Proms Chamber Music 2: 25.07.16 - Guy Johnston and friends

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00 Monday 25 Jul 2016
Cadogan Hall

Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor (arr. A. L. Christopherson)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Motet 'O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht', BWV 118
(arr. Robin Michael)
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variationa – Nimrod (arr. David Johnstone)
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No 5
Julius Klengel: Hymnus for 12 cellos

Golda Schultz, soprano
Guy Johnston, Emma Denton, Benjamin Hughes, Su-a Lee, Sarah McMahon, Robin Michael, Brian O'Kane, Justin Pearson, Pedro Silva, Victoria Simonsen, Gabriella Swallow, Adi Tal, cellos

As part of this season's celebration of the cello, Guy Johnston gathers eleven of his cello-playing friends for this celebration of the instrument in all its expressive guises. From Bach to Brahms via elegiac sounds from England and stomping rhythms from Brazil, Johnston and his friends demonstrate not only the cello's intense beauty but also its versatility.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What a great little concert this should be, especially for cellists.

[Serial_Apologist]

What a great little concert this should be, especially for cellists.

I wouldn't go to an entirely cello ensemble-based gig, unless the works had been originally scored thus, eg the Villa- Lobos.

[edashtav]

I wouldn't go to an entirely cello ensemble-based gig, unless the works had been originally scored thus, eg the Villa- Lobos.

Seconded!

[bluestateprommer]

What a great little concert this should be, especially for cellists.

Well, this 'little' concert proved to be quite a bit more than the works originally posted, with 3 additional works, plus an encore. Here's the complete main program (w/o the encore; the whole thing is on the updated entry in the Forum calendar for archival purposes):

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in g (arr. A. L. Christopherson)
J.S. Bach: Motet 'O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht', BWV 118 (arr. Robin Michael)
Schubert: Schwanengesang, three selections, including 'Liebesbotchaft' and 'Standchen' (arr. Richard Burchell)
Elgar: Enigma Variations – 'Nimrod' (arr. David Johnstone)
Wilhelm Kaiser-Lindemann: Die 12 in Bossa-nova (Variações brasileiras)
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No 5
Piazzolla: Libertango (arr. Edward Russell)
Julius Klengel: Hymnus for 12 cellos

In fact, the whole concert ran 11 minutes over the scheduled 1-hour slot, so for the Cadogan Hall audience (not to mention radio listeners), it was definitely value for money.

Maybe the 'weakest' arrangement was the first one, the Brahms. It felt like rather heavy weather at times, and at least one very familiar passage was simplified for the cellos (you'll know it when you hear it, or don't hear what you're expecting). But the ensemble dug into it, to be sure. From there, things settled down into what proved to be a pretty smart blend of more 'serious' (JSB, Elgar, Villa-Lobos) with 'lighter' fare (Kaiser-Lindemann, Piazzolla). Perhaps the interpretation of 'Nimrod' was a bit much in the "hymn of national mourning" mode (....), but that played up the contrast with the Kaiser-Lindemann work very well.

While I can understand, in principle, objections to an "orchestra of cellos" concert where most of the works are arrangements rather than originals (the Villa-Lobos and the Klengel in the latter, and the last of these written as a tribute to Artur Nikisch, which I didn't know before), there is certainly precedent for such concerts, from the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. In fact, said 12 Cellists performed at Prom 57 in the 2000 season. The Kinder-Lindemann work is straight out of the Berlin Phil cellists' playbook, so GJ had a ready-made template for putting this program together. GJ was an enjoyable speaker in his banter with Petroc, who made the further connection to Berlin with his quip about the "12 Cellists of the BBC Proms". On the whole, good clean fun.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lfvv7