Concerts that combine orchestral & chamber works

[maestro267]

The Andsnes Beethoven concerts have combined the orchestral piano concertos with works for considerably different, and often smaller, forces. What's your view on concerts like this? Does it work being shifted suddenly from having a full orchestra playing to just a quartet or an unaccompanied choir?

Another example is a R. Strauss concert last year that inserted an a cappella choral work in among some large-scale orchestral works.

[richardfinegold]

As a listener, as long as I can hear the music (RAH may not accommodate a small ensemble as well as it does the Full Monte), I wouldn't much care.

[Beef Oven!]

I'm sure I must have been to such a concert, but I can't for the life of me think of one!

[Petrushka]

One of my most memorable Proms was a combination of the Mozart Serenade K275 and the Beethoven 9 with the Vienna Wind Soloists/Vienna Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado in 1987.

Bach Organ works and Bruckner 8 VPO/Maazel a couple of years ago was another and I seem to recall a Mozart chamber work coupled with the Mahler 2 many years ago.

I think it's a great idea to combine different genres in this way.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bach Organ works and Bruckner 8 VPO/Maazel a couple of years ago was another and I seem to recall a Mozart chamber work coupled with the Mahler 2 many years ago.

Yes - "long" orchestral works which make tremendous demands on the orchestral players, but which don't quite fill a concert evening benefit from being prefaced by a work for smaller forces. Bruckner #5 or #8, Mahler #2, 6, 7 & 9 would go very well with Bach organ works or the Motets.

These MCO chamber pieces have also worked very well, too, IMO.

[Serial_Apologist]

Many works switch between using full and chamber forces on the concerto grosso principle.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm sure I must have been to such a concert, but I can't for the life of me think of one!

One I remember vividly was 15/8/72: Mozart Piano Quartet K478, Concerto No 18 and Requiem, with some (fairly) young upstart called Barenboim attending to the ivories and the stick-waving.

So if it was good enough for Sir William Glock it's good enough for you!

And I find that I even heard Sir W G play the other WAM Piano 4tet with the Lindsays. But that wasn't a Prom

CORRECTION The Glock was a Prom: thanks Mercia for the #8 reminder

[mercia]

..... which reminds me I attended this one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eh9rzc

looking much further back in the archive, concerts of orchestral works combined with solo items were quite common

am I correct in thinking last night was the only time any trombones were involved in these Andsnes concerts ? do you think the programmes have been identical in this four-year project ? just thinking of the practicality/logistics of using some players very little. Of course combining orchestral and chamber works means a lot of stage-shifting has to go on between items.