Prom 1: First Night of the Proms (17.07.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Carl Nielsen: Maskarade, FS39 overture
Gary Carpenter: Dadaville (BBC commission: world premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 20 in D minor, K 466
Jean Sibelius: Belshazzar's Feast – suite
William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast
Lars Vogt piano
Christopher Maltman bass-baritone
BBC Singers
BBC National Chorus of Wales
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo conductor

Two Nordic anniversaries launch this year's BBC Proms: Denmark's Carl Nielsen and Finland's Jean Sibelius both celebrate their 150th-birthday years.
Two exotic musical retellings of the story of the Babylonian king Belshazzar include the first of this summer's feast of choral works.
Celebrated German pianist Lars Vogt is soloist in the first of six late great Mozart piano concertos, and British composer Gary Carpenter spearheads the 32 premieres this season - a musical taste of things to come.

[Hornspieler]

7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Carl Nielsen: Maskarade, FS39 overture
Gary Carpenter: Dadaville (BBC commission: world premiere)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 20 in D minor, K 466
Jean Sibelius: Belshazzar's Feast – suite
William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

A bit overdone, I feel

I may pick out one -or perhaps two, to listen to on the iplayer.

HS

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A bit overdone, I feel

How do you mean? It seems to be one of the better concert ideas:
1. A lively overture to get things going
2. Something completely new (there are quite a few this season)
3. A really great concerto with a world class soloist
4. Two works based around the same theme to compare and contrast

Credit where it's due.

[antongould]

How do you mean? It seems to be one of the better concert ideas:
1. A lively overture to get things going
2. Something completely new (there are quite a few this season)
3. A really great concerto with a world class soloist
4. Two works based around the same theme to compare and contrast

Credit where it's due.

Totally agree EA - looking forward to it .....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Maskarade is a work I got to know by picking up the rather lavishly-presented Ulf Schirmer Decca recording in a second-hand shop. It's well-worthy of sitting beside J. Strauus, Lehar, Sullivan and Offenbach. (I mean this as a compliment to all four composers.)

[EdgeleyRob]

I'm looking forward to hearing this too.
I think a big English choral work for the first night is a good fit,but there are so many that never get performed.
The start of the proms would be a great time to programme Dyson's Canterbury Pilgrims or Stanford's requiem for example.

[Ferretfancy]

Totally agree EA - looking forward to it .....

I always enjoy Belshazzar's Feast, and once saw Walton himself conduct an excerpt from it at a Hoffnung Concert. He strode onto the platform, raised his baton and---SLAIN!!

Then he strolled off.

[Alison]

I like the look of this programme very much with trusted performers for good measure.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Good quote from Sakari: “What I want to do is play good music in a serious way to people who want to listen to it. That is what I am able to do with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and with my other orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. I may be old-fashioned, but I think this is very important. This is why I so look forward to being part of the Proms again this year.”

Full article at http://www.classicalsource.com/db_co...ws.php?id=3288

[ARBurton]

I don`t want to worry anybody, but this is preceded on tv by something like 9 hours of live golf: if that overruns, will the start of the proms relay be deferred too?

[Petrushka]

I don`t want to worry anybody, but this is preceded on tv by something like 9 hours of live golf: if that overruns, will the start of the proms relay be deferred too?

The Prom starts in the hall at 7.30 while the TV broadcast doesn't start until 8pm so it's deferred already. In past seasons when the TV relay was live the golf over-run was a frequent and annoying problem, so much so that back in 1990 the beginning of the Prom was substantially delayed resulting in a filmed tribute to Sir John Pritchard who had died earlier that year and to whose memory the concert was dedicated, being scrapped.

I shall be in the hall on Friday night with recorder set with plenty of time in hand!

[ARBurton]

Ah yes of course, silly me! Excellent. Thanks!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Never mind the golf and the TV. It generally sounds better in the hall and on Radio 3 than it does on TV. And it begins tonight.

[Serial_Apologist]

Based on the little that I have heard of Gary Carpenter's music, I am particularly looking forward to the premiere of his work at this concert.

[bluestateprommer]

Just heard GC's Dadaville, which is definitely in an "audience-friendly" idiom overall, and initially surprised me by being mainly in slower and moderate tempi from the outset. For some reason, I was subliminally biased to expect more like a "fast-slow-fast" curtain raiser. It was nice to hear him speak to Petroc in the pre-recorded chat about the idea of the notes "D" and "A" as being an anchor of the work, which in retrospect I could have guessed beforehand. The "flourish with fireworks" at the end might limit future performances, but overall, it's good clean fun and a nice curtain raiser. GC is speaking with Petroc as I type this.

SO's interpretation of Nielsen's Maskarade Overture was solid, perhaps nothing exceptional, but again, a good solid start. Waiting for the "heave-ho" and such.....

Post-"heave-ho": in the Mozart, I thought that Lars Vogt rather underplayed the darkness of the first movement in particular. Points to him, though, for evidently coming up with his own cadenza. He also took the slow movement at a fair lick. (Warning; there was audience applause after the 1st movement, but the artists launched fairly promptly into the finale, to forestall a repeat between 2 & 3. You might just need to get used to it the rest of the season, on concerto evenings.)