Prom 40 - 16.08.14: LSO, Tilling / Haitink

[Alison]

Well I am in a good mood today with the Foxes display just one of several favourable factors. It won't last ....

Lovely day
Now watch someone spoil it

I thought Bella was right though. Why expect BH to produce anything other than an old mans reading and a Dutch one at that?!

[Petrushka]

Just back from London after attending this Prom.

From my seat in 'O' stalls, almost amongst the double basses, I had a wonderful side-on view of Haitink conducting. He is much more economical of gesture these days but the familiar mannerisms are still there and he obtained magnificent results from the LSO. And in what good health he looks too, perhaps walking with slight slowness on to the platform but otherwise in fine fettle.

The last time I saw the LSO perform the Schubert 5 in the Royal Albert Hall was in December 1978 under Karl Böhm (and if someone has a recording of that concert please PM me!) and looking at the ranks of the orchestra last night I'd doubt if most of them were even born then! I indelibly associate the Schubert 5 with that 1978 concert so listening to the current generation of LSO players was an exercise in nostalgia apart from anything else. Lovely woodwind playing.

I know one or two here think that Haitink takes the first movement of the Mahler 4 at too slow a pace but Mahler marks it 'Deliberate. Do not hurry' and this was exactly how it came across. What was noticeable to me was the bite that Haitink brought to the music especially to those shrieking woodwind. I prefer my Mahler 4 to be unsettling and I found it so here in what was a very fine, moving performance. Camilla Tilling sounded somewhat under-powered in the hall but it cannot be easy to project the voice in a hall the size of the RAH and keep the necessary charm. The only slight blemish on what was a wonderful evening.

Another live Haitink concert in the bag.

[bluestateprommer]

I wonder whether Haitink has recorded Schubert 5 much?

BH has recorded Schubert 5 with the Concertgebouw, back in the day (Amazon.co.uk listing here).

I heard BH lead the same program in Chicago a few seasons back, with Klara Ek as the soprano soloist. I think there was an old thread where this came up, and richardfinegold was at the same program that week, albeit a different time than me. Likewise, BH led this program with the LSO not that long back.

[Barbirollians]

I would rather Haitink over Gergiev in Mahler anyway . I regard the latter as having produced some of the very worst Mahler I have ever heard .

Haitink might generally be a little cool in Mahler for my taste but I enjoyed last night's performance very much .

[jayne lee wilson]

Well, there was no mistaking last night's Mahler for a Gergiev performance, that's for sure (and perhaps that is no bad thing ).

Fiery performances of Mahler are ten a penny these days but what we heard last night was something much rarer and much more difficult to bring off - the distillation of a lifetime's knowledge, commitment and wisdom. To me, the Knaben Wunderhorn song often seems tacked on at the end whereas in last night's performance the whole work seemed to have an all encompassing arc, culminating in that final movement. (Not that I know much about anything!)

Yes, just as I heard it, JB - with the reservations aforementioned...

It's this subtlety - the effortless-seeming ability to draw a completely different sound from an orchestra in Schubert and then Mahler (so tonally & texturally idiomatic here, it seemed like Mahler's own voice), which marks out the great, often venerable, wise-owl conductors from the merely competent.

[CallMePaul]

I suspect that it is very difficult to find the "right" soprano for the last movement and that it is deceptively difficult for the soprano to fully realise the air of simplicity.

I enjoyed Christine Schaefer in BH's 2006 live recording with the Concertgebouw. I was late home from an afternoon out so missed the broadcast but may try the iPlayer next week.

[Lento]

BH has recorded Schubert 5 with the Concertgebouw, back in the day (Amazon.co.uk listing here).

Thanks. The Proms performance seemed pretty nippy to me.

[Ferretfancy]

I like it when you enjoy some Mahler Mr Ferret.

I'm nothing if not inconsistent! Actually it's the later symphonies I have a problem with, not 1-4.

[bluestateprommer]

Finally got around to hearing Uncle Bernie's LSO Prom, which was definitely a tale of two halves. I agree that his Schubert 5 was quite brisk and light on its feet, rather more so than what I remember from his performance of the same program in Chicago a few years back. The Mahler 4, however, proved a bit of a disappointment to me. He took the first movement quite spaciously, enough that the pulse slipped and several slips of ensemble occurred that I don't think would have happened had the pace been sprightlier. Things picked up a bit in the scherzo, fortunately, but there were some mildly distended slowdowns here also, as in the finale, which probably contributed to Camilla Tilling sounding a bit mannered in phrasing also. His Chicago Mahler 4 when I heard was also spacious, but had more pulse and stability by comparison. Not his finest hour of Mahler here, I'm afraid. This isn't to say that I wouldn't have queued for this Prom had I been in London, which I certainly would have done.

BTW, given the great affection in which BH is held here, it was cute to hear Maxine Kwok-Adams from the LSO refer to him as "Sir Bernard" at the very start of the broadcast.