Prom 35: 11.08.16 - Bartók, Malcolm Hayes and Dvořák

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Thursday 11 Aug 2016
Royal Albert Hall

Béla Bartók: Dance Suite
Malcolm Hayes: Violin Concerto
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No 7 in D minor

Tai Murray (violin)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

When the London Philharmonic Society asked Dvorak for a new symphony in 1884, the composer knew he had to deliver something special. In the resulting Seventh, the doubts and frustrations Dvorak experienced as a composer are defeated by music that triumphs compellingly over its own nervous energy, bursting into radiant brightness in the final bars. Tonight, Dvorak's most fascinating symphony is heard after Malcolm Hayes's new concerto, a work inspired by the mood and atmosphere of the Outer Hebrides and played by former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Tai Murray. The solo line soars in the outer sections as a life-form in flight in this concerto with an open-air spirit. Bartok's colourful Dance Suite, featuring Hungarian and Arabic folk melodies, opens the concert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mwnyp

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I used to love Dvorak 7.


Then it was a "set work".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Now on...

[richardfinegold]

I was randomly listening to discs a few nights ago and played the Dvorak 7 from the Haitink "The Phillips Years" set. I know what you mean Alpie. The Haitink was an exhilarating listen, making me remember just how great a work this piece is. I've heard to many indifferent interpretations of it in the last 20 years or so...

[Petrushka]

I was randomly listening to discs a few nights ago and played the Dvorak 7 from the Haitink "The Phillips Years" set. I know what you mean Alpie. The Haitink was an exhilarating listen, making me remember just how great a work this piece is. I've heard to many indifferent interpretations of it in the last 20 years or so...

That was Haitink's first ever recording too! It is, by far, my favourite recording of the Dvorak 7.

[richardfinegold]

That was Haitink's first ever recording too! It is, by far, my favourite recording of the Dvorak 7.

It was my first encounter with it. I had been weaned on Szell's rather idiosyncratic account.

[edashtav]

Bartok’s Dance Suite, I found underpowered and unimpressive in its faster, rhythmic sections but I warmed more to its lyrical elements.

Malcolm Hayes’ Violin Concerto has been in the incubator for some time. It’s cast in a single movement that has three phases ; overall it's structure is a set of variations. The piece starts softly; its serenity and feeling of being under an open sky beyond human habitation was spoiled for me by coughing from the audience. The wide spaces of the RAH are a fine setting for such music and the soundscape on R.3 was enthralling The scoring was lean but not mean but the focus stayed on the violin solo that soared and swooped above the lower, slower music of the orchestra. The idiom was deeply conservative. Tai Murray was a fine soloist and her tone, fittingly, was warmer than when I last heard her live. The orchestra didn’t always feel engaged by its music which was so very subsidiary to that of the protagonist. It was a pleasant way to pass time but achieved much less than its overt model The Lark Ascending yet took longer to do so.

I didn’t stay for Dvorak’s 7th Symphony as I find it too Germanic. I’m much more enthusiastic about his happy Czech-suffused 6th.

[Serial_Apologist]

I shall have to have a listen to the Hayes. I now remember, he was quite a controversial figure a few years ago, along with another new composer whose name now escapes me, in calling for a new tonal language that does not have to defer idiomatically to past models.

[bluestateprommer]

I shall have to have a listen to the Hayes. I now remember, he was quite a controversial figure a few years ago, along with another new composer whose name now escapes me, in calling for a new tonal language that does not have to defer idiomatically to past models.

Caught this on iPlayer a few days ago just before the deadline; the harmonic idiom of the Malcolm Hayes concerto is definitely (defiantly?) tonal and very "audience friendly", though to be fair, it didn't strike me as pandering. The work is definitely pleasant listening, but it felt rather too episodic for me to get a sense of structure, granted that I only had time to listen to it once. But TM, TS and the BBC NOW did the work justice, AFAICT.

Likewise, TS and the BBC NOW did very well indeed in both the Bartok and the Dvorak. No weak spots in the interpretation of the Bartok that I could detect. I confess that I haven't yet fully bought into the party line that proclaims Dvorak 7 as the greatest of his set of 9, as its initial impression is that it's the darkest and "most dramatic" of his symphonies. Maybe there's a slight element of self-consciousness in that way on Dvorak's part, even though I am not aware that the work reflects any personal stresses in his life. But that aside, perhaps the lack of response on this Prom represents something of a taking for granted of the quality of the partnership between the BBC NOW and TS.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks BSP - I shall definitely have a listen to the Hayes piece, when I get a chance.