Prom 29 - 8.08.14: BBC Phil, Grosvenor / Goode / Noseda

[VodkaDilc]

Praps the in-house staff have rebelled?

Mahler 3 is at 7, even though there's a late-night Prom.

Back to the Prom last night, I was a bit miffed when I could only get a Choir seat, even though I booked on the first Saturday (mostly decent seats for everything else - could this programme have been one of the most popular with early bookers?), but it turned out to be a wonderful place to hear and see the organ. That instrument has been a great plus in a number of concerts already this season. If my position gave an unbalanced sound, and it probably did, I was quite happy to hear that beast giving everything it has to give.

A most enjoyable concert - the BBC Phil is a better orchestra than I realised. I was a bit confused to go outside in the interval and be confronted with a Hallé Orchestra van though - is the BBC cutting costs and going cap-in-hand to a near neighbour?

[Tevot]

It was very enjoyable, as you say, and full marks to Benjamin Grosvenor. Am I the only person who finds both the Chopin piano concertos vacuous in the extreme?

The orchestral writing is subfusc at best, while the piano seems to be giving us repeated arabesques most of the time, pretty, yes, but rather pointless.

I'll take cover !

I've got you covered bro The Chopin concerti are pretty I find - though I find myself thinking that in Chopin less is indeed profoundly more

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[David-G]

Am I the only person who finds both the Chopin piano concertos vacuous in the extreme?

Well I certainly do not. I enjoy them very much, possibly because they are so reminiscent of bel canto opera. The Ax recording with the OAE with a period piano is one of my favourite CDs.

[Sir Velo]

Well I certainly do not. I enjoy them very much, possibly because they are so reminiscent of bel canto opera. The Ax recording with the OAE with a period piano is one of my favourite CDs.

Love them both. The E minor is a miracle of poetic expression; a thing of wonder from a teenager.

[silvestrione]

Love them both. The E minor is a miracle of poetic expression; a thing of wonder from a teenager.

Seconded! My thoughts exactly (well, no, better put than my thoughts!). A pleasing performance, though on air it came across as perhaps needing some more tonal variety from the pianist.

[Zucchini]

Played by omeone like Pires, whose rubato is so refined that it hardly seems to be there at all, they're lovely. Many of the old-timers and I include Rubinstein, rock to and fro such much that I feel seasick.

[teamsaint]

Praps the in-house staff have rebelled?

do you mean they are hourly paid and want more hours?!



Lets hope it is indeed a step forward for workers rights.

Oh, and by the way, Ams, congratulations.

The first member of the 20k club.

Dedication indeed .

[Vile Consort]

... Am I the only person who finds both the Chopin piano concertos vacuous in the extreme?

The orchestral writing is subfusc at best, while the piano seems to be giving us repeated arabesques most of the time, pretty, yes, but rather pointless.

I'll take cover !

Absolutely agree about the Chopin concerti. Their utter vacuousness is a property they share with the works of Scriabin. Nothing would induce me to attend a concert that had a Chopin piano concerto on the programme. At least, nothing would induce me to sit through the concert: I suppose I might entertain the idea of going to such a concert but going out whilst the Chopin was being performed.

[Nick Armstrong]

Absolutely agree about the Chopin concerti. Their utter vacuousness is a property they share with the works of Scriabin. Nothing would induce me to attend a concert that had a Chopin piano concerto on the programme. At least, nothing would induce me to sit through the concert: I suppose I might entertain the idea of going to such a concert but going out whilst the Chopin was being performed.

I feel precisely the same about the Franck... (sorry anton). Re: Chopin we've had this out before not long ago - I half agree, I think "no 2" is a drippy piece and there's a modulation in the last movement which would lead only a heart of stone to forebear to laugh. But the E minor I love dearly, like Sir Velo and silvestrione. I'd go a long way to hear it.

However, nothing would induce me to go to another concert conducted by Noseda - after one a few years ago that was so awful I'm afraid he's in the same rather sweaty category as Gergiev for me: what Belgian friends refer to (after bad service from their national airline) as the SABENA effect - such a bloody experience, never again.

[Serial_Apologist]

Having just listened to the repeat I'm somewhat surprised that only one person on here has deigned to give even passing mention of the Casella "Elegie" - a magnificently performed stylistically Futurist 1916 amalgam with pre-echoes of Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin", Mossolov's "Iron Foundry" and Varese's "Ameriques", and post-echoes in its calm close of the quieter sections of Prokofiev's "Scythian Suite" of 3 years earlier.

Time for a COTW on Casella methinks - we had one of his friend and one-time associate Malipiero, and that was quite a few years back.

[Bryn]

Thanks for the fillip, SA. I had not yet got round to that Pom. Will rectify with immediate effect.