohal in a work which examines the idea of creation: The Cosmic Dance. The second part of the concert is devoted to Rachmaninov's hugely demanding Third Piano Concerto, its haunting opening melody based on an old traditional Russian chant. Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky is the soloist.

[mercia]

what sort of thing should I listen out for with Sohal ?

[MrGongGong]

what sort of thing should I listen out for with Sohal ?

I wouldn't bother as someone somewhere said it was rubbish

I would listen to what it sounds like (that's not a sarcastic comment)

I've never heard any of his music either

[teamsaint]

Here is some of Sohal's Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx4eemTDv1E

[edashtav]

I wouldn't bother as someone somewhere said it was rubbish

I would listen to what it sounds like (that's not a sarcastic comment)

I've never heard any of his music either

Oh deary me. There was a time when Radio 3 had an active score-reading panel. For all it's gloss and glitter, I fear they would have rejected this piece. I now appreciate, fully, the monstrous folly that I performed when criticising Thomas Ades's Totentanz. I shall say no more for I cannot bring myself to take Sohal's piece seriously.

[jayne lee wilson]

Sohal's The Cosmic Dance sounded to me as a symphonic poem, cast in the form of a vast dance-suite, dealing (at times playfully) with the role of smaller creatures in The Great Universe, but whose programmatic details remained undisclosed.

It reminded me a little of Skalkottas' The Sea, a similarly neo-tonal, filmic set of evocative and pictorial movements with recurring ideas, and if either piece is too-easily described as "sprawling" - isn't that part of their appeal? What do we want them to be, if not themselves? Colour, texture, imagination and above all The Dance of The Spirit among natural and supernatural phenomena. Must we always want a tightly organised, motivically integrated symphonic structure to summon that up before we begin to offer approval? Would we perceive such a thing on one hearing?

I'd love to have a CD of Cosmic Dance. I'd probably play it a lot on on the Bedside Tivoli. But the Cosmic IPlayer is there for the next 7 Days. And then the listening Gods may rest, whether or not they reserve their judgement.

[pastoralguy]

Wonderful playing from the RSNO I thought. The worlds greatest orchestra?

[edashtav]

Gordon Jacob

Sohal's The Cosmic Dance sounded to me as a symphonic poem, cast in the form of a vast dance-suite, dealing (at times playfully) with the role of smaller creatures in The Great Universe, but whose programmatic details remained undisclosed.

It reminded me a little of Skalkottas' The Sea, a similarly neo-tonal, filmic set of evocative and pictorial movements with recurring ideas, and if either piece is too-easily described as "sprawling" - isn't that part of their appeal? What do we want them to be, if not themselves? Colour, texture, imagination and above all The Dance of The Spirit among natural and supernatural phenomena. Must we always want a tightly organised, motivically integrated symphonic structure to summon that up before we begin to offer approval?

I'd love to have a CD of Cosmic Dance. I'd probably play it a lot on on the Bedside Tivoli. But the Cosmic IPlayer is there for the next 7 Days. And then the listening Gods may rest, whether or not they reserve their judgement.

Yes, I concede that works, such as the Skalkottas, map territory being plundered by Naresh Sohal. But... you're too kind and indulgent, jlw. Skalkottas wrote that ballet music over sixty years ago. Many crops have been sown in that soil in the years that followed. The soil, the terrain, &, indeed, the sea is exhausted, mined out, & trawled so well there are no more sprats left. It'll do as music to hear, music to dance to, music to make love too, perhaps, but it doesn't cut the mustard in terms of music to listen to. It isn't "neo-tonal" - it's not that inventive, it's plain tonal : old wine in new bottles. Gordon Jacob!

[BBMmk2]

I must say, I wasn't at all impressed by the Sohal either! Even the cat didn't like it! Love the Rach PC 3 and waiting to here the Tchaik, at time of posting.

[jayne lee wilson]

Well for me, this Old Wine (and I'm not sure its blend was much older than that in Totentanz) tasted the better for having been decanted out of original Bollywood containers... but I need longer to savour it, try it with different foods, sorry moods. (Not to flog it to death here...)

But I mean, whither music? Where is a fresh synthesis coming from? A musical future can only be formed from the past, and we can't even perform Tippett's 2nd often enough for most listeners to recognise it - to know it through and through, Ed, as you implied - as a great symphonic masterpiece. New works are condemned to be squeezed in, brief candles, among the sort of warhorses that I'm carefully avoiding tonight. (Practising inverted prejudice against the old for a change). "There's always someone listening for the first time..." I know, I know. But with the Sohal or the Tippett, it'll often be the last, or the 2nd and the last, etc.

[edashtav]

Spare the Cane and Ruin the Child

Well for me, this Old Wine (and I'm not sure its blend was much older than that in Totentanz) tasted the better for having been decanted out of original Bollywood containers... but I need longer to savour it, try it with different foods, sorry moods. (Not to flog it to death here...)

But I mean, whither music? Where is a fresh synthesis coming from? A musical future can only be formed from the past, and we can't even perform Tippett's 2nd often enough for most listeners to recognise it - to know it through and through, Ed, as you implied - as a great symphonic masterpiece. New works are condemned to be squeezed in, brief candles, among the sort of warhorses that I'm carefully avoiding tonight. (Practising inverted prejudice against the old for a change). "There's always someone listening for the first time..." I know, I know. But with the Sohal or the Tippett, it'll often be the last, or the 2nd and the last, etc.

I have great sympathy for your position, jlw, and I agree it's good to give works a decent chance. But... there is a limited, and, I fear, decreasing quantity of performance time available for new and newish music. Our failure to winnow, to speak out against the redundant, the repetitious, and the vacuous, limits the opportunities for reviving works, such as Tippett's 2nd Symphony which has moved me repeatedly to tears with its intricate beauty. I'm desperate to get it into repertoire, and, I'm afraid that I'm happy to do that at the expense of a second Prom outing for tonight's meretricious piece.

I'm avoiding the Rach, too. Goodness only knows how many times it was wheeled out in Bournemouth during my youth. I'd have happily sacrificed one of those to hear the Tippett, live, but, I have to say, that I'd rather sit through Rach's PC#3 for the 99th time than Sohal's piece for a second one.

But... if I had the choice, I'd rather be kind and generous like you than mean-spirited!

[edashtav]

Models and Pit-Props

Well for me, this Old Wine (and I'm not sure its blend was much older than that in Totentanz)

My apologies, jlw, I omitted to deal with your aside re Totentanz. The models that Ades used in Totentanz were older - early 20th century against Sohal's use of scores from the 40s and 50s, but where Ades succeeded , IMHO, and Sohal failed was that Ades used his props as spurs to creativity whereas Sohal copied them - take away the pit-props and Sohal's piece collapses to nullity, take Zemlinsky out of Ades and, I feel, core material stamped with a branding iron "Ades" remains. Of course, I remain critical that the backward-looking elements may be sapping Ades's individuality - weakening his brand, if you like.

[pastoralguy]

Superb performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th from the RSNO and Peter Oundjian tonight, I thought. Good to hear Scotland's orchestra paying so well.

[edashtav]

Superb performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th from the RSNO and Peter Oundjian tonight, I thought. Good to hear Scotland's orchestra paying so well.

I listened to it whilst washing up and I must admit I was impressed by its cogency, drive and colour. Last time I heard it live at the Proms, played by a distinguished East Coast American orchestra, it was not as good.

[RobertLeDiable]

Wonderful playing from the RSNO I thought. The worlds greatest orchestra?

Good gracious. Are you serious? It's a good orchestra, yes, but it's not Britain's greatest, far less the world's.