Prom 31: 7.08.16 - Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Prom 31: Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky
19:30 Sunday 7 Aug 2016
Royal Albert Hall

Sergei Prokofiev: Scythian Suite
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor (original version, 1879)
Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring

Kirill Gerstein (piano)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor Designate Thomas Dausgaard round off this weekend's Stravinsky/Scottish series with the work that changed music for ever. In The Rite of Spring rhythm was shockingly prioritised over harmony - and pounding, jagged, brutal rhythm at that.

One of The Rite's most impactful relatives is the Scythian Suite by Stravinsky's compatriot Prokofiev, a blazing orchestral canvas that forms the perfect foil to the heartfelt beauty of Tchaikovsky's charming First Piano Concerto, performed by Kirill Gerstein in a new critical edition which, he says, 'allows us to return to Tchaikovsky's original intentions'.
Kirill Gerstein piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mvw1f

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What a brilliant idea to juxtapose this concert (with the grown-ups) with the Scottish youth orchestra in the afternoon, with closely related programmes.

[Petrushka]

What's all this about 'original version, 1879' for the Tchaikovsky PC 1? I was completely unaware of the existence of such and wonder if it's another case of an inferior product being pushed forward when the composer revised it with good reason? I just wonder if I'm alone in wishing these different versions that keep being dredged up of various pieces could be left to the academics only.

[Bryn]

What's all this about 'original version, 1879' for the Tchaikovsky PC 1? I was completely unaware of the existence of such and wonder if it's another case of an inferior product being pushed forward when the composer revised it with good reason? I just wonder if I'm alone in wishing these different versions that keep being dredged up of various pieces could be left to the academics only.

The 1879 version appears to be the composer's own first revison. The version most commonly played is the second revison posthumously published in 1894.

See: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/03...l-tchaikovsky/

[Petrushka]

The 1879 version appears to be the composer's own first revison. The version most commonly played is the second revison posthumously published in 1894.

See: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/03...l-tchaikovsky/

Thanks for this most interesting article. I had no idea about all this but when even fairly knowledgeable classical music lovers like me end up being confused about 'versions' what hope does the casual listener or those new to music have?

[Bryn]

Thanks for this most interesting article. I had no idea about all this but when even fairly knowledgeable classical music lovers like me end up being confused about 'versions' what hope does the casual listener or those new to music have?

The details were new to me too, though I did know about Tchikovsky's difficulties with Nikolai Rubenstein.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I just wonder if I'm alone in wishing these different versions that keep being dredged up of various pieces could be left to the academics only.

Well - I disagree at any rate, Pet; why restrict listening to different aspects of a composer's thoughts just to an academic elite? Get them all out there available to everyone - the "casual listeners" you refer to in your later post will just accept whichever version they encounter (their problems really begin searching for a recording - all those cover versions! ). Just think of those bad old days when it was thought that there were only Nine (or eight-and-three-quarters, or ten, or eleven, or ten-and-three-quarters) Bruckner Symphonies instead of the Sixteen or so available to us today.

[peterthekeys]

What's all this about 'original version, 1879' for the Tchaikovsky PC 1? I was completely unaware of the existence of such and wonder if it's another case of an inferior product being pushed forward when the composer revised it with good reason? I just wonder if I'm alone in wishing these different versions that keep being dredged up of various pieces could be left to the academics only.

Judging by the first movement, I think you're probably spot on. If I'd been Nikolai Rubinstein on that first play-through, I think I'd have taken much the same view as he did. It sounds like a piano piece with occasional respectful interjections from the orchestra (reminds me a bit of Hoffnung's comment about "Sugar Plums" - Tchaikovsky's best tunes played by the Dolmetsch Ensemble (pop-guns in the 1812) - that it was like Tchaikovsky through the wrong end of the telescope.)

(And of course there's that delightful Proms custom of a smattering of lukewarm applause after the first movement - ugh! I always wonder if it annoys the performers as much as it annoys me.)

[seabright]

I'm a bit confused too. Unless I mis-heard him, P Trelawny said that Kirill Gerstain had just made the first recording of the original version of the 1st Piano Concerto, so what is this CD I've just pulled off my shelf? It says on the inlay card: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (Original Version 1875) and has exactly the same arpeggiated chords at the start as we heard tonight. It is played by Jerome Lowenthal with the LSO conducted by Sergiu Comissiona and is on 'Arabesque' Recordings (Cat. No. Z6611, dated 1989). The notes state that it was this 1875 version that was played by Taneyev, Rubinstein, Siloti and others, and "is not the revision which appeared in 1889 and has been played by virtually every pianist since." I guess I'll have to "listen again" to hear exactly what was said about the version played tonight!

[Bryn]

Judging by the first movement, I think you're probably spot on. If I'd been Nikolai Rubinstein on that first play-through, I think I'd have taken much the same view as he did. It sounds like a piano piece with occasional respectful interjections from the orchestra (reminds me a bit of Hoffnung's comment about "Sugar Plums" - Tchaikovsky's best tunes played by the Dolmetsch Ensemble (pop-guns in the 1812) - that it was like Tchaikovsky through the wrong end of the telescope.)

(And of course there's that delightful Proms custom of a smattering of lukewarm applause after the first movement - ugh! I always wonder if it annoys the performers as much as it annoys me.)

The composer would pretty certainly have appreciated applause after the first movement on the occasions he conducted it. Oh, and the composer's revised version we heard tonight was not the version Nikolai Rubenstein was so dismisive of. That was the original version (of which the composer said he would not change a note at the time). When he did revise it, as heard tonight, it was not for any of the reasons Rubenstein raised. The further revision we usually hear was also pretty certainly not the composer's but that of Siloti. It was not published until a year after the composer's death, and he never conducted it. The last time he was at the helm, it was the revision we heard tonight. Do have a read of the article linked to earlier. Perhaps you simply like your Tchaikovsky Bowdlerised.

[Bryn]

I'm a bit confused too. Unless I mis-heard him, P Trelawny said that Kirill Gerstain had just made the first recording of the original version of the 1st Piano Concerto, so what is this CD I've just pulled off my shelf? It says on the inlay card: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (Original Version 1875) and has exactly the same arpeggiated chords at the start as we heard tonight. It is played by Jerome Lowenthal with the LSO conducted by Sergiu Comissiona and is on 'Arabesque' Recordings (Cat. No. Z6611, dated 1989). The notes state that it was this 1875 version that was played by Taneyev, Rubinstein, Siloti and others, and "is not the revision which appeared in 1889 and has been played by virtually every pianist since." I guess I'll have to "listen again" to hear exactly what was said about the version played tonight!

As has already been mentioned the version heard tonight was the composer's first revison of 1879, not the original or the better kinown Siloti version. The arpeggiation of the piano's opening chords was one of the things the composer did not mess around with in 1879.

[hafod]

Connected presumably with the appearance of this recording early last year given the same soloist?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S6EN28Y

[Bryn]

Connected presumably with the appearance of this recording early last year given the same soloist?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S6EN28Y

Indeed.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(And of course there's that delightful Proms custom of a smattering of lukewarm applause after the first movement - ugh! I always wonder if it annoys the performers as much as it annoys me.)

Oh, don't worry about that. The audience now has significant representation from those used to listening to Radio 3 Breakfast. Having heard a single movement, they think it's all over. Pity them.

[Bryn]

Oh, don't worry about that. The audience now has significant representation from those used to listening to Radio 3 Breakfast. Having heard a single movement, they think it's all over. Pity them.