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

[Serial_Apologist]

To be fair to "Roscatha" it has often been played as a stand-alone; I had no idea it was part of a triptiche. When the Whelan got underway, I thought I was listening to some previously unheard piece by Borodin; a couple of years ago R3 had a series on British Light Music in which the genre was described as more-or-less dead and gone, belonging to a past era; this piece revived it: tunes which were more important than what was done with them.

[pureimagination]

I must agree that it wasn't a very cohesive programme. I do feel that pianist Zhang Zuo played an excellent Grieg's Piano Concerto (certainly all the right notes in the right order) so credit to her.
I have argued before about pieces of music that don't sit well together (my personal opinion before anyone starts) and I can't be the only one (judging from the comments here) who feels that having an ill judged programme can severely hamper a concert's (even a free one) reputation which must be disheartening to any of the musicians involved.

[Master Jacques]

To be fair to "Roscatha" it has often been played as a stand-alone...

I wish, Serial-Apologist! Apart from the sole recording (Bryden Thomson with the Ulsters themselves, as part of the Eire trilogy) I believe live performances of this 1910 work have been very rare. I'd love to know of any you may have come across.

Graham Parlett notes the world premiere came as late as 1974, by the amateur Kensington SO under Leslie Head in London. There was a professional play-through under Tod Handley by the BBC Welsh in Llandaff in 1983, and then Thomson's 1985 Chandos recording session. It was done in Pennsylvania, again by amateurs, in 1997, but apart from that... I cannot trace any performances whatsoever, even by the Ulsters. This may have been indeed the "professional concert premiere".

The good news is, that there is now a nicely edited full score available, and parts: so we may hope it may be a bit luckier in future. At 10 minutes, it is certainly not prolix and packs some punch! We might wish that Bax had developed the material more, especially that superb "second subject" horn tune, but there it is. For me, it rather rescued yesterday's event.

[Ravensbourne]

Grieg or Sinding?

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?).

Greig's To The Spring, apparently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p025h6l1

I'm not sure if it is by Tamsin Greig or Tony Greig ...

[Barbirollians]

To be fair to "Roscatha" it has often been played as a stand-alone; I had no idea it was part of a triptiche. When the Whelan got underway, I thought I was listening to some previously unheard piece by Borodin; a couple of years ago R3 had a series on British Light Music in which the genre was described as more-or-less dead and gone, belonging to a past era; this piece revived it: tunes which were more important than what was done with them.

What an outrageous slander on Borodin - the Polotsovian Dances and Symphony No2 would have made a much better second half than the Riverdance bilge .

[Master Jacques]

What an outrageous slander on Borodin - the Polotsovian Dances and Symphony No2 would have made a much better second half than the Riverdance bilge .

We should have been so lucky! As a friend of mine, tuning in to the broadcast, put it: "I started listening to Riverdance but gave up after a few minutes. I suspect it's one of those things that sounds better when you're watching all that energetic Irish hoofing. On its own it sounded far too diddly-diddly."

Quite.

[Master Jacques]

Greig's To The Spring, apparently:

I'm not sure if it is by Tamsin Greig or Tony Greig ...

Gracias, Ravensbourne! Ah, so not the chap who wrote Rissole of Spring, then?