Prom 31 - 6.08.13: Walton, Rubbra, Bruch & Korngold

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

7.30pm – c. 9.50pm
Royal Albert Hall

Walton
March 'Orb and Sceptre' (7 mins)
Rubbra
Ode to the Queen (13 mins)
Bruch
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor (24 mins)
INTERVAL
Korngold
Symphony in F sharp (50 mins)

Vilde Frang violin
Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano
BBC Philharmonic
John Storgårds conductor

The BBC Philharmonic and its Principal Guest Conductor return to the Royal Albert Hall for the first Proms performance of Korngold's Symphony. Dedicated to the memory of Franklin D Roosevelt, the symphony refers back to Korngold's score for the 1939 Errol Flynn and Bette Davis romance 'The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex'. Rubbra's 'Ode to the Queen' and Walton's 'Orb and Sceptre' celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, while Vilde Frang joins Storgårds and the orchestra for Bruch's ever-popular Violin Concerto.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Would it be too controversial to say Walton's marches are even finer than Elgar's? I think they are, though WW did have a tendency to base the "big tunes" on the same harmonic sequence.

But the highlight of this concert (for me) is the Korngold.

[edashtav]

Would it be too controversial to say Walton's marches are even finer than Elgar's? I think they are, though WW did have a tendency to base the "big tunes" on the same harmonic sequence.

But the highlight of this concert (for me) is the Korngold.

[Simon B]

But the highlight of this concert (for me) is the Korngold.

Ditto, and the principal reason for opting to schlepp to London (yet again) for this one. A piece I've never heard live (I know it only from the Downes/BBCPO recording) and didn't particularly expect to get the chance... Good to see the BBCPO getting back to doing more of this sort of thing live, something of a strength of theirs in the 90s - i.e. "big" early C20 repertoire somewhat off the beaten track.

The Symphony definitely isn't the Korngold of the familiar sweeping/swashbuckling/Hollywood idiom. Indeed, in relative terms it's bordering on the trenchant. A consistently dark and somewhat disturbing work IMO...

[BBMmk2]

I couldn't believe it when the Korngold was up for the running at this year's prom season! So looking forward to hearing this live!! Who'd have thought it?

[Petrushka]

Another strange juxtaposition of pieces.

What is the thinking behind the construction of a programme like this?

[amateur51]

I do hope that Ms Derham is 'commentating' this evening. Listening to her getting herself into full Italianate rrrr-rolling mode over Gianandrea Noseda last evening, I was rather surprised to hear Rrrrubrrrra getting the same treatment regarding tonight's concert.

When are we going to have a Rubbra symphony at The Proms? - he wrote a few - which one would aficionados recommend for a rare outing?

[edashtav]

I do hope that Ms Derham is 'commentating' this evening. Listening to her getting herself into full Italianate rrrr-rolling mode over Gianandrea Noseda last evening, I was rather surprised to hear Rrrrubrrrra getting the same treatment regarding tonight's concert.

When are we going to have a Rubbra symphony at The Proms? - he wrote a few - which one would aficionados recommend for a rare outing?

I'd chose the 6th, Amateur, but no. 5 is an easier piece for Rubbra virgins.

[marvin]

I do hope that Ms Derham is 'commentating' this evening. Listening to her getting herself into full Italianate rrrr-rolling mode over Gianandrea Noseda last evening, I was rather surprised to hear Rrrrubrrrra getting the same treatment regarding tonight's concert.

When are we going to have a Rubbra symphony at The Proms? - he wrote a few - which one would aficionados recommend for a rare outing?

Her pronunciations or rather murdering the foreign languages to which they allude, does my head in. She's quite easy on the eye but keeps on screwing up her owneyes rather too much.

[Simon B]

Another strange juxtaposition of pieces.

What is the thinking behind the construction of a programme like this?

There is nominally a (very tenuous) connection between the Korngold and the pieces with royal blah going on - something to do with some of the material in the symphony being a reworking of a film score. Though the symphony still sounds almost nothing like Korngold when buckling some Hollywood swash to me...

Edit: Whoops, should have reread the original thread post which explains the connection properly. No real musical connection regardless. But then nor was there much in the three part Prom two years ago with a Koussevitsky connection that snuck a Bax symphony in. Didn't stop it being an interesting evening...

The connection of everything that isn't the Bruch with the Bruch is presumably that the Bruch will shift far more tickets. Personally, I'd pay never to endure its inoffensive vacuity again, but at least it gave Richard Strauss some material to do something good with in the Alpine Symphony!

[Nick Armstrong]

Her pronunciations or rather murdering the foreign languages to which they allude, does my head in. She's quite easy on the eye but keeps on screwing up her owneyes rather too much.

I've made the same two points on a number of occasions, less elegantly. The dodgy 'general foreign sounding pronunciation' is mad (Rob Cowan's another one who tries the 'generic foreign' with odd vowels). 'Allo 'Allo is just round the corner. La Derham's way with Essex boy Sir Antooonioooo Pappppaannnnoooo is particularly absurd!

[Pabmusic]

Would it be too controversial to say Walton's marches are even finer than Elgar's? I think they are...

You may be right, if you mean ceremonial marches. Elgar wrote only one for a ceremonial occasion, the Coronation March of 1911. It's a splendid piece, but an unusual march being in 3/4.* The P & C marches are not of course ceremonial marches, but a sort of suite of five different takes on military marches. No. 4 is the most 'ceremonial', of course, but the others are all quite hopeless in ceremonial settings, being restless and unsettled (No. 1), Schubertian (No. 2), mysterious and a little sinister (No. 3) and exuberant (No. 5).

His other marches fail to qualify as well. The Imperial March has a bit of ceremony about its first section, but a most un-ceremonial trio. The late Empire March (1924) for the Wembley Empire Exhibition is nearer to being Waltonesque, but it's his least successful essay in march form and is rather more in the style of a military march (he tried to revive it as a sixth P & C March but never completed the revision - Anthony Payne has, though). Then there are the Triumphal March from Caractacus, the Funeral March from Grania & Diarmid and the March of the Mogul Emperors from The Crown of India, all of which are for the stage (or, in the case of Caractacus, the quasi-stage). The Grania march is, however, one of his very greatest. But it's no good for ceremonies.

*[And largely based on discarded bits of the Second Symphony and ideas for a ballet based on Gargantua & Pantagruel - Lady E. did not approve.]

[Barbirollians]

Missed this but if anyone of the younger generation of violinists can make something fresh and interesting from the Bruch it will be Vilde Frang .

[teamsaint]

Enjoyed the Korngold a great deal.
New one on me.
Might try the VC again as a result......

[pilamenon]

A splendid 'Orb and Sceptre' to kick off an excellent first half. I'm not fussed about the programme making some kind of historical or other sense - but it was interesting to juxtapose two Coronation pieces, and why not have a crowd-pleaser to follow? Very impressed that the announcer knew the encore.

The Symphony definitely isn't the Korngold of the familiar sweeping/swashbuckling/Hollywood idiom. Indeed, in relative terms it's bordering on the trenchant. A consistently dark and somewhat disturbing work IMO...

The first movement did sound to me like an extended intro of themes in a black and white thriller, and none the worse for it. It didn't hold my attention so consistently after that, but good to hear a less well known symphony given pride of place.