Prom 54: 26.08.16 - Collegium Vocale Gent and the Budapest Festival Orchestra

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Friday 26 Aug 2016 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Aria 'Per questa bella mano'
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr)


Ákos Ács (clarinet)
Lucy Crowe (soprano)
Barbara Kozelj (mezzo-soprano)
Jeremy Ovenden (tenor)
Neal Davies (bass)
Collegium Vocale Gent
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Iván Fischer (conductor)

The story of Mozart's last months is almost as remarkable as the string of masterpieces he produced during them. Who was the cloaked figure rumoured to have commissioned Mozart to write the Requiem? We'll never know, but the deathly tread, furious fight and radiant hope of the music remain unparalleled.

Iván Fischer brings his equally exceptional Budapest Festival Orchestra to the Proms, joined by one of Europe's leading choirs for the Requiem, alongside the autumnal shades of Mozart's late Clarinet Concerto.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07pjdq4

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

. . . though I do like to hear some of the other completions of the Requiem.

[Barbirollians]

Surprised so little mention of this - a terrific solo quartet and the Budapest FO and Ivan F . Can't wait

[BBMmk2]

There are times when, in certain circumstances, one's opinion of a composer is changed by the artist or artists playing. I think this could be a defining moment, although other conductors, such as the much missed Claudio Abbado, certainly had done much to change this.

[Richard J.]

a terrific solo quartet

Neal Davies has dropped out. From the Proms website: "Neal Davies, the advertised bass, has had to withdraw from tonight’s performance. The BBC Proms is [sic] very grateful to Hanno Müller-Brachmann for taking his place at short notice."

H M-B was the bass soloist in Beethoven's 9th earlier in the season.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Neal Davies has dropped out. From the Proms website: "Neal Davies, the advertised bass, has had to withdraw from tonight’s performance. The BBC Proms is [sic] very grateful to Hanno Müller-Brachmann for taking his place at short notice."

H M-B was the bass soloist in Beethoven's 9th earlier in the season.

Although he was then disguised as Christopher Purves.

[edashtav]

Mozart Concert Aria for bass baritone and double bass obligato

I was finishing my steak dinner when this started and it made no sense on Mum’s lo-fi equipment which supports no Bass whether string or clothed in a string-vest. I rushed to my higher fi headphone set – gosh, what a difference. A delightful piece for a Summer Festival.

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto
I was delighted with the sound that soloist Akos Acs conjured from his clarinet – full of attack, colour and clarity whilst encompassing all the notes which Mozart wrote. The accompaniment from the Budapest Festival Orchestra under its esteemed founder, Ivan Fischer, was full of deft touches and fresh insights. The pathos that infused the first movement’s reflective moments was achingly profound. Tell it not to the earnest boarders of For3 but I almost applauded at the end of the movement.


The melody that opens the slow movement is one of the jewels of Mozart’s latter days on earth. It can sound thin on top like a balding head, in some hands but not with tonight’s soloist in mellifluous top form. Pure beauty that inspires awe and wonder, especially when the soloist returns to the main theme with a true ppp!

Virtuosity of a different nature ensured that the finale was brilliant, yet full of delightful detail. Even the slow, low notes danced. Infectious stuff such as I’ve never heard bettered in a live performance. This performance has knocked Oramo’s performance of Haydn’s 34 Symphony off its pedestal as the most imaginative and delightful performance thus far of this season’s Proms. Thank you.

The raucous encore was a surprising and wonderful contrast. Nothing like a bit of earthy humour!

Mozart and Sussmayr - Requiem

What of the singers within the orchestra? Clearly, an issue for the BBC engineers. The opening phrases for male voices were buried within the orchestral texture. Soloists on their raised dais were easier to spotlight. Certainly, the sound had a fine homogeneity and came across as pure music as the words were occasionally occluded. Rhythm and attack were wonderful as were some dynamics that were observed by the body corporate. The Dies Irae was exciting and the strings played out of their skins. The Tuba Mirum sounded a little like Rossini in the hands of the last minute replacement bass baritone. When the soli joined forces as a quartet, they were good. Rex Tremendae was forthright but, once again, the male voices were buried in the orchestral texture whereas the sopranos and contraltos floated free. Salve Me was beautifully drawn. The ensuing quartet was propelled forward at a brisk and effective pace by Ivan Fischer that avoided the lugubrious sentimentality that can obtain.

Confutatis was grounded on a firm, rhythmic bass that sounded gruff and insistent, a great contrast to the well-oiled lines of basset-horns and upper voices. The Lachrymosa was sung quite straight, without the saccharine sweetness that so often overwhelms its musical structure. Such control was virtuous. Fischer was in control and architecture ruled.

