Prom 13: Holst – The Planets (27.07.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

7.30 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Susanna Mälkki conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Boulez's Notations and Holst's The Planets. Leila Josefowicz joins for the UK premiere of Luca Francesconi's Violin Concerto.

Pierre Boulez: Notations 1-4 & 7
Luca Francesconi: Duende - The Dark Notes (BBC co-commission) (UK premiere)
Holst: The Planets

Leila Josefowicz (violin)
Elysian Singers (women's voices)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Susanna Mälkki conductor

Once an irascible enfant terrible, Pierre Boulez was born 90 years ago. The Proms celebrations continue with one of his earliest works. Originally a series of 12 brilliant miniatures for piano, Notations is gradually being expanded by the composer into an orchestral cycle. Holst's The Planets brings musical imagery of a different kind. Violinist Leila Josefowicz makes a welcome return to the Proms, with the UK premiere of a concerto composed specially for her by one of Italy's greatest living composers.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

For one year only, I suppose Pluto could have had a airing?

[MrGongGong]

For one year only, I suppose Pluto could have had a airing?

Earth?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Earth?

Elgar would have sufficed here.

[MrGongGong]

Elgar would have sufficed here.

I'm sure it would be "glorious"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Elgar would have sufficed here.

??? Mahler, surely ... and entire "Song" devoted to the planet!


(But yes - with the timing this year in particular, Mr Matthews' opus should have been added to the programme.)

[MrGongGong]

Spot the bass oboe?

[BBMmk2]

??? Mahler, surely ... and entire "Song" devoted to the planet!


(But yes - with the timing this year in particular, Mr Matthews' opus should have been added to the programme.)

Das Lied von der Erde, ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Das Lied von der Erde, ?

That's the chappie!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Spot the bass oboe?

There are very few of these to be spotted anywhere.

[edashtav]

I'm looking forward to encountering:

Luca Francesconi: Duende - The Dark Notes (BBC/Swedish co-commission) (UK premiere)

because Luca seems to be a lively Italian former "enfant terrible". I know little of his work but am determined to get to grips with it despite the composer's Opera "Quartett" having been elevated by the Blessed Tom Service before its British premiere at the Linbury Studio a year or so ago.` I see Tom Service as an inveterate, international journeyman in search of musical sensationalism. There are no dark notes on the violin unlike on a piano but I'm expecting some nocturnal, black rumblings and oodles of chromatic tones. The work's title reminds me that there's a Scriabin anniversary in progress. Will Francesconi produce a "Black Mass" for our times?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm looking forward to encountering:

Luca Francesconi: Duende - The Dark Notes (BBC/Swedish co-commission) (UK premiere)

because Luca seems to be a lively Italian former "enfant terrible". I know little of his work but am determined to get to grips with it

Was Francesconi ever an enfant terrible? His Music has always struck me as very well-mannered and with a tremendous ear for colour. A sort of Musical James MacMillan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajj-Vd4OB6A

PS - Way to go, Bass Drum player at 5mins!

[edashtav]

Was Francesconi ever an enfant terrible? His Music has always struck me as very well-mannered and with a tremendous ear for colour. A sort of Musical James MacMillan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajj-Vd4OB6A

PS - Way to go, Bass Drum player at 5mins!

Well, you know you've probably got me hoist by the petard of my Francesconi ignorance. How wrong can one be - I was basing my judgement on a hand me down from a Blessed Tom Service interview with LF in the Guardian:

Francesconi pauses to draw breath, and the rest of us pause to catch up with him. There is a passion, even a joy, behind his seemingly defiant nihilism. “You know, I’m not a pessimist at all. I like to live, I like to drink, to eat, to make love as much as possible”. And to write music, too: Francesconi is one of the most fluent of today’s composers, and his music is the result of a fearless creative voraciousness, in which the whole of music history – “from silence to noise”, as he puts it – is the raw material for his musical adventures. Quartett is no exception. Composed for La Scala in Milan in 2011, the piece uses the whole apparatus of a large-scale opera house in ways that threaten to turn the institution and the art-form upside-down.

I'd better pray and do a dozen "Hail Toms" .

[edashtav]

Well I've caught up with your Francesconi Wanderer on Youtube, fhg, and there's little to justify "enfant terrible" in its vocabulary. I agree with your assessment that Luca has a fine ear for colour. There are references to other composers- I felt the start had a Bergian feel to it. I was shocked to note that the Italian tape was a prototype for the BBC's for placing comments from Elder statesmen between movements. Just as I was settling to the percussion fiesta up pops Luca, all bushy-tailed, wide-eyed - a sort of Latin Simon Rattle- to tell us what to think. Because of this rude interruption, I'm unsure whether the whole piece was on offe,r or just two, bleeding chunks, but I didn't get a clear idea of structure and came away feeling that form might not count as one of Luca's strengths. The work, confidently conducted by Muti, held my attention - will the same be true this evening in what promises to be a longer concerto? Do we know of the work of tonight's conductor? She's new to me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - more an extended advert for the concert than a performance, but enough of an idea of the piece/style etc.

Do we know of the work of tonight's conductor? She's new to me.

Oh, she's damn fine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCLIWnOsG4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLWitklbN_4

... and, in more "traditional" repertoire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLWitklbN_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLWitklbN_4