Proms Saturday Matinee 2 - 3.08.13: Britten, Tippett, Holst & L. Berkeley

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

3.00pm – c. 4.30pm
Cadogan Hall

Britten
Prelude and Fugue (10 mins)
Holst
St Paul's Suite (13 mins)
Berkeley
Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila (14 mins)
Tippett
Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli (19 mins)
Britten
Phaedra (15 mins)

Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Britten Sinfonia
Sian Edwards conductor

Today's Proms Saturday Matinee features mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly in two great British works for voice and string orchestra - Britten's final vocal work Phaedra, and a rare chance to hear Lennox Berkeley's Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila. Plus the Britten Sinfonia perform some staples of the string repertoire - Holst's St Paul's Suite and Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's good to see that Britten's comtemporaries are getting a slice of the cake.

[mrbouffant]

Looking forward to this one today! I am a big fan of the Tippett, I have to say...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Looking forward to this one today! I am a big fan of the Tippett, I have to say...

... in fact, the entire programme is mouth-watering.

[Black Swan]

I too am looking forward to the concert. I do not know Britten's Phaedra. So I will be very interested in Sarah Connolly's interpretation.

[Barbirollians]

She made a very fine recording of it with Gardner.

[Black Swan]

Thanks for the recommendation.

On Connolly/Gardner.

[mrbouffant]

This was an excellent concert. I had forgotten how elegant a venue the Cadogan Hall is. To sit in the foyer and relax with a glass of wine on a Saturday was a wonderful treat.
As for the music - tremendous performances all round. The virtuosity of the ensemble and solo parts in the Tippett made a deep impression. I couldn't quite get over how much Sarah Connolly reminded me of 'Miranda'. However, her performance of the Berkeley served to remind us what an underrated composer he is.

[edashtav]

This was an excellent concert. I had forgotten how elegant a venue the Cadogan Hall is. To sit in the foyer and relax with a glass of wine on a Saturday was a wonderful treat.
As for the music - tremendous performances all round. The virtuosity of the ensemble and solo parts in the Tippett made a deep impression. I couldn't quite get over how much Sarah Connolly reminded me of 'Miranda'. However, her performance of the Berkeley served to remind us what an underrated composer he is.

If Berkeley, jnr, deserves the status of "Baron", then Berkeley,snr, surely should be called "Duke"?

[amateur51]

If Berkeley, jnr, deserves the status of "Baron", then Berkeley,snr, surely should be called "Duke"?

"Squire" surely, as in the song ...

"Now maybe I'm right
And maybe I'm wrong
But I'm perfectly willing to swear " etc

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Squire" surely, as in the song ...

"Now maybe I'm right
And maybe I'm wrong
But I'm perfectly willing to swear " etc

<groan>

[edashtav]

"Squire" surely, as in the song ...

"Now maybe I'm right
And maybe I'm wrong
But I'm perfectly willing to swear " etc

Can you confirm that's a song from Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol"?

[edashtav]

English 20c Classics Draw Strength from much Earlier Models

This was an excellent concert. I had forgotten how elegant a venue the Cadogan Hall is. To sit in the foyer and relax with a glass of wine on a Saturday was a wonderful treat.
As for the music - tremendous performances all round. The virtuosity of the ensemble and solo parts in the Tippett made a deep impression. I couldn't quite get over how much Sarah Connolly reminded me of 'Miranda'. However, her performance of the Berkeley served to remind us what an underrated composer he is.

Well written, MrBouffant, your comments inspired me to listen to the repeat, this afternoon .

It was an excellent concert, wonderfully played by the Britten Sinfonia, guided by Sian Edwards who uncovered new facets to the scores. The recital was topped off by Sarah Connolly singing in great style. My word, I've never heard Britten's Prelude and Fugue played with such panache. This performance was revelatory and gripped me throughout. Sian Edwards shone new light on that old favourite, Holst St Paul's Suite, and the result was a far from school music as you could imagination. I admired the manner in which Edwards characterised the music, uncovering aspects that I'd not experienced before. I instance some Spanish or Moorish inflections in its third movement that invoked neat parallels within Holst's Beni Mora Suite.

I greatly admire Lennox Berkeley's music for its economy, grace and transparency. His Four Songs of St Avilla are a particular favourite: religious music without hint or tint of saccharine religiosity. The movements are wonderfully varied in tone and texture but come together in a manner which is more than a mere suite. Sarah Connolly's diction was clear and her line shone through the accompaniment - helped of course, by Lennox's thoughtful scoring.

I came to the Tippett having heard the slightly flawed performance of his 2nd Symphony by the BBC SO under Knussen a couple of weeks ago at the Proms. Both works gain in my opinion from the brighter clearer light of the Italian masters that Tippett invokes: Vivaldi and Corelli. Today's concertante, along with so much of Tippett's early and middle period output, can congeal into thick aural mud - grey is not the colour of hope in Tippett. Sian Edwards performed marvels in distinguishing foreground from background and the players excelled themselves in the beauty of their individual lines. A great performance; one to treasure.

This band of players goes from strength to strength and Sian Edwards is a conductor I want to hear again at the Proms.

[Simon Biazeck]

And the Briiten cantata? Hardly a mention yet. For me, it was the one real masterpiece of the afternoon. (I say that as one who adores the music of Tippett and Berkeley). It is an astonishing, spine tingling valedictory outpouring for solo voice from a composer facing his own mortality in 1974. The feverish epilogue where Phaedra's life seems to flash before her eyes through the ensemble is quite harrowing. Connolly's interpretation is possibly the best I've ever heard, seemingly shot through with her understanding of the character from that other work currently playing at Glyndebourne. Let's hope she records it (and the orchestration of A Charm of Lullabies) with this brilliant ensemble under Sian Edwards' direction!

[edashtav]

Britten Signs off at the Peak of his Powers

And the Briiten cantata? Hardly a mention yet. For me, it was the one real masterpiece of the afternoon. (I say that as one who adores the music of Tippett and Berkeley). It is an astonishing, spine tingling valedictory outpouring for solo voice from a composer facing his own mortality in 1974. The feverish epilogue where Phaedra's life seems to flash before her eyes through the ensemble is quite harrowing. Connolly's interpretation is possibly the best I've ever heard, seemingly shot through with her understanding of the character from that other work currently playing at Glyndebourne. Let's hope she records it (and the orchestration of A Charm of Lullabies) with this brilliant ensemble under Sian Edwards' direction!

Many thanks for this "Heads Up", Simon - my listening was truncated this afternoon by a telephone call.

I suppose you're making the point that Sian made in her mid-concert interview: it's difficult to programme Britten with his British contemporaries for his genius shines so brightly that they appear as shadows. I'm reluctant to say so, but having listened to this electrifying account of Phaedra, I concur with your view "the one real masterpiece of the afternoon". The performance was very moving and exhausting. Because of the complexity of emotion and music underneath Britten's stringent economy, the work seemed much longer than a quarter of an hour. I'm glad to see that the BBC have made it available for 4 weeks via the iPlayer. Music and performance deserve nothing less. In fact, like you, Simon, I hope that Sarah Connolly records it with this ensemble and Sian Edwards for every phrase was charged with nervous energy.