Prom 40 - 12.08.13: 6 Music Prom

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

10.15pm – c. 11.30pm
Royal Albert Hall

Steve Lamacq presenter
Tom Service presenter
Laura Marling singer
Cerys Matthews singer
Anna Stéphany mezzo-soprano
The Stranglers
London Sinfonietta

They may come from different ends of the radio dial but, for one night only, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Radio 3’s Tom Service combine their passions for music to produce the
first ever collaboration between these two diverse and distinctive radio stations. As well as featuring double Mercury Prize-nominated Laura Marling, 6 Music’s own Cerys Matthews and
original punk rock purveyors The Stranglers, the line-up includes the London Sinfonietta, playing works by Varèse, Berio, John Adams and Anna Meredith.

There will be no interval











Do you think R6 will reciprocate?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Call me old-fashioned, but...

[MrGongGong]

Call me old-fashioned, but...

I know what you mean
you really shouldn't have 4/4 bars in a song that's in 3/4

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I know what you mean
you really shouldn't have 4/4 bars in a song that's in 3/4

Please! Not that!

[MrGongGong]

Please! Not that!

We have had worse Prime Ministers

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Do you think R6 will reciprocate?

This is the point, I think, Alpie. I'm rather looking forward to this event - the Stranglers, Cerys Matthews & the Sinfonietta should make for a rewarding concert, each exploring the other's "natural" territories (and Ms Matthews' open-minded enthusiasm for Musics of an astonishingly wide spectrum cannot be sufficiently praised). But (just as Glastonbury occasionally hosts Operatic events) there should be regular programmes of similar content on Radios 1, 2 and 6 if the Beeb wants us to take its self-declared "accessibility" agenda seriously.


AND, there should be a lot more Jazz on all three stations!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But you are, as ever, reasonable in your argument. My concern is that it will continue to be one way traffic.
Like the deteriorating tokenism of Alfie Boe in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert.

[PJPJ]

I haven't listened yet, but due to its starting late, a piece of piano music by a Cuban composer living in London was played just before the start of the concert. Her name sounds like Marietta Voilents but probably isn't. Does anyone here know who she is?

"Music of the Invisible Young" produced no search results for me.

Got it - it's Veulens. An Amazon review says "Fantastic piano compositions with real soul and interesting use of rhythm mixing classical, afrocuban, jazz and contemporary minimal."

[edashtav]

Mash-Up or Cold Mash?

This is a report from a reluctant listener - my wife has a penchant for The Stranglers. To add to that context, I heard the last 50% of an hour-long concert that drifted for 90 minutes. Was it a successful "mash-up" between Radio 6 and Radio 3? I'm afraid not - it was more like cold, lumpy mash. Of course, I was fascinated to hear Yannis Xenakis's last work O-Mega (1997), and it was suitably stern piece by an atheist facing extinction. But was its minimalism, the product of a body and mind already reduced by disease? Anna Stéphany was marvellous in Luciano Berio's wonderfully creative O King and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance that was ably played by the London Sinfonieta and well controlled by Andrew Gourlay. But "control" infested my brain. The Radio 6 items often indicated "out of control". Xenakis once stated, "This is my definition of an artist, or of a man: to control." So often, I heard "indulgence". Pieces that went on and ... on after they had nothing further to add. Quite plain originals (by The Stranglers") with orchestration muddied by indulgent extra lines provided by the Sinfonietta. Its music wasn't the result of "control" but developed from self-indulgence - the result of the BBC throwing superfluous "extras" at a band and its arranger. Then' I noticed the lack of control by the Stranglers lead singer. He was hoarse, clearly the result of being "out of control" , of having "strangled" his vocal chords in an earlier set. Quite easy to do in the RAH, particularly when you've got the abnormal pleasure of the Sinfonietta behind you. The Radio 6 presenter had a whale of a time, but I felt sorry for Tom Service who was like a mammal out of water.

[PJPJ]

An interesting combination of items; I did enjoy the mix and would probably have had an even better being there in person that listening lying in bed. Cerys Matthews's first song was rather lovely but she seemed to me to make heavy weather of Blueberry Hill (I prefer Fats Domino and Gene Krupa, really), and I couldn't tune in to what Laura Marling was trying to do. On the other hand, The Stranglers came across well. Varèse, Xenakis and Berio sounded first-class - Ionisations amazes me as much today as it did the first time I heard it.

