Prom 38: Messiaen – Turangalîla Symphony 13.08.15

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  • Bryn
    Banned
    • Mar 2007
    • 24688

    #31
    Originally posted by Darkbloom View Post
    It doesn't sound like an sell-out then! That's a shame, some things can sound a bit dry if there aren't enough people in the hall. I suppose the rain put them off.

    At least you won't get bullied by the stewards into standing up half an hour before the music starts, as happens so often to me.
    Rain? What rain? Bone dry while I queued.

    Three restarts for the Pre-Prom event due to unserviceable introductions.

    I will, of course, most likely lose my prime seat during the interval.
    Last edited by Bryn; 13-08-15, 18:21.

    Comment

    • DracoM
      Host
      • Mar 2007
      • 12986

      #32
      Superb! What a wonderfully subtle and joyful performance!!

      Comment

      • Eine Alpensinfonie
        Host
        • Nov 2010
        • 20572

        #33
        My son and I were listening to it. Unfortunately it was distressing Frau A, so I had to turn it off.

        But I recorded it.

        Comment

        • Simon B
          Full Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 782

          #34
          Magic @ RAH. Complete joy from start to finish. Haven't been so involved in a Prom this season. Nights like this are what makes all the hassle and expense and disappointments still worth it.

          Comment

          • Eine Alpensinfonie
            Host
            • Nov 2010
            • 20572

            #35
            Originally posted by Simon B View Post
            Magic @ RAH. Complete joy from start to finish. Haven't been so involved in a Prom this season. Nights like this are what makes all the hassle and expense and disappointments still worth it.

            Comment

            • teamsaint
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 25225

              #36
              Look forward to hearing more comments from those in the hall.
              It certainly came over really well on the radio, excellent sound, couldn't hear much in the way of balance issues.
              Thoroughly enjoyable, although, FWIW, I thought it was a quite " in your face" performance,rather than the last word in
              Subtlelty.

              Terrific stuff.
              I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

              I am not a number, I am a free man.

              Comment

              • Bryn
                Banned
                • Mar 2007
                • 24688

                #37
                It was alright if you like that sort of thing, which I do, very much so. Met up with Caliban and Beef Oven in the interval and moved from my seat at the back to near the front with Beef Oven for the Messiaen. Highly enjoyable.

                Comment

                • edashtav
                  Full Member
                  • Jul 2012
                  • 3671

                  #38
                  Originally posted by DracoM View Post
                  Superb! What a wonderfully subtle and joyful performance!!
                  I'm about a third in agreement, DracoM.

                  To start with the Foulds, a composer whose work fascinates me, I wasn't completely convinced that the 3 Mantras had received sufficient rehearsal. Much was good, but that final bit of "spit & polish" was missing so that chording sounded splashy rather than unanimous, in places. Nevertheless, a cleverly chosen foil for the Messaien and I would have loved to have been in the RAH, had I been fit enough.

                  With the Turangalila, I agree it was joyous and extremely confident. However, I reject utterly your assessment that it was a subtle performance , siding with Teamsaint who judged it,"Thoroughly enjoyable, although, FWIW, I thought it was a quite " in your face" performance,rather than the last word in subtlety." It did hector, there was plenty of grand-standing and if Our Mutual Friend, Pierre, had heard it, he might have stomped off muttering about it being "the music of the Bordello". The problem for me with such an gaudy performance is that it reduces the structure of the piece. To adapt the words of Florent Schmitt, it's "une symphonie sans esprit de symphonie; c'est, peut-être, une symphonie à l'esprit d'une suite". But... for a Prom performance it gave us all the fun of the Karma Sutra, and you'd need to be a monk, or Boulez to reject such a proposition. It was huge fun and as full of brio as an Offenbach " Can-Can" on speed. Maybe, not a Messiaen performance for the aesthete, but, heigh-ho, what's not to like about Messaien for the masses?

                  I enjoyed and was informed by the interval talk.

                  Comment

                  • Nick Armstrong
                    Host
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 26572

                    #39
                    Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
                    Look forward to hearing more comments from those in the hall.

                    Terrific stuff.
                    Agreed! Report to follow tomorrow...
                    "...the isle is full of noises,
                    Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                    Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                    Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

                    Comment

                    • Beef Oven!
                      Ex-member
                      • Sep 2013
                      • 18147

                      #40

                      Comment

                      • kernelbogey
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 5803

                        #41
                        This was one of the most exciting concerts I've attended in a long time. Knocked out by Turangalila. Maybe I'm not into subtlety at the moment, Edashtav!

                        More thoughts tomorrow.

                        Comment

                        • Beef Oven!
                          Ex-member
                          • Sep 2013
                          • 18147

                          #42
                          Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
                          Look forward to hearing more comments from those in the hall.
                          It certainly came over really well on the radio, excellent sound, couldn't hear much in the way of balance issues.
                          Thoroughly enjoyable, although, FWIW, I thought it was a quite " in your face" performance,rather than the last word in
                          Subtlelty.

                          Terrific stuff.
                          I think I understand why you say "in your face". Some of the more percussive sections were enthusiastically dispatched and, as expected, the performance had an undeniable, insuppressible 'joie de vivre'. However, the pianissimos were utterly astounding and I've never heard that level of subtle detail at the previous performances that I have attended, nor from any recording. And believe me, my and Bryn's faces were very close to it all (Caliban was on a sofa, I believe, to our right)!

                          To be fair, I think that one would have to have been there to fully appreciate what I mean. It was essentially a very subtle performance. Somehow there was a divine blend of ebullient music, exuberant musicianship and the diaphanous quality of the programmatic dimension of the work. In fact, I think it was perfect!

                          Comment

                          • edashtav
                            Full Member
                            • Jul 2012
                            • 3671

                            #43
                            One of the first reviews in the press comes from Bernard Hughes. It's enthusiastic, thoughtful and nuanced:

                            Pairing Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony with John Foulds’ Three Mantras was a smart piece of programming: established modern classic and obscure novelty sharing an inspiration from Indian music and philosophy, and both perfectly designed for showing off a very fine orchestra to its best advantage.


                            Bernard Hughes ends:

                            “It takes a creative master to write a piece so diffuse and yet unified, so richly romantic and yet at times so mechanical, but above all so deeply weird. Mena and the BBC Philharmonic rejoiced in the music’s affirmation but also celebrated its weirdness; The Turangalîla Symphony shouldn’t really work, but it can, and, here, it did.”

                            Comment

                            • cloughie
                              Full Member
                              • Dec 2011
                              • 22182

                              #44
                              Enjoyed the Foulds - particularly the bit with the chorus.

                              Comment

                              • Simon Biazeck

                                #45
                                Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
                                To be fair, I think that one would have to have been there to fully appreciate what I mean. It was essentially a very subtle performance. Somehow there was a divine blend of ebullient music, exuberant musicianship and the diaphanous quality of the programmatic dimension of the work. In fact, I think it was perfect!
                                I absolutely agree, and the review.

                                From 2nd tier box 32 it was quite something. I thought the Foulds Mantra I was terrific and they were perfect beside the mighty Turangalîla.

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