Originally posted by PhilipT
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Prom 18: 29.07.16 - Mahler: Symphony no. 3
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Originally posted by french frank View PostIt was billed as being 101 minutes, without stating, obviously, on what basis that timing was calculated.
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Originally posted by Flay View Post
I was constantly distracted by the inevitably awful ADHD camera work: the constant movement, zooming in to the fingernails or BH's nostril hairs, then suddenly a view from the back gallery. For once why can't they show whole sections and for more than a few seconds?
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Originally posted by PhilipT View PostCan anyone tell me where all the time went? Mahler 3 is about 95 minutes, isn't it? But it was in the programme as 7:00-8:55 and finished two minutes early, and BH did not take long breaks between movements. Was he observing some repeats most conductors don't, or what?
1983 Kerstmatinee, Concertgebouw: 32:45
1991 Berlin Philharmonic: 34:50
There was a relatively lengthy break after the first movement in last night's Prom for re-tuning. Also, time-wise, movements 2-3 did feel more spacious than usual. So the longer time built up, and I suspect caught the TV folks off-guard. Had the performance been 1-2 minutes shorter overall, that would have left more time for the applause to be shown, with lots of cameras on BH to give him his closeups during the credits. I certainly wasn't expecting such a spacious Mahler 3 in advance, so I can't blame anyone else for not expecting it either. (IMHO, the 7:00-8:55 time bookends that PhilipT mentioned do not refer only to the music alone, i.e. 1st note to last, but rather to the "whole package" time, tuning and applause pre-, and applause post-. I also don't believe that there are any "repeat or not" options in the score, but I will defer to folks who have actually performed the work and thus know it from actual performing experience.)
BTW, David Nice has his review at The Arts Desk here:
Few 87-year-olds would have the stamina to conduct over 100 minutes of Mahler. Bernard Haitink, though, has always kept a steady, unruffled hand on the interpretative tiller, and if his way with the longest of all the symphonies, the Third, hasn't changed that much since his first recording made half a century ago with his Concertgebouw Orchestra, there's still reassurance in the sheer beauty of the music-making.
DN noted, as did ER here, that this performance certainly wasn't note-perfectly flawless. Agreed from this side of the pond. But then for mental historical comparison, I heard one of BH's CSO performances just about 10 years ago, and that evening, even Christopher Martin cracked a top note on one of his solos. A close thing at one or two brass moments in this Prom, but nothing quite so damaging. But as Simon B commented rightly, even with flaws (I suspect the "Yeah!" doofus is the same doofus who yelled after Ray Chen's Bruch 1 the other night - we all know what needs to be done with said doofus, but we can't say it in public), a terrific night at The Proms.
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Originally posted by bluestateprommer View Post(I suspect the "Yeah!" doofus is the same doofus who yelled after Ray Chen's Bruch 1 the other night - we all know what needs to be done with said doofus, but we can't say it in public), a terrific night at The Proms.
Incidentally, I haven't heard the term "doofus" before, but I was brought up by a father who called me a "little duffer", which I take to be the same thing?
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Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View PostThe situation has improved greatly in recent years. There used to be a tradition amongst cocky Prommers to compete to be the first to cheer at the end of any work - even Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony. Such crassness is rarer now.
Incidentally, I haven't heard the term "doofus" before, but I was brought up by a father who called me a "little duffer", which I take to be the same thing?
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Originally posted by Bryn View PostThey all can, just so long as a 99 minute overburn CD-R is used. Most performances of the 3rd come in within that 99 minute limit. That's not the case with Bernie's of course.
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A bit late to the thread but I attended last night's Prom and while it was a thrilling evening it didn't match up to the overwhelming 2004 BPO/Haitink Barbican account. The first movement lost something of it's wildness with the chosen speed but Haitink knows everything leads up to that tremendous climax in the final movement, here paced and built up to perfection as it is in every Haitink account I've heard.
A search of the Concertgebouw Archive reveals that Haitink was performing the Mahler 3 as long ago as March 1958 an astonishing record that surely cannot be equalled.
I've yet to see the TV broadcast, which I recorded to DVD, but will in any case record the radio repeat on Tuesday.
I was sitting in G stalls and the large camera swooping and swinging was a major distraction. So too (and probably not audible on the relay, was the amount of coughing and other noises off going on. There was an undercurrent of small coughs every few seconds (mostly the same person?) plus dropped programmes and the like that just irritate."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink
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