Prom 17: Hallé – Debussy/VW/Elgar (30.07.15)

[BassOne83]

What has happened with other non-televised bits of the otherwise televised Proms (!) is that they have been made available for viewing on the i-Player. Presumably, this will be the case here.

Yes!

[edashtav]

I would concur with "satisfying, like a warm blanket" - but last year, I was weeping buckets during and at the end of the performance; Jurowski didn't just get to the sense of loss that's behind so much (but not all) of this work - he also revealed a sense of gratitude there, too: gratitude for experiencing what has been lost. As well as the noble swagger, the devil-may-care playfulness which sours into barely suppressed fury in the Scherzo and so much else that last night's performance felt was unnecessary - unwelcome, even.

And it's not just a case of "injecting pace and passion into" this score - it's there in the score for conductors to read and bring out of it. Allegro vivace e nobilmente, (MM = 92, increasing to 104 a mere five bars later), con anima, poco piu sostenuto, in tempo (MM down to 84, accelerating after two bars back to 100), sempre animato, tempo primo (MM = 100), poco animato, poco sostenuto (for two bars and then back to MM = 92), poco animato, animato, Impetuoso, Tempo primo, brilliante, stringendo, vivace, etc etc ... the slowest MM in the first movement is 76, for the Second Group - Elder gave us something closer to 60. It's all there in the score, it doesn't need botox!

I missed Jurowski's performance last year. I'm afraid that I've never seen a score, fgh. Your statistics are challenging particularly that indication that Elgar's MM in the first movement never fell below 76. To be 20% slower does suggest that Elder's pace was Aldermanic.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I missed Jurowski's performance last year.

Erm - so did I: it was Petrenko!

However, just to confirm how good it was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oLNgPj8sA

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Liverpool, not Berlin, Petrenko!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As Simon B pointed out in #35

[edashtav]

Sancta Civitas ( heard on iPlayer)

There was a good feeling of awe and mystery as this piece opened. I don't think I've heard it live since a performance by the Bournemouth Municipal Choir in 1957 in the Winter Gardens Bournemouth. My memory of that evening was that the RVW was eclipsed, as far as I was concerned, by Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens. With hindsight, I suspect that the Parry was in the Choir's repertoire but Sancta Civitas was a novelty that stretched both the Choir and its guest conductor - Stanford Robinson. What I recall of the RVW is music painted in pastels.

Thus, this BBC Prom came as a shock to my system - it was like hearing my first stereo LPs - an exciting sonic-stage: full of spatial effects, multiple layers, thrilling contributions by the RAH organ. The choirs were committed, confidence and forthright.

A Proms premiere and a triumphant one. Surely, we won't have to wait decades for a second performance?

Full marks to Sir Mark for controlling his forces so well and three cheerrs for the BBC engineers who captured the disparate elements to such effect.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What I recall of the RVW is music painted in pastels.

Off topic, I admit, but pastel paintings are generally more vivid than those that use real paint, as the latter involves much more mixing of colours, which dulls the impact. Pastel painting and pastel shades are two very different things.

Pedantic rant over.

Returning to topic, I can't really imagine Stanford Robinson conducting VW. Did he do so regularly?

[edashtav]

Off topic, I admit, but pastel paintings are generally more vivid than those that use real paint, as the latter involves much more mixing of colours, which dulls the impact. Pastel painting and pastel shades are two very different things.

Pedantic rant over.

Returning to topic, I can't really imagine Stanford Robinson conducting VW. Did he do so regularly?

Thanks for that "enlightenment" re pastel painting, alpie.

As for Stanford Robinson - he was a guest conductor. Was the programme chosen for him? I don't know but it was the sole occasion that he conducted the Bournemouth Choir. It was an eclectic programme with Thomas Wood's salty Master Mariners, Debussy's pale, "pastel shaded" La Damoiselle Elue as well as the RVW & Parry. I can recollect Stanford Robinson making quite a success of Arnold Bax's 3rd Symphony on the Radio but no other RVW performances by him remain in my old brain.

[edashtav]

Looking at my records, I note that I was wrong in recalling Stanford Robinson conducting a Bax Symphony. In fact, it was Maurice Handford who took the work at a leisurely pace, clocking it at 50+ minutes.

[silvestrione]

Oh.

I thought it sprawled rather -

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[cloughie]

Looking at my records, I note that I was wrong in recalling Stanford Robinson conducting a Bax Symphony. In fact, it was Maurice Handford who took the work at a leisurely pace, clocking it at 50+ minutes.

Sprawled then!?!

[edashtav]

Sprawled then!?!

Yes, it did sprawl but I remember warming to the super-slow epilogue that was beautiful and rounded the piece so peacefully.

[EdgeleyRob]

Managed to catch up with Sancta Civitas.

Absolutely wonderful performance.

The Lark style solo violin passages were exquisitely done.
The wall of sound "Heaven and earth are full of thy glory," was overwhelming.
Reminded me a lot of the Hickox recording.

[edashtav]

Managed to catch up with Sancta Civitas.

Absolutely wonderful performance.
[...]
Reminded me a lot of the Hickox recording.

Martin Kettle (the Guardian) agrees with you Edgeley Rob. His subtitle is :

Hallé orchestra were perfect advocates for Vaughan Williams’s large and little-known Sancta Civitas

http://gu.com/p/4b66y?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It's worth a peep if only to see Elder's vocal backing for his soloist in the balance battle with the surrounding choral hordes.