Prom 51: 24.08.16 - São Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Wednesday 24 Aug 2016 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Marlos Nobre: Kabbalah (UK premiere)
Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No 4 – Prelude
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Gabriela Montero piano
São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conductor

This year's Proms focus on Latin America in the year when the Olympic Games go to Rio de Janeiro heats up with a visit from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, under its chief conductor Marin Alsop. Their concert is bookended by infectious, furious dances from Marlos Nobre and Rachmaninov. In between comes music from the doyen of South American composers, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and a performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto for which the orchestra is joined by Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07pjbdm

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I like what I've heard from the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.

[mrbouffant]

In the hall again for this one tonight. It promises to be an even sweatier affair than last night!

I didn't know the Rach before prepping myself for this Prom and I must say it is an interesting work. The big theme of the first movement reminds me of the main theme from that recent film Kick-Ass. Probably just me...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In the hall again for this one tonight. It promises to be an even sweatier affair than last night!

I didn't know the Rach before prepping myself for this Prom and I must say it is an interesting work. The big theme of the first movement reminds me of the main theme from that recent film Kick-Ass. Probably just me...

Wasn't it also used in the B&W French television serialization of Robinson Crusoe, whenever he was wandering purposefully around the island. (Not the big main theme of the programme - that had a rhythm to which the words "Here we go Loobie-Loo" could be sung.)

[BBMmk2]

I love Rach's Symphonic Dances. I wouldn't mind doing the whole lot for concert band. I think it will work?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I love Rach's Symphonic Dances. I wouldn't mind doing the whole lot for concert band. I think it will work?

Good idea - I can imagine it would work very well.

Off Topic, but related to the above - have you ever considered doing a transcription of the Bach solo violin Chaconne, Bbm? Might help you find a way past (or "into" at any rate) the "enigmatic" nature that you find in this work?

[bluestateprommer]

Marlos Nobre's Kabbalah just finished. It's very much a mash-up of Villa-Lobos and Ginastera, brash, percussive, nothing deep or profound, but good clean fun as a concert opener. The applause was a lot more vociferous for Marin Alsop when she walked on stage rather than after the work, which kind of surprised me. Ian Skelly just telegraphed that Gabriela Montero should regale us all with an improvised encore later.

Part 2, post-Grieg: GM's performance was OK, not the greatest I've ever heard, but she was fine. Points to the audience for not applauding after the 1st movement ;) . GM's encore on Land of Hope and Glory went down a storm, starting with JSB-style pastiche and moving more into Art Tatum territory by the end. Even though GM says that she never knows what she'll play or how she'll play it, I have a feeling that she has certain styles and tics that she knows that she can fall back on. Not that there's anything wrong with that, when it works :) .

[edashtav]

I have little to add to bsp's accurate and insightful critique of the first half of this concert. Having seen adverse reviews of the Sao Paolo SSO at the EIF, I was fearing the worst. It didn't happen but I need to record that the microphony advantaged Gabriela Montera, at the expense of the accompaniment in the Grieg. Gabriela is is a natural communicator and her spontaneous improvisation was excellent. I'm looking forward to the second half that contains two of my lollipops - knowing Marin Alsop from her fine work in Bournemouth - I'm fascinating to find out how's she's coping down under.

Villa-Lobos Bachianas no. 4 – Prelude
How many versions of this have I heard? That’s impossible to number, but I suppose my yardstick are those by the Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz which seem to come right from her D.N.A. Tonight’s performance was neat, but, essentially, preludial.

I’ve heard the Rachmaninov performed live by a visiting orchestra at the Proms, that’s because it speaks straight to my soul; the moment when the brittle dance of the first moment stills to reveal the Russian soul - perhaps an old lady singing a song from back when she was young, I find to be one of the most moving moments in 20th century music.It was neither as still nor as rapt this evening as I require from my fondest memories, but it was phrased elegantly, although a crack orchestra would have responded more fulsomely to Marin’s fluid direction. Back to the opening measures and a feeling that the orchestra is willing but not quite on top of the job. It is , after all, demanding music, by, probably the last century’s most mercurial piano virtuoso. Marin nourished all the parts but her orchestra couldn’t find the gloss paint.

The Danse Macabre second movement had more of the mood of Toye’s Haunted Ballroom than than a swirling Valse. It was careful and a tad pedestrian.To be fair, perhaps, it exhibited more of the title word : symphonic than Dance, however, its elegiac core was well drawn. The brass interruptions were neatly depicted. If the work shows some of the glories of Rachmaninov’s youth through the embittered prism of loss and disillusion, then this performance was fine.

The third dance started with plenty of detail but without the crisp ensemble that would have made it sparkle and formed a foil for the darker hues that interrupt the dance’s progress. .I found that conductor and orchestra handled the work’s poetic moments better than its effervescent projections of wild dance. Has anyone penned Tragic Dances for orchestra? I think not, but the São Paulo orchestra came close to giving us a set. Only the brass seemed ready for a confident fiesta. Maybe, the rather depressive, Rachmaninov wanted it so.

