Well, Lucky the Live attendees, BUT...
From about 10 minutes in I thought... there's something seriously missing here.
In a word - characterisation. Where was the giant God Pan, menacing over the oboe singing in the meadow, the Trombone lording it over Pagan Rituals, the raucous MayDay parades? Where were THEY?
Can you really play this symphony as PURE MUSIC, a Symphony in D? I really don't think so. The 1st movement is supposed to feel like a primal, phenomenal force - Gilbert gave us a report from the event rather than the event itself... The start of the coda (after the Trombone's last lacklustre appearance) lacked all grip and purpose, the coda itself dreadfully dull.
Adding insult to emotional injury, the soundbalancers gave a huge level boost to the Meadow Flowers - a botanist's rather than a poets' eye - I had to reduce the volume on the quietest movement to tame the fierceness of the violins! (LOOK GUYS THIS IS 2014, AND THIS ISN'T FM). I nearly gave up at this point.
Perhaps I should have, as the Animals in the Woods never ventured near, scared off from the C Minor scherzo with - an all-too-human Rehearsal for Wind Figures. No tension before the rearing-up of the scherzo's climax and a plodding coda (remember the white horse in Ken Russell's Mahler? THAT'S what was missing in Gilbert's reading). The poor contralto in the NightSong was predictably too close, too loud... I was aware often of a lack of naturalness and Mahlerian idiom through each phrase, of a surprising degree of indiscipline in the entries... (what a contrast with Haitink's LSO Mahler 4!).
So the sublime final adagio - which I've often found almost impossible to get through, so much does it move me - went for almost nothing, with no real sense of flow, no hush or delicacy... but by this time, the poor sound had become really messy, with edgy, fierce and confused string textures, and a dynamic over-control which was crushingly obtrusive...
How strange is Radio 3, when in the same week we heard a concert from the Cleveland Orchestra (Brahms 2/Widmann Teufel Amor) which was a model of how a webcast/broadcast should sound. All the more frustrating that, aware as I am of the real difficulties live relays can present (RAH gets very dry when very full, etc.), there is nowhere to write to or enquire... It was a precious but alltoobrief moment when Rupert Brun (of BBC Audio) took part in online discussions during the first week of the 320kbps aac feed in September 2010.
Marks out of ten? You must be joking...
From about 10 minutes in I thought... there's something seriously missing here.
In a word - characterisation. Where was the giant God Pan, menacing over the oboe singing in the meadow, the Trombone lording it over Pagan Rituals, the raucous MayDay parades? Where were THEY?
Can you really play this symphony as PURE MUSIC, a Symphony in D? I really don't think so. The 1st movement is supposed to feel like a primal, phenomenal force - Gilbert gave us a report from the event rather than the event itself... The start of the coda (after the Trombone's last lacklustre appearance) lacked all grip and purpose, the coda itself dreadfully dull.
Adding insult to emotional injury, the soundbalancers gave a huge level boost to the Meadow Flowers - a botanist's rather than a poets' eye - I had to reduce the volume on the quietest movement to tame the fierceness of the violins! (LOOK GUYS THIS IS 2014, AND THIS ISN'T FM). I nearly gave up at this point.
Perhaps I should have, as the Animals in the Woods never ventured near, scared off from the C Minor scherzo with - an all-too-human Rehearsal for Wind Figures. No tension before the rearing-up of the scherzo's climax and a plodding coda (remember the white horse in Ken Russell's Mahler? THAT'S what was missing in Gilbert's reading). The poor contralto in the NightSong was predictably too close, too loud... I was aware often of a lack of naturalness and Mahlerian idiom through each phrase, of a surprising degree of indiscipline in the entries... (what a contrast with Haitink's LSO Mahler 4!).
So the sublime final adagio - which I've often found almost impossible to get through, so much does it move me - went for almost nothing, with no real sense of flow, no hush or delicacy... but by this time, the poor sound had become really messy, with edgy, fierce and confused string textures, and a dynamic over-control which was crushingly obtrusive...
How strange is Radio 3, when in the same week we heard a concert from the Cleveland Orchestra (Brahms 2/Widmann Teufel Amor) which was a model of how a webcast/broadcast should sound. All the more frustrating that, aware as I am of the real difficulties live relays can present (RAH gets very dry when very full, etc.), there is nowhere to write to or enquire... It was a precious but alltoobrief moment when Rupert Brun (of BBC Audio) took part in online discussions during the first week of the 320kbps aac feed in September 2010.
Marks out of ten? You must be joking...
Comment