Dominus Meus was sung with point and purpose and the lions growled efficiently. The fugue was sung with bounce and ease, virtues that defeat most Choral Societies.

Suscipe could not be rescued from suspicions that it’s pure Sussmayr. It’s the type of music that was churned out for another century by hundreds of Brutish cantata hacks.

Quam Olim Abrahae disappointed me a little, solely because it was “normal”. The Sanctus was full-throated and its Hosanna tripped along joyfully. The Benedictus for soloists bubbled along like a happy, gurgling brook. Lovely playing from wind and brass which brought forth some echoes of the Magic Flute.

The Agnus Dei is a movement that haunts me. The music looks forward into the nineteenth century, and hints at what Mozart might have achieved had he lived …

I loved this refreshing performance of a choral work that I’ve sung more often than any other. I liked its architecture, rhythmic life and rejection of religiosity. A great conclusion to a memorable concert. As a choral bass, all I would plead for would be extra lift for the men from Ghent.

[Barbirollians]

This is the concert of the season for me . I agree with every word of edashtav's review of the Clarinet Concerto and so far this is the Requiem of one's dreams . Incisive but glorious choral singing,splendid solo singing with Lucy Crowe exceptional and an intensely dramatic but deeply spiritual account of the score shivers down the spine stuff .

[BBMmk2]

Anyone experiencing sound quality problems?

NB Sound is ok but I think it's concert itself!!

[Barbirollians]

Anyone experiencing sound quality problems?

NB Sound is ok but I think it's concert itself!!

The singers were peppered through the orchestra as IAN Skelly puts it

[Barbirollians]

The Mozart Requiem of one's dreams
. The performance should be released on CD or the performers sent to recording studio forthwith .

[Petrushka]

The Mozart Requiem of one's dreams
. The performance should be released on CD or the performers sent to recording studio forthwith .

Totally agree with this. Lucy Crowe (local - very local - girl by the way) absolutely outstanding, floating that wonderful soprano line as I've heard only Margaret Price achieve in the Schreier recording. Could kick myself for failing to archive this safely to disc. An early BBC4 repeat please!

[bluestateprommer]

The singers were peppered through the orchestra as Ian Skelly puts it

Indeed, which was a surprise, among others, including the placement of the winds front desk ahead of the string sections, and everyone being on stage at the start of the Requiem, including IF, to launch directly into it w/o applause. When the light bulb finally hit about the dispersion of the CVG among the orchestra, the first thought was of sightlines from some orchestra members with respect to IF. Some of the "front desk" CVG members did step a bit forward to allow the string players behind them to see IF. (Forum Calendar is also now corrected to reflect HM-B's substitution for ND.)

BTW, in the first work, was the featured double bass player Zsolt Fejérvári?

In both the Clarinet Concerto and the Requiem, my overall sense of the sonority was that IF went for a relatively smooth, non-HIPP, but also not overly glossy sound. This fit Akos Acs' overall approach very well. The slight audience applause after the first movement was, in the main, relatively forgivable, given the quality of the playing, but after the slow movement, not so much, since that disturbed the mood. Would be interesting to know the provenance of the surprise encore, with stage laughs c/o IF holding a score in front of AA. Credit, however, to the audience for holding the silence at the very end of the Requiem for a good spell, which IF helped by minimising his conducting gestures at the close and holding his arms aloft, waiting until just the right moment to lower them slowly.

PS: Well, if I'd found this Guardian article earlier, I would have been suitably forewarned about the 'mash-up' of the chorus among the orchestra musicians:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/12/how-ivan-fischer-found-greatness-with-the-budapest-festival-orchestra

[EdgeleyRob]

The Mozart Requiem of one's dreams
. The performance should be released on CD or the performers sent to recording studio forthwith .

Agreed

[kernelbogey]

An early BBC4 repeat please!

I watched this in the delayed, edited BBC4 transmission this evening. So it's available now on iPlayer....

I agree with the praise from other boarders here.

Petroc interviewed Ivan Fischer after the concerto; he explained his thinking in placing the singers among the orchestra.

Would be interesting to know the provenance of the surprise encore, with stage laughs c/o IF holding a score in front of AA.

The encore by Ákos Ács was identified (and named) by Petroc as Klezmer by a rabbi - but I can't recall the name, (and don't know if Ian Skelly gave that information, as I didn't hear the R3 broadcast). And he mentioned that the orchestra give concerts in abandoned Synagogues in Hungary.

The subtitles in English for the Requiem were in a rather odd mixture of the demotic and the poetic; and clearly someone had made a decision not to give the Latin names of the movements. Given the BBC mantra of reaching out to new audiences I was struck by the fact that Petroc never mentioned that it was being sung in Latin. Since hardly anyone has any Latin now, I wonder what 'naive' viewers would have made of that disjuncture.