Prom 32 - 7.08.13: Lutosławski & Holst

[Rupert P Matley]

I also listened to the Planets on iPlayer. Whilst I accept BBC recordings of Proms aren't perhaps the best I heard nothing to change my initial view. (I have listened to other Proms before, live in person and transmitted, and to my ears yesterday's trumpet section more than stood out). However, I won't argue with your assessment of what it sounded like in the hall as I was not there.

[Simon B]

I caught Jupiter on the radio whilst a passenger in a car. I had no idea it was a trumpet concerto.

Given that in several chunks of Jupiter, Holst scores for 4 trumpets (probably getting 5 for his money) all marked fff and playing high in their range, he was presumably expecting something fairly prominent...

That said, the HD stream through a HiFi did sound brightly lit throughout the planets with the trumpets very prominently mixed indeed. To me it sounds like brightly assertive, generally accurate playing in what is a very loud and forceful piece at times, captured rather unsympathetically by the microphones. Much better this though than, e.g. the sound of the Staatskapelle Berlin section in The Ring playing rotary valve instruments - perfect for Wagner but far too mellow for Holst or Shostakovich...

I'd defer to Ferret's usually impeccable judgement that it was a good performance as heard in the hall. Whatever the flaws of the broadcast and imperfections of a live performance, it sounds an "alive" performance, no mere routine run through. I'd far rather hear a bit brash or edgy to refined but dull any day, particularly in such an over-familiar piece.

The 2006 Mahler 2 seems a long time ago now, but I can clearly remember it was... suboptimal in a number of regards. The BBCSO is a different orchestra to those days, literally so to quite a degree. Probably half the brass section, including almost all of the onstage trumpets of that night have subsequently retired or left, several of them shortly after or so it seemed. Coincidentally (or maybe not) having previously conducted concerts with them almost annually at the Proms it seems that this was the last time Haitink worked with them anywhere...

Regardless, it's all ancient history now, since between wholesale changes in both players and apparent attitude BBCSO concerts have been a much more positive experience for at least the last 5 years IMO.

[mercia]

is the organ glissando in Uranus a "straightforward" white-note thumb affair ? - I'm getting confused in my mind about a piece where the organist uses his whole forearm across the keys so as to include as many notes as possible, perhaps that is another work

[Ferretfancy]

is the organ glissando in Uranus a "straightforward" white-note thumb affair ? - I'm getting confused in my mind about a piece where the organist uses his whole forearm across the keys so as to include as many notes as possible, perhaps that is another work

Mercia,
I'm afraid I could not see, but it made its effect. I always love the introduction of that low pedal a little way into Neptune, really tummy wobbling in the hall. The performance of Uranus had the great virtue that after the opening brass statement the timps defined the rhythm perfectly, so often the timpanist makes it a blur, but not last night.

[BBMmk2]

Well, I am beside myself here, I enjoyed the performance of The Planets.

[Simon B]

is the organ glissando in Uranus a "straightforward" white-note thumb affair ? - I'm getting confused in my mind about a piece where the organist uses his whole forearm across the keys so as to include as many notes as possible, perhaps that is another work

If you can read music (and this link works - I'm not hugely optimistic) this gives the official answer. I'm not convinced that there isn't a degree of artistic license sometimes - but it's written as a glissando C-major scale (helpfully the piece is in C at this point!). Marked ffff for everyone, including the organ - no half measures!

http://pchnote.appspot.com/image?sid=IMSLP15438&page=28&l=0.59763&t=0.69151&r=0.94092&b=0.79194&w=552

[mercia]

thank you SB - it's a lot of notes to cover in a short space of time, followed by silence - scary

[Simon B]

thank you SB - it's a lot of notes to cover in a short space of time, followed by silence - scary

Indeed - though presumably playing the RAH organ at full blast in public on a remunerated basis necessarily requires a robust nervous system anyway!

Presumably you aim for the top C umpteen octaves from where you start, and hope for the best. I have a CD of Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic playing this piece (which I rarely listen to anyway due to overfamiliarity and that the BPO just sound wrong in this to my cloth ears) where, as I recall, the organist spectacularly fails to end on a C, which sounds exceedingly odd.*

It doesn't quite go into silence - rather to quiet held string chords. Holst has been practical in what's written as there's no need for the organist to fit in with any particular rhythm per-se. Everyone else is holding a chord until the organist runs out of notes, so it'll probably all be alright on the night...

*Well, that'll teach me. Squinting carefully at that score shows a gliss from a low C all the way up to a top A, so sounding odd is presumably what Holst intended, or there's an editing issue. It doesn't usually sound that way to me. Cloth ears again probably...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I enjoy both of Karajan's recordings of the work, but (IIRC ) the Organ part on the BPO was edited onto the recording later. The artificial balance, together with the registration used (making the instrument sound like a Hammond organ) is what makes this an "exceedingly odd" moment for me.