Rather a lot of furniture re-arrangement necessitated quite a lot of fill-in chatter, probably why the concert over-ran by 14 minutes..... you notice these things less in the hall. Is this going to be on TV? It may come across better not audio-only. Has the concert been de-fused for the various iPlayers?

Well worth a listen on iPlayer (I caught it on R3 at 320mph) even if but one of the pieces grabs your interest.

[teamsaint]

Live Rock music needs an element of the "Now" about it, it seems to me.

The Stranglers, who as Mrs Edashtav knows made a string of classic records, have little of that left, although they are fine performers.
I saw them a couple of years ago. Fun, but essentially a piece of history nowadays.

[edashtav]

Live Rock music needs an element of the "Now" about it, it seems to me.

The Stranglers, who as Mrs Edashtav knows made a string of classic records, have little of that left, although they are fine performers.
I saw them a couple of years ago. Fun, but essentially a piece of history nowadays.

Thanks for the "heads up", Saint.

Mrs E. has informed me that The Stranglers provided the theme music for the Pink Floyd show, or did she say, the late Keith Floyd? I suppose all that BBQ smoke and particulate clouds of a different hue have pickled their vocal chords.

[teamsaint]

Thanks for the "heads up", Saint.

Mrs E. has informed me that The Stranglers provided the theme music for the Pink Floyd show, or did she say, the late Keith Floyd? I suppose all that BBQ smoke and particulate clouds of a different hue have pickled their vocal chords.

It was the cookery show, Ed !!
A Stranglers Greatest hits (at least)should be in any music lovers collection !! OK singing quality a bit so so, but check out the keyboards....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4bsqYxwo0

Imagine lang lang knocking that out !!

[edashtav]

Now + now >> then + then

It was the cookery show, Ed !!
A Stranglers Greatest hits (at least)should be in any music lovers collection !! OK singing quality a bit so so, but check out the keyboards....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4bsqYxwo0

Imagine lang lang knocking that out !!

I've given No More Heroes a whirl, saint, and it's good, isn't it? The main theme is short and is repeated almost ad nauseam, but the keyboard "riffs" on it are cogent: dynamic and creative, producing sufficient variety and tension to maintain the listener's attention. There is variety in the "2nd subject" and the piece sustains its 3+ minutes rather well.

So, it was a shame that the Radio 6 Prom added superfluous "decorations" to The Stranglers, exposed their ever-waning vocal powers and allowed individual pieces to expand out of control, wasn't it? Their dynamism and drive was tamed and I heard music reflected in a mirror darkly. You've made the point well about Rock needing an element of "Now". On the Radio 6 PROM we heard too much [B]"Then" [/B], it wasn't happening; it had happened.

And, let's face it , the Radio 3 Music in the programme (Varese, Berio and Xenakis) was even more "Then".

Perhaps, you & I are suggesting that NEW meeting NEW might create a more effective symbiosis.

[teamsaint]

Fascinating thoughts as ever, ED. I am grateful. I shall never see Punk in quite the same light. Might have to spend a while checking out Development sections in The Jam's singles, and so on !

I was thinking today about what I had written about the "Now " element of rock. I do feel that, and to some extent I could explain and justify it.
The problem comes, not with the symbiosis of new and new,(and where this might lead) but in reflecting on what I feel about rock with how classical music written long ago stays alive.....viz the rigorous debate about the recent Mahler 2.

I guess the problem, if there is one, is for popular music (the sort I grew up with) finding a place and a meaning as it ages. perhaps there isn't one.
But it's hard to imagine a world where, for instance Bowie's music is just reduced to a museum piece, or something only to enjoy in its original recorded form.
I suppose folk music has to an extent already dealt with this successfully, at least to a point. Re using, changing , synthesising material and styles is grist to the (good) folk musicians mill.
Perhaps here is where Rock can learn, as well as from the classical performance tradition.

Incidentally, not quite sure I grasped your nuance re Berio Xenakis etc being "Then" !!

Edit: just as a point of information, The Stranglers original singer Hugh Cornwell left years ago. (I don't suppose his voice stands very close scrutiny either though, in a classical quality way...........)