With the Beethoven PC # 4, this unfortunately turned out to be a case of this performance being more about Levin than about Beethoven, even with the HIPP-ish justifications of piano "filler" chords with the orchestra not during the solo passages, and Levin's own improvised cadenzas. At several points, Levin's brain ran rather farther ahead of his fingers, which in the abstract would admittedly fall in the category of "admirable risk". Still, I suppose that I can admire a willingness to risk falling flat on one's face in a very public setting. But it's hard not to recall Leif Ove Andsnes' traversal of the Beethoven piano concerti last year, where LOA's interpretations, if on the cool side, were all about Beethoven and not himself, while Levin was very much the other way around. His Schumann encore was rather better, and went quite well, in fairness.
I agree with ARBurton regarding the Brahms. It was good to hear Norrington's idea of JSB's St. Matthew Passion as the underlying inspiration behind the opening bars of Brahms 1, even if the result at the very start was rather alienatingly brutal (OK, the Passion story is brutal at its heart, but I digress). But things settled down after that, complete with exposition repeat. There seemed to be a flexibility of phrasing that unfortunately did not extend to the sonority, where the only spot of readily audible vibrato that RN "allowed" was Natalie Chee's solo at the end of the 2nd movement. Even RN must have realized that the only way for a solo violin to stand out in the RAH, or anywhere else, was for NC to use vibrato there. But on balance, RN's Brahms 1 in this performance was refreshing and quite good.
Likewise, the Brahms encore went very well, and NC's speech before the Elgar was indeed very dignified and touching. Even with the reduced vibrato in the Elgar encore of 'Nimrod', I felt the emotion through computer earbuds. Rather interesting to think that the very last music this German orchestra performed to a live audience was English, and especially given recent events.
Otherwise, on the random observation side:
* I'm still well put off by RN's dogmatic misassertions, including the unforgivable Mahler 9 fact gaffe from several years back. Ironic that he said (parroted by Martin Handley) in the Guardian here that "I'm against music being handed down from on high", when putting a straitjacket on vibrato from the musicians is precisely "handing music down from on high", by repressing any natural wish to use vibrato in the strings. (However, I do give RN credit for his offhand comment to Martin Handley at the start about the SWR Baden-Baden & Freiburg musicians being angry at the merger. That, I certainly believe.)
(FYI, the Public Radio program SymphonyCast has chosen this Prom for the 4th in its selected Proms for summer broadcast to us poor Yanks, no surprise since it's a standard meat-and-potatoes program. However, the occasion of this being the Stuttgart RSO's final concert ever eminently justifies the choice.)
* In all the discussion about the Philadelphia Orchestra and its particular "sound" derived from the vibrato sound in its string section, starting with Stokowski, everyone is missing one factor, but perhaps understandably. This is the particular hall where the Philadelphia Orchestra played then, the Academy of Music. To put it nicely, the Academy of Music has all the sonic warmth and resonance of melba toast. I've heard several concerts there, so I can speak first hand. To be heard in such a dry hall, the strings had to project. Hence Stokowski's use of free bowing, not to mention vibrato that is the defining characteristic of the "Philadelphia Sound", and which I've never heard in any other American orchestra. The Philadelphia Inquirer critic Peter Dobrin had this past article with his description of the phenomenon:
Originally posted by ARBurton
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Likewise, the Brahms encore went very well, and NC's speech before the Elgar was indeed very dignified and touching. Even with the reduced vibrato in the Elgar encore of 'Nimrod', I felt the emotion through computer earbuds. Rather interesting to think that the very last music this German orchestra performed to a live audience was English, and especially given recent events.
Otherwise, on the random observation side:
* I'm still well put off by RN's dogmatic misassertions, including the unforgivable Mahler 9 fact gaffe from several years back. Ironic that he said (parroted by Martin Handley) in the Guardian here that "I'm against music being handed down from on high", when putting a straitjacket on vibrato from the musicians is precisely "handing music down from on high", by repressing any natural wish to use vibrato in the strings. (However, I do give RN credit for his offhand comment to Martin Handley at the start about the SWR Baden-Baden & Freiburg musicians being angry at the merger. That, I certainly believe.)
(FYI, the Public Radio program SymphonyCast has chosen this Prom for the 4th in its selected Proms for summer broadcast to us poor Yanks, no surprise since it's a standard meat-and-potatoes program. However, the occasion of this being the Stuttgart RSO's final concert ever eminently justifies the choice.)
* In all the discussion about the Philadelphia Orchestra and its particular "sound" derived from the vibrato sound in its string section, starting with Stokowski, everyone is missing one factor, but perhaps understandably. This is the particular hall where the Philadelphia Orchestra played then, the Academy of Music. To put it nicely, the Academy of Music has all the sonic warmth and resonance of melba toast. I've heard several concerts there, so I can speak first hand. To be heard in such a dry hall, the strings had to project. Hence Stokowski's use of free bowing, not to mention vibrato that is the defining characteristic of the "Philadelphia Sound", and which I've never heard in any other American orchestra. The Philadelphia Inquirer critic Peter Dobrin had this past article with his description of the phenomenon:
".....the Academy of Music, with a theater proscenium that kept the sound on stage, was not designed for an orchestra, as experts could plainly hear.
Acoustician Leo L. Beranek collected these impressions for his book Music, Acoustics & Architecture, whose foreword was penned by longtime Philadelphia conductor Eugene Ormandy.
Fritz Reiner said: "The Academy has very good acoustics although somewhat dry. It is like an Italian opera house."
Pierre Monteux: "This hall is too dry; the tone stops instantly. The sound should have a more flattering carry-over."
Herbert von Karajan: "There is good orchestral balance, but the sound is too small. One doesn't get full power from the climaxes."
But we can love the Academy for its flaws, since ultimately the imperfections helped produce one of the world's great orchestras. The lack of reverberation and the distant sound had a momentous effect on the ensemble. Leopold Stokowski and Ormandy developed the orchestra's sound into something both loud and refined - the velvet steamroller that continues to be its sound signature when most American orchestras are becoming more generic. The sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra is the sound of an ensemble fighting back, if politely."
Acoustician Leo L. Beranek collected these impressions for his book Music, Acoustics & Architecture, whose foreword was penned by longtime Philadelphia conductor Eugene Ormandy.
Fritz Reiner said: "The Academy has very good acoustics although somewhat dry. It is like an Italian opera house."
Pierre Monteux: "This hall is too dry; the tone stops instantly. The sound should have a more flattering carry-over."
Herbert von Karajan: "There is good orchestral balance, but the sound is too small. One doesn't get full power from the climaxes."
But we can love the Academy for its flaws, since ultimately the imperfections helped produce one of the world's great orchestras. The lack of reverberation and the distant sound had a momentous effect on the ensemble. Leopold Stokowski and Ormandy developed the orchestra's sound into something both loud and refined - the velvet steamroller that continues to be its sound signature when most American orchestras are becoming more generic. The sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra is the sound of an ensemble fighting back, if politely."
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