Prom 31 - 9.08/14: Hallé, Coote / Elder

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 9 August
7.30 p.m. – c. 9.45 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Berlioz: Overture Le corsaire
Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op 37

Helen Grime: Near Midnight (London premiere)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in Eb ('Eroica') Op 55

Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Hallé
Sir Mark Elder, conductor

The sea lies the centre of tonight's concert from Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé. The sunshine glitters on the waves of Berlioz's swashbuckling overture Le corsaire, written while the composer was holidaying in Nice.

A celebrated Elgar champion, Elder is joined by British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote for Sea Pictures: Elgar's only orchestral song-cycle, which ebbs and flows evocatively as it explores the fascination and fear inspired by the sea. While Helen Grime's Near Midnight explores a nocturnal theme, Beethoven created a storm of human drama in his 'Eroica' Symphony - a stirring musical meditation on heroism and valour.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Alice Coote is one of the best of today's mezzos for singing Elgar - the best imo.

[gurnemanz]

Not too much comment so far, Alp. We are going to London on Saturday for a matinee of Great Britain at The National and are thinking of calling in at South Ken on the way home to Wilts. It would be our second Prom visit after Norrie's Johannespassion (v. good). I'm a big Coote fan. We will prom in the Arena. I haven't been to an Eroica for a while and know nothing about Helen Grime - I hope my dodgy joints hold out.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not too much comment so far, Alp. We are going to London on Saturday for a matinee of Great Britain at The National and are thinking of calling in at South Ken on the way home to Wilts. It would be our second Prom visit after Norrie's Johannespassion (v. good). I'm a big Coote fan. We will prom in the Arena. I haven't been to an Eroica for a while and know nothing about Helen Grime -

From the brief samples on the website below Ms Grime (b.1981) has all the right teachers for a forward-thinking composer rooted in tradition (Anderson, Roxburgh, Beamish) and comes across as a neo-romantic very much in the British post-Bergian modernist mainstream of post-1970: tonal under a thicket of chromaticism, in the manner of someone such as Robin Holloway, might provide the best guide:

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/3953

PS: I only post this for those who feel able to endure the Berlioz and the Elgar in order to hear Eroica and this new work.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We will prom in the Arena. I haven't been to an Eroica for a while and know nothing about Helen Grime - I hope my dodgy joints hold out.

Maybe you owe it to yourself to opt for a seat instead. I know this may be a heretical suggestion, but none of us is getting any younger, and in August, The RAH resembles Dante's Inferno.

[gurnemanz]

Seems to be sold out.

[Roehre]

From the brief samples on the website below Ms Grime (b.1981) has all the right teachers for a forward-thinking composer rooted in tradition (Anderson, Roxburgh, Beamish) and comes across as a neo-romantic very much in the British post-Bergian modernist mainstream of post-1970: tonal under a thicket of chromaticism, in the manner of someone such as Robin Holloway, might provide the best guide:

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/3953

PS: I only post this for those who feel able to endure the Berlioz and the Elgar in order to hear Eroica and this new work.

The Grime was broadcast last year already (23/05, Hallé/Elder) and on me it then made a positive impression, she seems to have to say something. For the rest this is not a concert I would fancy to attend, a nice Berlioz, a mediocre English piece and a warhorse played for the umpteenth time.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For the rest this is not a concert I would fancy to attend, a nice Berlioz, a mediocre English piece and a warhorse played for the umpteenth time.

Except that the warhorse is one of handful of symphonies vying for a place at the head of the table of the greatest symphonies ever written.

[Tevot]

Except that the warhorse is one of handful of symphonies vying for a place at the head of the table of the greatest symphonies ever written.

And the Berlioz and Elgar ( which isn't at all bad - surely?) will make this a very enticing concert I would imagine. Elder imho would make a persuasive case of Sea Pictures.

I'll certainly be tuning in at some stage

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[mlb7171]

If I slide around enough I might just about find the right note. Yuck.

[Nick Armstrong]

If I slide around enough I might just about find the right note. Yuck.

The barge-pole was out here, have had experience of the lady before ; tuned in for the Beethoven. Going very well. Terrific scherzo. Seat belts on for the finale

[Alison]

Superbly prepared Eroica, fresh and detailed.

I still don't think Sir Mark can build and place climaxes as only a great conductor can.

[pilamenon]

The Helen Grime piece conveyed its subject well, even if it was rather briefer than I'd expected - nothing to frighten the horses too much on a Saturday night? I've liked what I've heard of her work so far, including those other brief clips posted up thread. Contemporary music hasn't been well served by this season so far, isolated new pieces, no sense of pride of place in a programme. It needs a shot in the arm from a braver Proms director in future - though to be fair those wonderful Stockhausen and Cage evenings were on Roger Wright's watch, I think.

Did anyone else think the applause for Elder before the Eroica was rather desultory? Sounded like a pretty routine opening to the first movement, so tuned out... still hoping for a recording from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Nezet-Seguin, after their absolutely knockout rendition at last year's Edinburgh Festival.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Contemporary music hasn't been well served by this season so far, isolated new pieces, no sense of pride of place in a programme.

I agree - it's a bit sad when the most exciting new works on offer this year come from people in their eighties.

It needs a shot in the arm from a braver Proms director in future - though to be fair those wonderful Stockhausen and Cage evenings were on Roger Wright's watch, I think.

Yes - and the Boulez (with Beethoven) series from a couple of years ago - not to mention two works by Ferneyhough, which is more than he received in the twelve seasons previously. (Still a lost opportunity that La Terre est un'Homme from the Total Immersion weekend wasn't squeezed into the Prom Season.)

It amused me on the "Ask the Controller" board of the Proms website some years ago, that when RW was asked "where's all the cutting edge Music", he was absolutely flummoxed - "But ... but we've got a work by Birtwistle!" was the best he could do. I hope Robert Warby has greater imput into Proms New Music commissions and programming in future seasons.

[Lento]

Sea Pictures: beautiful music, shame about the poetry (at least Elgar had the good sense to cut the last one: didn't have much choice really). Philistine outburst over.