Prom 68: Bach – Six Cello Suites (5.09.15)

[EdgeleyRob]

Well even ignoring Tom sodding Service,a few people just dying to get the first round of applause in,caught out,also spoiling. !

[pastoralguy]

Well even ignoring Tom sodding Service,a few people just dying to get the first round of applause in,caught out,also spoiling. !

It was much more civilised when he performed then at the Edinburgh Festival 10 years ago...

[EdgeleyRob]

Wot no encore ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Service's incoherent, gushing bluster and adoration ill-served this concert relay. We could all HEAR the applause, assess the engagement between player and audience. Service does not need to try to outdo it.

It's corporate policy to treat Radio 3 listeners like idiots.

[EdgeleyRob]

Remarkable.
BRAVO indeed.

[pastoralguy]

Remarkable.
BRAVO indeed.

[Keraulophone]

Wot no encore ?

He praised the prommers' stamina (!), then thanked Pablo Casals for re-introducing these works to the world, and played Song of the Birds in his honour.

A very memorable, if slightly taxing, evening/night (beginning with that excellent talk at 3.45 and ending at 11.50).

[DracoM]

Yes, a marathon.

I slightly felt that YYM ran out of gas in Suite No 6, and resorted to florid but otiose gestures to ramp up the applause. Hope that does not sound too cynical. Deffo worth listening to, and provided a useful comparison with various studio sessions of the same works.

And I would like to echo other posters distaste for the appallingly gratuitous nonsense from Tom Service. Certainly he doesn't believe less is more. Real insult to Bach, because he made the entire concert to be all about Yo-Yo Ma.

[Frances_iom]

And I would like to echo other posters distaste for the appallingly gratuitous nonsense from Tom Service.

May I also join in the complaint - missed the opening bars of a couple by misjudging the time to unmute that pontificating nuisance - a real service would be to join him with KD preferably on a another radio station in a far away place.

[DracoM]

A marriage made in hell - for R3 listeners!

[Richard Tarleton]

May I also join in the complaint - missed the opening bars of a couple by misjudging the time to unmute that pontificating nuisance - a real service would be to join him with KD preferably on a another radio station in a far away place.

Frances - you can catch them again on TV next Thursday, with the altogether more thoughtful, restrained and grown-up Kirsty Wark presenting. Better still, record it next Thursday and watch later, fast forwarding through the talk bits. That's what I've done thus far with Alina I's and Andras Schiff's Bach. My satellite box is plumbed into my hi-fi so no loss of sound quality.

I watched the Haitink/CEO last night, speeding through the ridiculous Klein/Iqbal double act at x12 (and KD's trailer for her prog just before that).

[ardcarp]

Listening to all six cello suites back to back is an experience I enjoy. I heard Isserlis do it in a cathedral setting a few years ago, and as I was behind a pillar couldn't see him at all; so it became a sort of meditation. Last night's performance had the same effect (I filtered out the annoyance). And I have to say Yo-Yo's more expressive and blood-and-guts approach to the more energetic movements seemed entirely appropriate to the space of the RAH. I suspect Keraulophone wouldn't have needed his ear-trumpet.

[DracoM]

Yes, ardcarp is right: the RAH is not a studio, and the style YYM required to fill the space is far more theatrical than needed in a studio. And that is what we got.

[Darkbloom]

Yes, a marathon.

I slightly felt that YYM ran out of gas in Suite No 6, and resorted to florid but otiose gestures to ramp up the applause. Hope that does not sound too cynical. Deffo worth listening to, and provided a useful comparison with various studio sessions of the same works.

And I would like to echo other posters distaste for the appallingly gratuitous nonsense from Tom Service. Certainly he doesn't believe less is more. Real insult to Bach, because he made the entire concert to be all about Yo-Yo Ma.

I agree with this. I also felt that things went a little downhill before then, as though he was (understandably) tiring. The final movement of the 6th sounded pretty rough to me. The audience seemed to become a little more restless after about an hour and a half. If they are going to programme them in a lump then surely they can insert an interval in there to help us all gather our energies. Bach is hard enough for performers and audience without this sort of macho approach. Still, these are minor criticisms of what was an extraordinary evening. I particularly liked the very physical way he approached the faster movements. You could say it was crowd-pleasing in a sense, I suppose, but it felt it worked. I just wish people weren't so obsessed with being the first to say 'bravo' all the time. Why do they do it? Is it really that important for them to be noticed?

[Keraulophone]

You're right, ardcarp, the ear-trumpet remained in my pocket. After the first few notes, the ears became attuned to the scale of the sound, which seemed remarkable given the vast space YYM was projecting into. Everything was clear down to the wisps of pianissimo. It must have helped that I was sitting in the stalls directly opposite him and at roughly the same height. I doubt whether it sounded as well from the (packed) choir seats or the gallery.

Noting some of the previous comments, it seems that one of the great bonuses of actually being there was to avoid having to listen to TS between each suite, although we did have to witness his introductory stage-strutting. Nos. 3 & 4 were the stand-outs for me, though I would have preferred a 5-stringed instrument for No.6; he did sound very 'busy' on 4 strings.

However, it was certainly a special occasion, and will live much longer in the memory than the slightly half-hearted JWO/Bernstein which preceded it.