Originally posted by edashtav
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Goodness gracious me... EMPTY SEATS ... YE GODS What sacrilege!
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There weren't many empty seats last night. I saw one amusing incident near my seat, when a woman and her children thought they would move from the Arena and occupy three spare Stalls seats. The young attendant was soon on to her after the Stravinsky ended and, after what looked like an extended discussion, he stood his ground and the party moved back. Even more amusing was the middle-aged man in front of me trying to use his camera during the music. He dropped it on the floor in his care to be surreptitious and it had to be retrieved by the man in front. Would I be wicked if I secretly hoped that the camera broke? -
I was at the concert (as mentioned above), but I recorded the radio coverage and have just listened to the interval talk with Andsnes. As expected, he was interesting, but the interviewer (one of the announcers who isn't K Derham) attempted to hog the show with questions which were never-ending. I almost fell off my chair when she said that people who have listened to Radio 3 for a long time will remember the Beethoven Experince, which she found ........blah-blah (again, it's what the announcer felt.) Long time listeners remembering something from 2005 (I've just checked)? The whole of Radio 3 is so short-term now; do they realise that there are thousands of people who have listened for many decades? I tried to think of people who could have done that interview (extracted from the talk at the RCM before the concert) so much better. A piano specialist perhaps, like David Owen Norris, or even another pianist, like Stephen Hough. Anyone but the blandness that I heard today. (A further thought: what about James Naughtie, now that he is moving on to other things? Intelligent, musically-informed, an interviewer who listens and can ask concise questions.)
On the subject of Ms Derham, (who wasn't on today's broadcats) I heard her introduce a Prom repeat one afternoon this week. After a season when each of the concerts has 'kicked off' with a certain work, she now referred to the audience as 'the crowd'. Is she auditioning for Sky Sports?Comment
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I have found her ability to mispronounce non-British names to be on a par with many sports commentators.Originally posted by VodkaDilc View PostComment
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Finally caught up with Prom 12. While I'm far from a fan of neo-classical Stravinsky (too much repetition of style and manner among the works of that period), I have to say that the MCO octet performed Stravinsky's Octet very well indeed, so I didn't share edashtav's reservations. There's a certain irony in pairing Stravinsky with LvB, as I remember a quote attributed to Stravinsky about Beethoven (which might well mean that it was Robert Craft 'ghosting' for Stravinsky), where Igor Fyodorovich dissed Beethoven's apparent lack of gift for memorable melody (I'll have to look it up), which is really rich given that Stravinsky had virtually no gift for memorable original melodies himself (and was still one of the most important composers of the 20th century anyway). But I digress.
Andsnes' rendition of LvB struck me as ever-so-slightly more rough-and-ready compared to the earlier Proms concerto perforrmances (though not outrageously so), and also with rather more drive compared to his commercial recording with the MCO, which seemed a bit tame and overly restrained. So the slightly more rough-and-ready-ness here is a good thing, IMHO. Very fine work in LvB 5 as well, although it was interesting to hear the occasional nudge from Andsnes in the finale, and I'm wondering if those tempo nudges were in the same spot in his commercial recording. Per vodkadilc (Comment # 8), we did get the op. 31 movement and the two orchestral dances, as encores (seems sacrilegious to play encores after LvB 5, but all sides on the platform were obviously prepared).
Even if SM-P was a bit over much (dare I say, American?) in her use of "The Beethoven Journey", that was Andsnes' own term for the project. Even if it smacks of commercialism, given the extremely high quality of music-making involved, I'm more than forgiving in this instance. There are a lot worse classical projects to 'promote'.
BTW, speaking of commercialism, I just checked the sales of the Andsnes/MCO LvB recordings off Amazon.co.uk, as of this moment:
(a) Nos. 1 & 3:
(b) Nos. 2 & 4:"Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,206 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
#5 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Piano
#7 in Music > Classical > Orchestral, Concertos & Symphonies > Concertos
#10 in Music > Classical > Solo Instrumental > Piano"
(c) No. 5 + Choral Fantasy:"Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 25,384 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
#119 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Piano
#233 in Music > Classical > Solo Instrumental > Piano
#265 in Music > Classical > Solo Instrumental > Keyboard"
(d) The complete set:"Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,645 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
#5 in Music > Classical > Orchestral, Concertos & Symphonies > Concertos > Piano
#14 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Piano
#27 in Music > Classical > Solo Instrumental > Piano"
Of course, all these numbers will have changed by the time all the rest of you guys read this (if you read this)."Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 256 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
#1 in Music > Classical > Solo Instrumental > Piano
#1 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Piano
#1 in Music > Classical > Orchestral, Concertos & Symphonies > Concertos"Comment
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And the Academy Award for most self-evidently rubbish statement on the Forum this year goes to ...
Bluestateprommer for his masterpieceStravinsky had virtually no gift for memorable original melodies
... etc etc etc
(And the comments about Beethoven are from the second lecture ("The Phenomenon of Music") of Poetics of Music - so "ghost-written" by Souvtchinsky and Manuel-Roland, not Craft. "Here we have one of the greatest creators of Music who spent his whole life imploring the aid of this gift which he lacked." [ie "the capacity for melody"].)[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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I attended a concert in Andsnes's 'Beethoven Journey' series with the MCO in 2014 at Dresden Semperoper and I've seem the Proms performances but somehow Andsnes's playing leaves me cold compared to soloists such as Argerich and Barenboim, and maybe Pires.Originally posted by bluestateprommer View PostComment
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