Prom 60 - 1.09.14: 'Roman Holiday', RPO, Driver / Dutoit

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Monday, 1 September
7.30 p.m. – c. 9.45 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Berlioz: Overture Le carnaval romain, Op. 9 (9 mins)
Walton: Sinfonia concertante for piano and orchestra (original version)

Respighi:
(a) Roman Festivals
(b) Fontane di Roma
(c) Pini di Roma

Danny Driver, piano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor

Italian sunshine floods the Royal Albert Hall Tonight's Prom - with a Swiss conductor, a British orchestra, and music by an Italian, an Englishman and (first) a Frenchman. Hector Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini - featuring the riotous Roman Carnival from which he took the Overture we'll hear tonight - was inspired by Berlioz's experiences during eighteen months in Italy after winning the French Prix de Rome in 1830. Ottorino Respighi settled in Rome for most of his adult life, and celebrated his adopted city in a triptych of increasingly flamboyant orchestral showpieces - depicting not just fountains, pines and festivals, but the children of Rome at play, the mysterious catacombs and the ancient Roman legions on the march. Charles Dutoit offers a rare chance to hear all three works in sequence. William Walton - one of the featured composers in the 2014 BBC Proms - dedicated the three movements of his original Sinfonia concertante to the three Sitwell siblings, Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell, who took him under their wing and (crucially) introduced him to Italy. "I've never forgotten it," Walton said of the experience of emerging from a tunnel under the Alps into the Italian sunlight: "a new world".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is just the sort of "saturation" concert that I don't really like. The first half is fine, but the second half has three Respighi showcase pieces which are amazing in their way, but to play them consecutively lessens their impact.
They make a good combination on CD, but then you have the option of only listening to one of them.

[mrbouffant]

Looking forward to this one tonight - will be good to hear the Walton 'live' - and I just love the Respighi, especially when the organ gets going in Festivals !!

[BBMmk2]

I understand EA's point re the Respighi works, but the Walton? I love that work too, but can also see why it was included but surely another type of piece be more enterprising?

[Ferretfancy]

This is just the sort of "saturation" concert that I don't really like. The first half is fine, but the second half has three Respighi showcase pieces which are amazing in their way, but to play them consecutively lessens their impact.
They make a good combination on CD, but then you have the option of only listening to one of them.

I completely agree, so I'm taking a break until later in the week. In any case,Charles Dutoit always seems to get better results on recordings than he does in live concerts, and I'm still recovering from last night's Electra!

[cloughie]

This is just the sort of "saturation" concert that I don't really like. The first half is fine, but the second half has three Respighi showcase pieces which are amazing in their way, but to play them consecutively lessens their impact.
They make a good combination on CD, but then you have the option of only listening to one of them.

Even if you're iffy about the content you can't complain about the quantity! You can always tape it and listen in bits!

[vinteuil]

Even if you're iffy about the content you can't complain about the quantity!

... as someone might have said, - "Never mind the quality - feel the width!" .

[Barbirollians]

I agree with EA - if we are to have a consciously Italian programme surely something more inventive than all those Respighi showpieces would have been better - like having three ice creams in a row .

How about some Casella and schubert's overture in the Italian Style in D .

[Alison]

Charles Dutoit has never been a particularly inspiring programme builder.

[Barbirollians]

I decided against it and am enjoying Karajan's masterly EMI Bruckner 7 instead .

[Master Jacques]

Another astounding evening, though the Walton was out of place - some Casella or Malipiero would have made much more sense. Another R3 literary conceit which made absolutely no musical sense.

The Respighi trilogy made astounding aural theatre under the vault of the RAH, with the extra trumpets and trombones in Pines placed up at the top of the gallery above the band. I counted twelve percussionists in Festivals, plus a piano four-hands duo, one of whom doubled on mule bells. Eleven trumpets, and goodness knows how many horns! The whole thing was blissfully enjoyable, full of fun, sensuality and stirring tunes. It was also the loudest thing I have ever heard (not excepting last night's Elektra.)

I'd expected to find the infamous nightingales in Pines as smile-provoking as I always have on disc; but it was so tastefully done, with the birdsong spacially placed directly above the orchestra at just the right, realistic volume, that I actually found tears coming into my eyes. It's a memorable - musical - moment, as Respighi's birdsong reaches a peak of exquisite ecstasy before giving way, as it must, to the "real thing".

It is always a joy to be surprised, and frankly I was tonight - by the musical quality of the Trilogy as much as by its huge effectiveness. Putting all three together made for a blissful hour, a great three-movement symphony, and one which was not a moment too long. I am very glad I went: Respighi's work shows up the derivative penury of today's film composers. He really did do it all before, and so much more imaginatively, too.

[mrbouffant]

It was DARN loud - especially the finale of Fountains. Sat in Choir West as I was, we got a lot of the organ and some particular atmospheric 32 foot work !

Beautifully OTT. I never knew Respighi had given us an early example of Musique Concrète with the nightingale. However, I do feel the bird used this evening lacked a certain amount of Italianate charm. If my ears didn't deceive me I think the bird was brought up on the Devon/Somerset border. Less bella bella and more alright my baba?.

The Walton failed to take off for me. There seemed to be a bit of a car crash at the end of the first movement -- I need to 'listen again' with a score to be sure of that.

All in all, quite a memorable evening for a number of reasons !

[Master Jacques]

Yes, I thought there was a "moment" in the Walton, where the woodwind and strings seemed to get half a bar out - Dutoit looked concerned for a moment, before it all came back together.

Distressed to learn that the nightingales were Devonians! But it is a marvellous idea, just the same. The composer's score demands a particular Roman bird on a 1920's 78rpm disc, but I don't think he'd have minded the West Country accent too much.

[gedsmk]

Respighi sounded utterly gorgeous in the hall, and it was wonderful to hear all three together. I thought Dutoit paced and balanced everything very effectively. Listening on iplayer it sounds like the engineer lost his nerve in the last minute of "Pines", there is a sudden drop in volume from the trumpets, which is a pity, because it really was stupendous at the end.

[richardfinegold]

I decided against it and am enjoying Karajan's masterly EMI Bruckner 7 instead .

Gee, the proms gets all the Great Conductors, even the ones that have been dead for 20 years.