Prom 61: San Francisco SO/Michael Tilson Thomas (31.08.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

All existing music critics should retire, and JLW should take over.

[Maclintick]

All existing music critics should retire, and JLW should take over.

Beautifully put, JLW. As you say, the start of the Bartok 1st movement was extremely rocky. Yuja had an unfortunate lapse & came in a bar early (23, instead of 24), which threw the next brass entry. MTT & the SFS recovered well to get back on track, but the soloist was understandably flustered for the remainder of the movement, & from my seat in 'O' stalls she looked decidedly cross when leaving the stage -- hence no encore, I would guess.

[edashtav]

Beethoven's Eroica Symphony

What restraint as the work was launched! The interpretation may have strayed far from the Elysian Fields of San Francisco’s Hippies but it had pace, direction, purpose, soul and shape. I thoroughly enjoyed the first movement – as most other Boarders have done. I would want it as my sole CD nor would I return to it often were it to be recorded but it added to my knowledge and that’s what I require from a live performance. Many of the wind solos were delightful.

The slow movement followed the same careful lines of ensuring that lines were as lyrical as possible and that nothing was forced or over-emphatic. Once again some of the limpid lines developed by the woodwind were beautiful. I loved MTT’s scrupulous regard for balance – his textures were pellucid and informing. I delighted in the lack of cloying sentimentality. I think I’ll apply the adjective “aristocratic” to MTT’s interpretation.

The scherzo was well phrased with plenty of rhythmic bounce. The horns in the trio were wonderfully rustic – full of peasant pesantes. Perhaps, the whole movement foreshadowed Mendelssohn more than Bruckner but that didn’t worry me.

Onto the grand finale. A good crisp start but later the progress was marred by some disruptive ritardandi and a general loss of impulsion. Several other boarders have noted that the finale was bathetic. Certainly, it disappointed me after what had gone before.

Nevertheless, a performance with much to admire and to enjoy with nothing that was tired or routine. Old-fashioned? Possibly, so, but thought through, elegant and extremely well played. The ending put the “Heroic” into Eroica.

How nice to have Brahms' 10th Hungarian Dance as the encore - and well done MTT for ensuring that it tasted as Hungarian as Goulash.

[Darkbloom]

I think I’ll apply the adjective “aristocratic” to MTT’s interpretation.

I was applying a few other adjectives while I was listening to it. If that's aristocratic then count me a Jacobin. I felt the whole performance needed to be prescribed a course of iron pills, I have never heard a performance so lacking in vigour. Admittedly, it's a work that most conductors struggle to bring off these days, and I have only heard Chailly in recent years really engage with it and give us something vital and impressive. The funeral march came and went with no sense of drama or pathos, and it summed up an interpretation that was almost entirely about smoothness and facile beauty.

[jayne lee wilson]

I was applying a few other adjectives while I was listening to it. If that's aristocratic then count me a Jacobin. I felt the whole performance needed to be prescribed a course of iron pills, I have never heard a performance so lacking in vigour. Admittedly, it's a work that most conductors struggle to bring off these days, and I have only heard Chailly in recent years really engage with it and give us something vital and impressive. The funeral march came and went with no sense of drama or pathos, and it summed up an interpretation that was almost entirely about smoothness and facile beauty.

How far back do your "recent years" go? Krivine, Immerseel, Rattle (in Frankfurt of course! ), Harnoncourt, Bruggen? Most of these take no Napoleonic prisoners in their battles or lamentations.

[gedsmk]

I was applying a few other adjectives while I was listening to it. If that's aristocratic then count me a Jacobin. I felt the whole performance needed to be prescribed a course of iron pills, I have never heard a performance so lacking in vigour. Admittedly, it's a work that most conductors struggle to bring off these days, and I have only heard Chailly in recent years really engage with it and give us something vital and impressive. The funeral march came and went with no sense of drama or pathos, and it summed up an interpretation that was almost entirely about smoothness and facile beauty.

I have a vivid memory of Jansons with the BRSO when the double basses pinned us to the back wall, such was their vim. The energy and constant drive forward in the last movement - astonishing.

[edashtav]

A generally favourable review by George Hall in the Guardian may be found at :

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/01/san-francisco-symphony-tilson-thomas-prom-61-review-yuja-wang-bartok

Here's part of what he wrote about the Batrok:

Wang’s precision and sheer physical strength quelling the demands of the extrovert writing with confidence and ebullient rhythmic drive; very few of her multiple fistfuls of complex chords went wide of the mark, while both she and Tilson Thomas managed perfectly to conjure up the sultry nocturnal menace of the slow movement’s outer sections, as well as the helter-skelter vivacity of its central scherzo.

The Eroica did little for Mr Hall. He ends his comments with:

"the Eroica that followed after the interval was not on the same level, lacking weight and depth of emotion, for all its abundant facility and elegance."

Overall, I felt George was excellent about the Ives, slightly too positive over Wang & her Bartok and too cool towards MTT's Eroica

[Darkbloom]

How far back do your "recent years" go? Krivine, Immerseel, Rattle (in Frankfurt of course! ), Harnoncourt, Bruggen? Most of these take no Napoleonic prisoners in their battles or lamentations.

I think, madam, that verges on the personal!

You're quite right to call me out on that. It's just that most Eroicas I have heard for some time usually sound rather auto-pilot-ish, often Period-inflected without the penetration that you get from the best of the HIPP crowd. It's as though they don't quite know what to do with the music and fall into a bit of a pallid compromise. I thought MTT's funeral march sounded more like a suburban cremation for an elderly aunt than obsequies for a hero. Elder last year fell into that category for me. Chailly (quite against my expectations) moved me in a way that I hadn't felt since I first got to know the work (too many years ago than I care to count now!), although I am not familiar with the other versions you cite. I think I have a copy of the Immerseel around somewhere that I didn't get round to listening to. Krivine is not a name I am all that familiar with, although he gets a lot of love on here, so I must have a listen. Apart from Chailly, the only one I heard who did something interesting with old Ludo was Nelsons early in the season. Although whether all the stuff he did with with the music will harden into mere mannnerism in another decade remains to be seen.

I think I need to take a bit of a Rattle break for a while. I listened to his Schubert 9 the other day. 'Nuff said!