Prom 54 - 26.08.14: LvB - Missa Solemnis, EBS / Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tuesday, 26 August
10.15 p.m. – c. 11.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Beethoven: Missa solemnis (72 mins)

Lucy Crowe, soprano
Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano
Michael Spyres, tenor (Proms debut artist)
Matthew Rose, bass

Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists (pre-1977, Monteverdi Orchestra)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

The Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner live at the BBC Proms. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Monteverdi Choir returns to the Proms with its founder-conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner for one of the greatest of all choral works - Beethoven's mighty setting of the Mass. It's a work the choir has performed throughout its history, and has made two acclaimed recordings of. The unique atmosphere of a Late Night Prom is the perfect setting for this tumultuous spiritual journey, in which we are invited to acknowledge doubt and search for redemption.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is what you call a late night concert.

[jayne lee wilson]

Difficult timing but I'll try to fit it in... I love the SDG recording (Barbican live) and posted a review of it last December (CD Review thread) comparing it to the Arkiv one. Oh yes, you really do need both...

[Prommer]

I am looking forward to a very different experience here from the MS under Sir Col a few years ago, but it should be fascinating, and a little special at that time of night, for some reason...

[jayne lee wilson]

Heavens! No-one here yet?
A GREAT PROMS EVENT THAT TRULY LIVED UP TO ITS PROMISE!

I think someone better comment on this...

This was a truly magnificent Missa Solemnis, but you'd expect nothing else from John Eliot Gardiner, a man with a very special love for the work, who has issued two wonderful recordings over 20 years apart, and who said before the concert that he and his dedicated band of singers and instrumentalists have been through the piece 12 times in the last two years ...

JEG's approach has not radically changed since the Archiv issue of 1990. The live Barbican one of SDG of 2013 has greater bite and power chorally and orchestrally, is more dramatically driven than the beautiful, chaste and refined taping in All Saints, albeit at the expense of some soloistic finesse.
Tonight's Prom (via HDs live webstream) was perceptibly softer-grained and more intimate, Gardiner drawing out the warmth and expressiveness of passages like the Incarnatus or Crucifixus, but going to greater expressive extremes of mood and tempo in the Agnus Dei and Miserere, certainly never lacking impact in those dizzying climaxes at the end of the Gloria and Credo. The Monteverdi Choir were pure, agile and powerful as ever, and I felt that the quartet of soloists sang very well tonight, better than on the Barbican disc (just one change from that - tenor Michael Spyres instead of James Gilchrist).

I can only hope there are others here who love the piece as much as I do (obsessively, devotedly...). If you haven't heard it yet, make it a hot date... .

What's that? Oh the scores...
10/10 all round,
with excellent, well-balanced sound!

[Bryn]

Not yet listened. I had planned to attend but continuing persistent cough put an end to that,and come the start of the broadcast, Morpheus beckoned. Just accessed via iPlayer. Will have first listen to and from work on the fast approaching morrow. Back to bed now.

[Bryn]

Listened up to and including the Gloria during the drive into work. Superb performance, beautifully shaped. Eager to hear the rest on the way home.

[gurnemanz]

After my wife got back from work, we decided we had to go. Just drove off and made it there at about 9.30 just in time to queue for the arena. Very glad we made the effort. A thoroughly riveting performance of an absolute favourite masterpiece. The forces involved know this work intimately. We loved Lucy Crow who we also heard in Norrie's John Passion. Having attempted to sing the horrendously difficult "et vitam venturi saeculi" in a performance with a local choir a couple of years ago, I really appreciated their thrilling rendering of this passage. "Et incarnatus est" came in exquisitely hushed, sung by the small tenor section standing alone centre stage with the rest of the choir seated, followed by the tenor's triumphant "Et homo factus est" which is surely the heart of the work for the composer. Beethoven's dedication read "From the heart, may it go to hearts" - it did. £5 well spent.

[underthecountertenor]

Jayne Lee Wilson and gurnemanz have said it all. I can only thank and endorse them. A thrilling night, and I'm glad I made it one of my rare visits this season.

[amac4165]

Jayne Lee Wilson and gurnemanz have said it all. I can only thank and endorse them. A thrilling night, and I'm glad I made it one of my rare visits this season.

Indeed, it was a very good performance. I thought. Although I did find the period instruments did take some getting used to, particularly in the brass!

When taken with the previous concert and the Brahms symphonies think overall it was a very good day at the Proms!

[Prommer]

Whilst I tend to prefer a bigger sound for this work (Davis, Klemperer etc), I too thought this was a very fine performance: amazing virtuosity, control and within the framework (quite tight) that JEG fashioned some lovely expressive moments and subtleties.

I was on the wrong side to get the full blast of the soloists but I thought Michael Spyres lacked the heft or volume for the climactic 'homo factus est'.

The Quoniam tu solus section of the Gloria was particularly well done - very exciting, edgy singing.

Again, as with the Davis Prom in 2011, the leader stood to play the violin solo in the Benedictus. Is this a new or old tradition? Must be interesting if Gardiner AND Davis observe it!

[amac4165]

Whilst I tend to prefer a bigger sound for this work (Davis, Klemperer etc), I too thought this was a very fine performance: amazing virtuosity, control and within the framework (quite tight) that JEG fashioned some lovely expressive moments and subtleties.

I was on the wrong side to get the full blast of the soloists but I thought Michael Sypres lacked the heft or volume for the climactic 'homo factus est'.

The Quoniam tu solus section of the Gloria was particularly well done - very exciting, edgy singing.

I was on the right side for the soloists - ie the left ! It was rather an odd placement for the RAH acoustics. I was 3rd row in the arena and no problems hearing any of them.

[grandchant]

Yes it was an outstanding performance. I would have liked a bigger choral sound and more dynamic contrast in the Agnus Dei, but that's just my preference, and how it came across on i-player.
As to soloists standing, I remember seeing it before in televised proms; Samson sticks in the mind, so I wonder if it's at the request of the TV producer, although obviously also at the discretion of the conductor.
Thanks JEG for another brilliant performance.

[Bryn]

The audio synch on BBC FOUR is a bit of a mess, the timp strokes being heard before the beater strikes skin, etc.

[EdgeleyRob]

The audio synch on BBC four is a bit of a mess, the timp strokes being heard before the beater strikes skin, etc.

Thank goodness,thought I was losing it.
Very noticeable at times during close ups of the soloists.