Prom 51 (Free Prom) - 25.08.14: Ulster Orchestra, Zuo / van Steen

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Monday 25 August
3.00 p.m. – c. 5.15 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall
Free Prom

Dvořák:
(a) Slavonic Dance in C, Op. 46 No. 1
(b) Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op. 72 No. 2
(c) Slavonic Dance in G minor, Op. 46 No. 8
Grieg: Piano Concerto in Minor
Bax: Roscatha (first performance at The Proms)
Bill Whelan: Riverdance: A Symphonic Suite (UK premiere)

Zhang Zuo, piano (Proms debut artist, New Generation Artist)
Ulster Orchestra
Jac van Steen, conductor

A trio of Dvorák's colourful, folk-inspired Slavonic Dances opens the concert and Grieg's Piano Concerto, with its lively dance-themed finale and Norwegian folk echoes, continues the mood; the soloist is BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Zhang Zuo, making her Proms debut.

The concert ends in the Ulster Orchestra's Irish musical heartland with Bax's tone-poem Roscatha and Bill Whelan's new Riverdance suite - adapted from his music for the ever-popular stage show.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So, erm, who pays for it?

A nice idea, if it works. Has there been any research done to ascertain the long-term impact of that year's Free Prom?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's this afternoon.

[Serial_Apologist]

Bax's early "Roscatha" shows his roots partially in Wagner and Strauss at their most explicit. Meanwhile the "renowned composer" Bill Whelan has done film music and worked in rock and pop music, so we can expect something wildly avant-garde...

[Barbirollians]

The combination of that Riverdance suite and Katie Derham gushing over it marks a new nadir for Radio 3 .

[mlb7171]

The Proms guide is desperate to link this programme together through the medium of dance. But, honestly, have you ever seen a more random programme? Just because it's free, doesn't mean you can't have a decent programme. Poor Ulster orchestra, being dragged all the way from Belfast to play this. They deserve a better opportunity at the Proms than a free bank holiday matinee. They played the programme very well...

[mlb7171]

Radio 3: the only place to hear Bax and Riverdance in the same concert. Next year's Aldeburgh festival will feature Peter Grimes and Evita simultaneously.

[Serial_Apologist]

Radio 3: the only place to hear Bax and Riverdance in the same concert. Next year's Aldeburgh festival will feature Peter Grimes and Evita simultaneously.

It's inEVITAble

[mlb7171]

Actually, I apologise for making a mistake. It should be Miss Saigon and Peter Grimes, that way the helicopter can rescue Grimes as he sets out on his 'final' journey to scupper the boat, and they all lived happily ever after. Except Grimes then gets hauled in by the local plod.

[Blotto]

The combination of that Riverdance suite and Katie Derham gushing over it marks a new nadir for Radio 3 .

Look out, B!

Before you know it, you'll be supporting the way listeners unhappy with the current direction are caricatured by the powers that be at Radio 3.

:p

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Look out, B!

Before you know it, you'll be supporting the way listeners unhappy with the current direction are caricatured by the powers that be at Radio 3.

How do you know that?

[Blotto]

How do you know that?

I'm afraid, EA, I was making mischief.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?11858-Who-is-this-woman&p=423885#post423885

[amac4165]

Pretty awful concert - thankfully the Budapest Festival were weighing in the wings to show how it should be done !

[Master Jacques]

I fear amac4165 has a point. In the hall, it made for a piecemeal, baffling experience, stuck in the twilight zone between a concert and an "event".

Heartening though (said he maliciously) to see Our Katie going down like a lead balloon, with her condescending injunction - to a virtually empty arena - that doubtless lots of people would be dancing away out there before the end of the afternoon. They weren't. Not one. A few were taking photos with their i-Pads, but that - and the RAH attendants hoofing across the arena to stop them - was the extent of physical exertions on view.

The Dvorak and Grieg seemed undercooked, co-ordination with the soloist getting seriously adrift on occasion in the latter, the Bax although creating an initial splash made little sense outside its triptych context; as for the Riverdance sequence, which I approached without prejudice, it amounted to about 40-odd minutes of popular minimalism with conservatively filmic scoring, padded out with Kerrygold butter adverts. This piece was dreary beyond belief, and rather underwhelming for a surprisingly small audience. The highlight was the solo pianist's encore, delicately and poetically played, a small oasis of quality. I couldn't hear the title, but it was something Scandic - maybe more Grieg, or Sinding (can anyone enlighten me?)

Altogether, this was a mess. Quite who or what it was aimed at is anyone's guess. Too much quiet music to interest the children, who were bored by everything except the loudly brassy, percussive and rhythmic opening to the Bax and some of the thumpy bits of the Riverdance. But then, much of the season has had a rudderless, anodyne safety-first feel about it which is bound to produce such duds.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I was out in my car yesterday afternoon and switched on the radio only to hear the breathless and heady excitement of Ms D emanating from the speakers. I was just reaching over to switch off when I heard the name of Bax mentioned. I'd forgotten that he had a previously unheard piece being performed at the Proms so I stayed tuned. As Master Jacques has opined above, there seemed little contextual reasoning behind shoving it into this Prom apart from the fact that this was a folksy programme with mostly Irish overtones and errr...played by the Ulster Orchestra (but let's not dip our toes into that little pot of black and tannery).

Still, nice to hear that the charms of Ms D utterly failed to ignite the sparse audience. So, just who was supposed to be attracted by this programme? Or, as would seem to be increasingly apparent, those at R3 no longer have any faith in the music of the classical tradition and are desperately wallowing around trying to hoike in market share - whatever it takes?