Prom 9: 22.07.16 - Le Cercle de l’Harmonie

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Friday 22 Jul 2016
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No 39 in E flat major
Felix Mendelssohn: Aria 'Infelice!'
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Aria 'Ah, lo previdi'
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4 in A major, 'Italian'

Rosa Feola, soprano
Le Cercle de l'Harmonie
conductor Jérémie Rhorer

Jérémie Rhorer's energetic period-instrument ensemble makes its Proms debut along with fast-rising soprano Rosa Feola. The orchestra opens with Mozart's vigorous Symphony No. 39, the first of the composer's final trilogy.
Just like Mozart, Mendelssohn had an uncanny way of balancing head and heart in complex musical arguments, as heard in the thrusting brilliance of his Fourth Symphony, the 'Italian', tinged with poetry and romance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07jmvkl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lfvv9

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Quite a short concert, but sometimes the best things come in small packages.

[bluestateprommer]

Verity Sharp featured some Beethoven on disc from Le Cercle de l'Harmonie and Jérémie Rhorer earlier today, LvB's Symphony No. 1 (a live recording, with applause included afterwards) and 'Ah, perfido!' (no applause; maybe a studio recording). In the Symphony, the interpretation was pretty straight and no-nonsense (complete with vocal exhortations from presumably JR himself), with vibrato definitely trimmed in the HIPP manner, and tempi crisp, though not unduly fast. Hopefully their live Prom will continue the mini-winning streak of French period instrument ensembles from recent years, like Ensemble Matheus and Les Siecles. Per EA's comment, if they take all the repeats in both the Mozart and the Mendelssohn, that may add to the running time :) . Their Beethoven featured the 1st movement repeat.

(It would be nice to see a full hall for them. One wonders if the Arena will see its share of French flags.)

[bluestateprommer]

Nice touch at the very start of the broadcast, with Martin Handley chatting with Jérémie Rhorer with JR giving the Prommers' queue a look-see, apparently. JR did take the 1st and 3rd movements of Mozart 39 at a pretty brisk clip, but stayed on the correct side of relentlessness, IMHO. He relaxed just enough in the slow movement and paced it well. Cute clarinet filigree touches in the minuet. No 2nd half repeat in the finale (also very well paced), so I obviously guessed wrong about JR taking all the repeats in the work.

[Bryn]

Quite a short concert, but sometimes the best things come in small packages.

Hopefully they are planning to offer a well chosen encore or two.

[bluestateprommer]

Very exhilarating performance of Felix M.'s 'Infelice!', its first Proms performance in 80 years (!), but Rosa Feola, JR and LEclH brilliantly dusted the cobwebs off this score. Excellent work from RF, and it'll be interesting to hear her in the Mozart aria in the 2nd half.

Likewise, splendid singing from RF in the Mozart concert aria as well. Both the Mendelssohn and Mozart concert arias are actually very meaty pieces, so the running time overall might not be as short for this concert as at first appearance. The audience seems to appreciate her very much as well, and rightly so.

[bluestateprommer]

Slightly shaky start to the Mendelssohn, but after the exposition repeat, things settled down. Generally well-paced in the first 3 movements, nothing too outlandish in terms of pace to my ears, but then he kicked it up a notch in the finale. I thought he said something to Martin Handley earlier about preferring the original version of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. The "happy clappers" showed up after the 1st movement, but given the feel of the movement, easily forgiven and understood. (People behaved after movements 2 and 3.) The Mozart Nozze di Figaro overture encore is running as I type, very spruce and lively indeed. I wonder how many of the audience knew about the ensemble as such before tonight, since I'm not sure that they're a household name as classical ensembles go. But after tonight, I think that they've won a lot of new friends. The RAH site indicated a sellout, or nearly so.

[Anastasius]

I listened to the Mozart and was utterly spellbound. Definitely a 'Listen Again'. I look forward very much to listening to the rest of the programme. Perhaps we should start a thread 'Proms 2016 you wish you'd been at'. This one would be on my list.

[VodkaDilc]

The Mozart Nozze di Figaro overture encore is running as I type,

Nothing personal, bluestateprommer, just one of my pet hobby horses, but does this suggest that the Mozart did not hold your concentration?

VodkaDilc - aged 60+ , proudly not a multi-tasker.

[gurnemanz]

We picked this concert to meet some friends from Germany who had a part season ticket. We arrived at about 6.30 to queue for the Arena. Very short queue but the house was virtually full. Most enjoyable concert with bracingly sprightly tempo in Mozart finale and Mendelssohn saltarello. I really took to Rosa Feola, beautifully pure-toned and expressive, especially in Mendelssohn's unfamiliar Infelice. We bumped into several orchestra members in the Queen's Arms afterwards, including the lady
clarinetist who played a lovely solo with a just a hint of ornamentation in the trio of the Mozart.

