Prom 46: Danish National SO (20.08.15)

[Rolmill]

Luisi has a marvellous ear, balancing orchestral textures with x-ray clarity; phrasing was attentive bar-to-bar, tempi perfectly-judged. Encore indeed for the Cockerels!

Yes, I had meant to comment on the orchestral balance, which was superb throughout the concert, allowing us to hear lots of detail and contributing to the clean, light sound you noted. He also seemed to be a very good accompanist in the Brahms, partly for this reason but also he was attentive to the soloist and between them I felt they judged the phrasing, rubatos and tempo changes beautifully.

[hmvman]

I was there and I enjoyed this concert very much. I felt less engaged with the Brahms concerto for some reason - maybe because I was up in the Circle and perhaps missed some of the detail of the performance. The second half came alive for me, though, with the Motets and Hymnus Amoris which I'd not heard before and hugely enjoyed. I thought the performance of the symphony was superb and I was totally engaged with it from start to finish.

Unfortunately members of the audience in front of us seemed less engaged and were clearly bored by halfway through the second part, fidgeting, flicking through the programme and even looking at 'phone screens from time to time. I don't particularly like the applause between movements but it didn't bother me much. The fidgeting in front of me was more bothersome!

What was the encore piece?

[jayne lee wilson]

The encore was the Cockerels' Dance from Maskarade, as alluded to in No.29 above...

The DNSO's recording of it on Da Capo with Dausgaard is lovely, on an award-winning album too... http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Dacapo/6220518

[hmvman]

The encore was the Cockerels' Dance from Maskarade, as alluded to in No.29 above...

The DNSO's recording of it on Da Capo with Dausgaard is lovely, on an award-winning album too... http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Dacapo/6220518

Thanks, Jayne.

[Barbirollians]

Missed the Symphony as had arrived at my destination after a very long car journey - thought that the performances of the overture and the Brahms Concerto were outstanding .

[richardfinegold]

There's ol' Ole Schmidt for starters. Blomstedt's earlier Danish RSO cycle; Thomas Jensen and Erik Tuxen. I favour the later Blomstedt cycle, but am prepared to accept that others have unlocked No 3 better than he.

There is a great Martinon/CSO 4th, reissued on an amazing sounding CD by RCA, now probably available in the Martinon/CSO box set. I purchased the lp recently when I found it in a used vinyl store. It had a side break in the middle of III--terrible. Chalk up another victory for CD vs. lps

[bluestateprommer]

Shame not to see more comments on the concert here, but I agree with BO's views on the performance of the symphony - first time I've seen it in concert and was enthralled from start to finish. It augurs very well for Luisi's new role as principal conductor of the DNSO, who seemed really responsive to him.

Actually, I enjoyed the whole (quite long) concert. Znaider produced lots of lovely sounds, as well as bold attack where needed, in the Brahms VC, though I felt he was somewhat taxed by the Heifetz cadenza in the 1st movt. Hymnus Amoris was fun (hard to believe it was the first Proms performance), but the Three Motets were lovely - interesting to see Luisi conduct this rather than the choir's own conductor.

I've always stayed out of the applause discussions on this forum, but BO's comments above on the applause between the symphony's movements (with which I agree) illustrated IMV both sides of the argument. The end of the first movement positively invited applause, which it received as a clearly spontaneous reaction - and I joined in. But the applause after the 2nd and 3rd movements was desultory and sounded/looked as if it only arose because the 1st movt applause had generated an expectation in some people - and it was (to me) unwelcome. I was side on to him, but I thought I saw Luisi raise his eyebrows at the smattering of applause after the 3rd movt. There isn't a right or wrong answer - permitting/encouraging applause where I view it as appropriate in the musical context inevitably carries the risk that others will extend the practice into places where I don't like it because their opinion as to when it is appropriate differs from mine.

I suspect it's more irritating on the radio than in the hall, though - it certainly didn't spoil an excellent concert for me.

Exceedingly late reply (but then one expects no less from BSP ), but Rolwill really captured the overall impression well. Luisi has generally struck me as a fairly straight-arrow type, but that was all to the good here. It does indeed bode well for his pending tenure with the orchestra come 2017. Some of you may have already seen the YT video (one wonders how much of the set-up was 'staged') that announced to the musicians that FL was to be their next boss, given that cameras were conveniently present to capture the moment.

I did have one comment about NZ's encore of solo JSB, which Ian Skelly had noted that the Proms organizers had requested in advance that if NZ were to an encore, that it not be JSB, but which, as Skelly noted, was rather like a "red rag to a bull". So, of course, NZ decided to "stick it to The Man" and play a JSB solo encore. But here's the thing, and I realize that this will not earn me popularity points on this board. The Proms mandarins were actually right to make this request, and NZ should have honored it. The reason that the Proms folks made the request was, of course, out of respect for Alina Ibragimova and her performances of the complete solo violin JSB works. By disregarding the request, NZ actually acted extremely disrespectfully towards both the BBC Proms management and AI. If the host invites you into their home, you respect their rules. Julia Fischer and Julian Rachlin were decent enough to respect this request in their solo encores this season. I still admire NZ as an artist in general, but I don't admire his dissing of this request, however well delivered his encore.