Prom 72 - 5.09.13: Verdi & Tchaikovsky

[bluestateprommer]

Me too - it may not be Silvestri but I really feel that a story is being told .

I missed Calleja I am afraid as I was home late - how was the first half?

Interestingly, hearing the Verdi miscellany in the first half made me think, rather uncharitably, why I was kind of relieved that we got 7 Wagner operas complete rather than 7 Verdi operas complete at this year's Proms. I have to confess that I respect Verdi and his indispensable importance in the history of opera more than anything else. To me, Verdi's orchestral palette seems rather drier (some would probably say subtler) compared to Wagner's, even when hearing just these excerpts, which Calleja sung quite well. It's my own blind spot, which I acknowledge.

I have to confess to a soft spot for Tchaikovsky's Manfred, so even with the odd rough patch, I enjoyed hearing XZ's rendition of it with 'La Verdi'. and thought that the orchestra's blend came off very well over iPlayer. Of course, a recording isn't the same as actually being in the hall. I've actually separately heard the occasional rumor of discontent with her leadership of the orchestra, which may bear on the fact that although Xian Zhang is music director of La Verdi, the orchestra's principal conductor is John Axelrod. So maybe they have an out planned for down the line. The applause between movements was an annoyance, as it so often has been at this year's Proms, so points to XZ for diving straight into the finale, more or less, after the 3rd movement. The William Tell excerpt made for the perfect encore, with the right amount of dash and swagger.