Prom 43 - 18.08.14: BBC SO, Orgonášová / Skelton / M. Petrenko / Skride / Gardner

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Monday, 18 August
7.30 p.m. – c. 9.40 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Stravinsky: Scherzo fantastique, Op 3
Rachmaninov: The Bells

Stravinsky: Concerto for Violin in D
Tchaikovsky: Overture '1812', Op 49

Luba Orgonášová, soprano
Stuart Skelton, tenor
Mikhail Petrenko, baritone
Baiba Skride, violin

Crouch End Festival Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor

Edward Gardner conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and combined choirs, live at the BBC Proms, in an all-Russian programme including Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

The concert opens with Stravinsky's fizzing Scherzo fantastique, and includes his neo-classical Violin Concerto - Baiba Skride is the soloist. The BBC Symphony Chorus and Crouch End Chorus and soloists join for Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells, chiming the journey from birth to death. And the concert ends with Tchaikovsky celebrating the defeat of Napoleon in spectacular style!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What is it about Russian music? I love it.

[Serial_Apologist]

What is it about Russian music? I love it.

It gets you Russian to buy recordings of it?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear.

As matter of fact, I have a similar joke with a flute student who plays at a constant accelerando.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh dear.

As matter of fact, I have a similar joke with a flute student who plays at a constant accelerando.

Fine him/her for speeding in a built-up aria.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Fine him/her for speeding in a built-up aria.

Glazunov already!

[Petrushka]

Are we getting a choral 1812 I wonder?

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Are we getting a choral 1812 I wonder?

Yes, you are.

[Ockeghem's Razor]

"You know, Niles, I remember when the 1812 Overture was your favourite piece of classical music."
"Dear god, Frasier, was I ever that young?"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"You know, Niles, I remember when the 1812 Overture was your favourite piece of classical music."
"Dear god, Frasier, was I ever that young?"

I heard part of the 1812 a couple of weeks ago: until the famous, noisy last bit, it's actually not a bad piece.

[aeolium]

I heard part of the 1812 a couple of weeks ago: until the famous, noisy last bit, it's actually not a bad piece.

I love it, in all its vulgarity

OT, but I sometimes think, if I happen to listen to over-familiar pieces, how damn good they are. Rossini's William Tell overture is hardly an overture at all but more a shorter tone-poem, and although the Lone Ranger bit is the one everyone remembers, it only forms a small part of the whole, right at the end. And whenever I hear The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba I think how tautly it is composed, with not a superfluous note and wonderful writing for the wind instruments. It's sad that such pieces have become so hackneyed with over-exposure that we can forget their merits.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

the Lone Ranger bit

And I was so close to listening to WT without that thought occurring....

[mrbouffant]

This one coming up tonight - what do we think?
Been trying to 'get' the Rach all afternoon but failing to do so. Perhaps I should retire to the bar after the first piece of Stravinsky...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I heard part of the 1812 a couple of weeks ago: until the famous, noisy last bit, it's actually not a bad piece.

It's very well constructed, apart from that coda, which sounds better in its HIPP version (i.e. no cannons).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Re "The Lone Ranger bit" (and I may well have mentioned this before), the signature tune of the TV series rarely included the diddle-um, diddle-um, diddle-um pom-pom bit as that was used for the ITV William Tell series (with words ). The masked man and Tonto had to make do with the opening fanfare and the coda, but I remember my sister saying one day as we watched it, "Hey, they're playing William Tell" so sometimes the famous tune was played.