Prom 53: Bartók – The Miraculous Mandarin; Shostakovich – Orango (24.08.15)

[Ferretfancy]

interesting and entertaining Proms Extra interval feature with Mr McB explaining where one would hear bits of Orango elsewhere
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0670fs7

The whole discussion was interesting at the RCM, although Tom Service drives me nuts with his rapid patter and arm waving while interrupting the speakers. The editing engineer must have his wits about him, with only a short time to edit the forty five minutes down to twenty. It was good to see Gerard McBurney receiving well deserved applause at the end of the concert.

[Sir Velo]

The whole discussion was interesting at the RCM, although Tom Service drives me nuts with his rapid patter and arm waving while interrupting the speakers.

Ah, but aren't you grateful for his expertise in glossing the answers to make it more comprehensible to us lesser mortals?

[mercia]

45 minutes reduced to 20. We're losing quite a lot then aren't we, yet it seems to remain comprehensible.

[Darkbloom]

Ah, but aren't you grateful for his expertise in glossing the answers to make it more comprehensible to us lesser mortals?

Oh no, I didn't know he was still doing that. I wish somebody could have a friendly word because it's truly obnoxious. And he also has a habit of inserting irrelevant detail too; as though he had all this research he'd done and was going to damn well get it in whether anybody liked it or not.

[teamsaint]

Oh no, I didn't know he was still doing that. I wish somebody could have a friendly word because it's truly obnoxious. And he also has a habit of inserting irrelevant detail too; as though he had all this research he'd done and was going to damn well get it in whether anybody liked it or not.

Ah, the other end of what scientists know as the " Rafferty Spectrum".

[jayne lee wilson]

Sadly short of time for detailed comment, but I thought this performance of Mandarin probably the best orchestral performance I've heard this season - brilliantly done from both technical and expressive points of view. I find the piece a little hard to love, if only because it seems to miss its choreography more than other familiar concert-piece-ballets....
Only heard the finale of the Mozart C Minor concerto, but although I usually prefer HIPPS presentations, orchestra and soloist sounded good in that too, "MOR" or not...