Prom 22: Aurora Orchestra (2.08.15)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

well if you don't rehearse without parts, how do you find out if everyone is note perfect ?

? Not sure I follow you here, mercs. (Do you mean "all the time"? Every rehearsal dispenses with Parts - otherwise [you seem to be saying] you can't find out who isn't note perfect?)

I heard a bit of the interval feature on memory - I think an opera singer participant said she has to have memorised her part before turning up for rehearsals

Yes - Karajan insisted that all the soloists in his Opera productions came to the first rehearsal knowing their part in full before they even started.

But that's different from being one of a group of half-a-dozen First Violinists playing in unison. Are they expected to memorise all the rehearsal letters, too - and, if so, are they all given the same edition to take home to learn so that they all have the same "Letter E" to take it from?

[mercia]

? Not sure I follow you here, mercs. (Do you mean "all the time"? Every rehearsal dispenses with Parts - otherwise [you seem to be saying] you can't find out who isn't note perfect?)

well perhaps not every rehearsal. I don't see how a conductor could say - "next week's Mahler 9 concert will be from memory but between now and then play from parts. In the concert we will find out if you have memorised it."

But perhaps I'm completely underestimating how much is already played from memory in concerts, with a score only there as a safety net. When I watch the TV proms I see players turning pages, so they are presumably using their parts.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - a lot will depend on how often a player will have already played a piece already. The most fascinating aspect of this concert is the relative youth of the players and the fact that they're including two new(ish) works in the programme.


Two most fascinating aspects ... relative youth, new works and a conductor ... three fascinating ... I'll come in again.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I may have mentioned this before:-

I was asked to play the oboe obligato part for The Lord is my Shepherd in Rutter's Requiem. I've played this many times before, always with music. The conductor asked me to find a cellist for Out of the Deep from the same work, and I found a work colleague who was known to be a very fine player.

We turned up to the afternoon rehearsal with the choir and soloists. She seemed to have forgotten her music stand, so I offered her my spare one. She politely declined the offer. Instead, she launched into the movement without music, and whenever the conductor stopped, and told the choir to go back to a certain point, she knew exactly where to play from. When I asked her about it afterwards, she said that once she had learnt something, she would remember it for the rest of her life.

Conducting from memory is something I have done many times, though in rehearsal I always use a score.

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 22.

BRETT DEAN - PASTORAL SYMPHONY.
Fragments, noises, assembling out of silence: discordant string harmonics, birdcalls peeping and twittering; more sustained wind chords, a piano phrase, louder birdlike winds, a burst of timpani... winds holding longer notes again...
These elements begin to cohere and crowd in as the level rises, a steady beat sets in, "urban" sounds of brass and percussion from which a scurrying, rushing music escapes, making the piece seem as one long crescendo into a climax of increasing power and density... then a valedictory trumpet signals briefly in the fading coda. Another rumble of drums...

After two hearings, I admit I can't hear the work as more than the sum of its parts (and I enjoyed Dean's Electric Preludes last year). Perhaps it was more fun to play than to listen to?



BEETHOVEN - PASTORAL SYMPHONY.
Very HIPs & almost vibrato-less, this got off to a good start: light & swift, usefully bolder in attack and projection into the repeat. The development's crescendo was sharply focussed, the fast tempo giving the whole movement a clear trajectory, well-controlled throughout with a subtle rubato you sense rather than hear. Gorgeous glow from the strings in the coda.
Into the Scene by the Brook, a nice pure cantabile wafting along on the swift breeze, but - perhaps just a shade po-faced? Slightly improvisatory in feel, and not in a good way. Could have done with more sheer character here. "Lay bare the musical workings" if you like, but don't forget the birds and the bees...
The Peasant's Dance lacked Schwung - too brusque, tempo changes unsubtle, and the Storm seemed too stiff, often lacking vivid dynamism; the finale likewise seemed a little rushed and literal, orchestrally slightly rough in places too. Still, a good final blaze from the strings before a less-than-beatific coda...

I appreciate this orchestra is trying to do something different, but for this listener a lack of subtlety and contrast (in tempo, colour, mood) left a rather superficial impression of this Pastoral as a reading, reminding me of an earlier, briskly inexpressive generation of period-intrument classical performances.
Maybe the deeper, spiritual dimensions of the piece weren't aimed for, but I felt too much was left out of this presentation of Beethoven's 6th. Sorry Aurora.

(Heard on R3 RadioPlayer HDs 320 kbps via JRMC 19, wireless/usb asynch. Excellent webcast, clear, spacious, neutral and 3D. Fine inner orchestral detail well resolved; birdcalls/wind figures clearly distinct in the Brett Dean.)

[rauschwerk]

For me there are several reasons to play or sing from memory. Singing solo, or in an unconducted ensemble, it helps me because I can look up, 'sell' the music to the audience and listen to my colleagues much more carefully. I prefer to memorise piano solos because no page turning is then necessary and, if playing a grand piano, I can fold down the music rest and hear much more of the sound I'm making.

To what extent these factors would apply to orchestral playing I'm not so sure.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

JLW, thank you for the review. Having listened to the 1st movement of the Beethoven, marvelling at the clarity of sound, and looking forward to hearing how the orchestra would sound in the second movement, my thoughts were interrupted by the thoughtless idiots who couldn't tolerate the idea of a few moments of silence, and thought their physical noise interruption would somehow assist the performance.

In the end, the second movement sounded more like being tipped over a waterfall, rather than a scene by a brook, the feeling being that the slow movement was quicker than the first one. Even the OCD metronome fanatics couldn't lay claim to moral superiority here, as the dotted mink = 50 was exceeded throughout (apart from in some unHIPP rits) being played at dotted minim = 57. Similarly the 3rd movement's hectic pace exceeded metronome markings throughout. Yet the 4th movement is marked in my score as minim = 80. It was played at half that speed and sounded fine. The finale alone was was close to the score markings. HIPP is OK if it's too fast, but not if it's too slow?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

the dotted mink = 50 was exceeded throughout (apart from in some unHIPP rits) being played at dotted minim = 57. Similarly the 3rd movement's hectic pace exceeded metronome markings throughout. Yet the 4th movement is marked in my score as minim = 80. It was played at half that speed and sounded fine. The finale alone was was close to the score markings. HIPP is OK if it's too fast, but not if it's too slow?

Careful, Alpie - you're beginning to sound like an OCD metronome fanatic! (Welcome - the water's lovely!) Not sure why you single out the Orchestre de Concord et Discord, though.)


And - as I'm sure you know - the Dotted Mink is an endangered species.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Careful, Alpie - you're beginning to sound like an OCD metronome fanatic!