I found the encore to be bathetic.
Gosh! there's a second encore that, at last, liberates the orchestra's soul and loosens its loins.

[kernelbogey]

Watching on BBC4's later tv transmission, the high point for me was Gabriela Montero's dazzling improvisatory encore. (The second encore mentioned by Edashtav was not included.) The low point was a truly ghastly presentation by a simpering Clemency B-H and Clarke Peters (of The Wire - why?) which exhibited the style of the Met Opera's broadcast introductions, minus the erudition. I suppose the intention is inclusivity - but the faux-conversational style came over as forced and patronising.

[seabright]

I feel sure I read somewhere, or it may have come up in an interview with Andre Previn many years ago, that the marking "Non Allegro" for the first Rachmaninov 'Dance' was a printing mistake on the part of the publishers and that it should have been plain ol' "Allegro." Listening again to Marin Alsop's tempo on the iPlayer suggests that she knows this story too, as she adopted a really speedy pace at the outset which was anything but "Not Fast." Has a Rachmaninov expert ever consulted the manuscript, I wonder, as googling the topic doesn't seem to yield any confirmation of this story.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I feel sure I read somewhere, or it may have come up in an interview with Andre Previn many years ago, that the marking "Non Allegro" for the first Rachmaninov 'Dance' was a printing mistake on the part of the publishers and that it should have been plain ol' "Allegro." Listening again to Marin Alsop's tempo on the iPlayer suggests that she knows this story too, as she adopted a really speedy pace at the outset which was anything but "Not Fast." Has a Rachmaninov expert ever consulted the manuscript, I wonder, as googling the topic doesn't seem to yield any confirmation of this story.

No, it doesn't . But the differences between recordings by "Westerners" and Russian conductors are interesting, with the former tending to prefer brisker speeds than the latter. Previn (both as conductor and pianist) takes just under eleven-and-a-half minutes for the first of the three movements, which is about average (the fastest orchestral recording, at 10min 53", is conducted by Leinsdorf - a smudge slower than the fastest piano recording; Argerich and Eabinovitch at 10min 42").

The slowest recordings (unless I've overlooked any repeats marked in the score) are led by Russian conductors: Svetlanov (11mins 58"); Polyanski (12mins) Bychkov (12mins 26"), Botnari (12min 30"), Jurowski (12min 40"), Gergiev (12mins 56") and Pletnev (13mins 8"). Amazon lists a recording by Eugene Goosens reportedly taking over 19mins, but I don't believe it. (Petrenko in Liverpool is an exception, taking 11mins 38" - twelve seconds swifter than Rattle with the BPO, which is the slowest "Western" recording time I could find. Ashkenazy and the Concertgebouw take 11mins and 9".)

[seabright]

Thanks for the timings. The Goossens / LSO 'Everest' CD from 1958 gives 11'44" for the first movement. Ormandy's 1960 Philadelphia 'CBS' LP has 11'00" for the "Non Allegro" movement, while Slatkin and the St. Louis SO in 1979 on 'Vox' take 11'32".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks for the timings. The Goossens / LSO 'Everest' CD from 1958 gives 11'44" for the first movement.

- listening to the sample on Amazon, there was no way (apart from some bizarre rubato elsewhere!) that Goosens could take over nineteen minutes. Interesting to see how swift Ormandy is - and, or course, by the time he wrote the Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninov was closer to American orchestral conventions than to Russian. But, certainly not "Non Allegro".

[BBMmk2]

Good idea - I can imagine it would work very well.

Off Topic, but related to the above - have you ever considered doing a transcription of the Bach solo violin Chaconne, Bbm? Might help you find a way past (or "into" at any rate) the "enigmatic" nature that you find in this work?

I have been thinking a lot about this work, recently and from time to time the idea has come up. I don't mind Joachim Raff's transcription of this work but I still think for concert band it might just fit the bill. Bach's music does lend itself to this medium, very well.

[rauschwerk]

I feel sure I read somewhere, or it may have come up in an interview with Andre Previn many years ago, that the marking "Non Allegro" for the first Rachmaninov 'Dance' was a printing mistake on the part of the publishers and that it should have been plain ol' "Allegro." Listening again to Marin Alsop's tempo on the iPlayer suggests that she knows this story too, as she adopted a really speedy pace at the outset which was anything but "Not Fast." Has a Rachmaninov expert ever consulted the manuscript, I wonder, as googling the topic doesn't seem to yield any confirmation of this story.

The evidence seems to be anecdotal. I'm sure I once heard Eugene Ormandy telling of the composer's arrival at a rehearsal for the first performance, querying the tempo, inspecting the score and declaring that he had written just 'allegro'. (If anyone's recording is at the right tempo, it is surely Ormandy's).

This is not implausible. Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra was printed (by the same publisher) with an incorrect metronome mark for the second movement which was not detected for many years afterwards.