[edashtav]

I'm catching up with this excellent ensemble on iPlayer. The sonic stage that the BBC created for Mozart's 39th was clear, crisp and beguiling. All thoughts of being in the Gods in the RAH were banished, I felt there in the band. Tempi were brisk but notes were clear so nothing seemed rushed. I'm not a Fan of Mozart and this Eb piece is my least favourite in the great triumvirate but I was pulled into the music and enjoyed the performance as never before. Another impressive performance in what is developing into a vintage season at the Proms.

[bluestateprommer]

Correction to my earlier mishearing about JR and original versions of Mendelssohn works; JR was speaking generally with respect to Felix and his first compositional ideas, but the set up was indeed with reference to the concert aria 'Infelice!'.

Nothing personal, bluestateprommer, just one of my pet hobby horses, but does this suggest that the Mozart did not hold your concentration?

While I do understand why you'd ask this question and might look askance about my comment about "typing while listening" to concert hall music, as a 1990's movie title goes, in my case, "reality bites". That is to say: I'm constrained by where I'm located with respect to the Proms' concert times, because during the work week, they occur precisely then, while I'm at work. So if I want to listen to a given weekday Prom on iPlayer live, which I very often do, then I have to listen on my computer with earbuds on, at work. I don't have the luxury of dropping everything during a given Proms broadcast in real time to do nothing else but listen. In the specific case of the Mozart encore, it did hold my concentration. It's that I fortunately have some modest multi-tasking ability and can use one part of my brain for the music, and another for work, which involves a lot of typing in any case. (Or in the earlier case, typing not related to work. Don't tell my boss .)

Another impressive performance in what is developing into a vintage season at the Proms.

[jayne lee wilson]

Hans Keller, writing of his childhood and teens in Vienna, commented that he didn't always succeed in escaping Karl Bohm's concerts and was thus "forced to hear performances of classical masterpieces without a trace of interpretation."

I'm afraid I had a similar reaction to the Cercle de l'Harmonie's symphonic performances in Prom 9. Vibrato-less HIPPs playing seems to carry poorly in the RAH, and the wind/string timbres remained tonally lustreless almost throughout. Rhorer led a plain-spoken swift delivery of the notes, just the notes.... with little sense of inner-part dialoguing or animation. The clarity and dimensionality of the HDs webcast served only to make this, and a number of fluffs or intonation problems, all too obvious.

Yes, there were a few incidental pleasures: the startlingly thumpy thwacks on the timpani in the Mozart, for example. These overwhelmed the orchestra with a dynamic excitement and variety sadly never achieved in the orchestral levels above (forcing even my cat to take notice, peering towards the speakers). Tellingly, the violins did achieve a sweetness and purity in the adagio of No.39, a tonal refinement lacking in their more uptempo delivery; but even the slower tempo remained very metrical, phrasing stiff, and my interest only revived during the "wind-serenade" episodes here and in the trio where finally - for this relief much thanks - the solo clarinettist offered some lovely ornaments. Individuality and expressiveness at last! Then back came the ear-bullying timps for the finale, which otherwise sped by like a Hi-Speed train, offering little chance of admiring the scenery.

As a huge enthusiast of HIPPS interpretations, I felt this was something of a throwback to the 1990s period-band Proms performances from Pinnock and Gardiner etc., which often had only energy and clarity to commend them. Both have developed much warmer approaches to classical performance since (Harnoncourt always did), not to mention Dantone, Antonini, Alessandrini, Thomas Fey, etc. Rhorer's team probably sound very different in smaller halls, review consistently well and have made some original repertoire choices for their recordings; and, judging by the audience-reaction, they seemed to find an excitable rapport in the RAH (at least in those screaming wildly close to the platform). But in interpretive terms, and as a relayed musical event, I found it hard to sustain much interest.

[edashtav]

I may disagree with your review, Jayne, but your " thumpy thwacks" description for the Entry of the Timps in
Mozart's Eb symphony gets my vote for the most graphic and accurate description of this Season.

Boris should add it to his thesaurus of international insults. e.g. "President Erdogan has handed out excessive thumpy thwacks to followers of the recent coup."

[jayne lee wilson]

Agreeing to differ with you, Ed, is one of the particular pleasures of any given Proms season.

But any association of a comment of mine with.... Boris The Deceiver, is almost unforgivable.
Note I did say almost. .
Any phrase starting with two "ths" is, indeed, rather too....Johnsonian for comfort.

A coupla other views. (in-hall, I think)...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/24/le-cercle-de-l-harmonie-proms-2016-review-jeremie-rhorer-rosa-feola

http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/prom-9-feola-le-cercle-de-lharmonie-rhorer

...one notes Nice's headmasterish comments about Rhorer's bangs.... but surely a fringe can communicate your, or its, intentions to the band too?
I wonder how shades - sunglasses - would affect the timbral & phrasal tone-production.


***
Any-way. Onward to the Proms Premieres in the coming week.....
Not to mention Norrington's Classics....