Proms Chamber Music 4 - 5.08.13: TenThing

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

1.00pm – c. 2.00pm
Cadogan Hall

Grieg
Holberg Suite (3 mins)
Praeludium
Grieg
Lyric Pieces (2 mins)
Grandmother's Minuet, Op. 68 No. 2
Grieg
19 Norwegian Folk Songs (2 mins)
Gjendine's Lullaby, Op. 66 No. 19
Grieg
Lyric Pieces (4 mins)
March of the Dwarfs, Op. 54 No. 3
Diana Burrell
Blaze (10 mins)
BBC Commission, World Premiere
Weill
The Threepenny Opera – suite (18 mins)
Piazzolla
Oblivion (3 mins)
Bizet
Carmen – Suite No. 2 (6 mins)

tenThing

Ahead of her Royal Albert Hall concerto debut later this month, Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth brings her all-female 10-piece brass ensemble tenThing to Cadogan Hall. A bold new work by the British composer Diana Burrell is the centrepiece of a virtuosic programme of tangos, seguidillas, habaneras and serenades from Grieg, Piazzolla and Bizet.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm a bit concerned that bits of this concert are a bit bitty.

[Tony Halstead]

I'm a bit concerned that bits of this concert are a bit bitty.

[Tapiola]

Grieg
19 Norwegian Folk Songs (2 mins)

Now THAT is brevity

[edashtav]

Alison's Style Plays Tine off the Park

I'm a bit concerned that bits of this concert are a bit bitty.

Yes, they were, EA.
It's difficult for me to be anything but lukewarm about this warm-hearted recital for I came to it having enjoyed Alison Balsom's starring role in the execrable play "Gabriel" only last Saturday. Alison, , is everything that TTH is not,; Alison places her peerless technique and brilliant musical insights at the service of the music, she reveals it as never before, but she doesn't superimpose her own, or false, unidiomatic values upon the scores that she plays with grace and great style.

Tine and her able band have developed their own, inimitable style. Sheer velocity matters, for visceral, edge-of-your-seat excitement is part of the deal. At its worst, her ensemble sounds like a section of a crack brass band in competition. "How did they do that?" Sometimes, literally by cutting corners, rubbing down rough edges and making everything "middle of the road" a.k.a. commercial. So, it was with The Threepenny Opera Suite. Tine made a slip when talking of the arrangement of this piece, calling it the "Tuppenny Opera". The glitz & glamour of the inter-War years were beautifully relayed , but where was Weill's biting sarcasm? The 3rd Penny had been labelled the "bad penny" and had been thrown away!

I gained some enjoyment in the Piazzolla - the beautifully floated, high soft trumpet lines were replete with melancholy. All that was wrong was that the bass accompanying instrument couldn't play so softly, so diluting the impact of the melodic line.

I found their Carmen Suite to be pointless.
Why bother? I suppose one answer is that it's music for the masses, crossover stuff that will convert some "easy listeners" to the real deal.

I found the encore Hoe-Down ( plus!) from Copland's Rodeo horrific: too fast to lie comfortably on these instruments, accents and rhythms were adapted to sound clean and professional but they were not echt-Copland. One section sounded like an Irish Jig.

I note that the bones of this recital have been at the core of this group's repertoire for nearly 3 years. It's polished and presented with great skill, and Tine has great charisma . It's very "commercial". Some may call me a snob and elitist when I say that its not right for a Prom Chamber Music Concert.

[bluestateprommer]

Perhaps seeing this program in advance, I mentally adjusted to take this simply as a "Music While You Work" Chamber Prom. So that's what I did, through earbuds. On those terms, it was enjoyable and diverting enough, if nothing profound. If nothing else, it was nice to include the Diana Burrell world premiere work, which was OK, though nothing great to my ears. I might watch the video, or at least parts of it, to get the "Promenading" stage choreography of the musicians, and listen more closely to the Diana Burrell work.

Oh, and TTH didn't speak amiss about the title of the Kurt Weill. That would have been Petroc, and it was "Thrupenny Opera", which I don't mind hearing said as the title once in a while.

So maybe the next time tenThing is booked, then you'll get George Lloyd's symphony for brass ensemble. But that will be for another time.