Prom 64: 2.09.16 - Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle – Boulez and Mahler

[Petrushka]

Agree completely with jonfan and pastoralguy. I had a fantastic seat in 'O' stalls to savour this performance and the virtuosity of the BPO is staggering to behold. No less staggering was to see a close up phenomenal display of conducting virtuosity from Rattle completely without a score and bringing out detail I've never heard before. For all that, though, it still didn't displace my favourite ever live performance, that from Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus in the Barbican in 1998 (I think).

I've never had any difficulty with the 7th, taking to it immediately when hearing the Solti recording around 40 years ago.

[makropulos]

It's all there now, including the fill-ups.

[Ah, you mean the one what needs a TV licence. No, that's still wanting resolution.]

Yup - that's the one - and it's still not fixed. Thanks for mentioning that the radio version is fully functioning. Indeed it is, so I've now got to the last chord. Listening to the broadcast at home, I would very much echo the enthusiasm of several posters, including those lucky enough to have been in the hall. I though it was a pretty exceptional Mahler 7, which is also one of my favourite Mahler symphonies. Bravo.

[Bryn]

Yup - that's the one - and it's still not fixed. Thanks for mentioning that the radio version is fully functioning. Indeed it is, so I've now got to the last chord. Listening to the broadcast at home, I would very much echo the enthusiasm of several posters, including those lucky enough to have been in the hall. I though it was a pretty exceptional Mahler 7, which is also one of my favourite Mahler symphonies. Bravo.

My recording to hard disc from the BBC FOUR broadcast has an annoying little stumble in the audio during the second Nachtmusik. I do hope it's not the same in the Radio 3 iPlayer option (will listen to that tomorrow).

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 64. MAHLER SYMPHONY NO.7/BOULEZ ÉCLAT. BPO/RATTLE. R3 HDs @ 320 kbps.
Finely-balanced as ever on HDs, but a more open sound than the Berliners tend to produce is often a better match for the RAH acoustic, at least as webcast. They occasionally sounded just a touch too withdrawn. That said, the pure tonal warmth of solos and small instrumental groups came over well, and the warm brilliance of the finale brass were more than compensatory!

***

Rattle seemed to wake the Seventh Symphony from darkness, only increasing level and intensity gradually but then - the main allegro march was lightly flighted, avoiding any stamping, rhetorical overemphasis. The lyrical second group so often described as "Straussian" (because, I suppose, it is) was again free of sentimental Romantic accretion, elegantly phrased. Textures throughout the first movement were notably lean and transparent, somewhat akin to Haitink and the COA in feel and character. Withdrawn chamber musical delicacy (pre-echo of the central nocturne-trilogy) in the development, with the lead-back of the lyrical "love-theme" as sensitively shaped as ever I've heard it, as far from the Straussian hero-of-love as it could be. Structurally very clear with Rattle too, through the fantastically varied recap sections (I loved the double basses here, drily deadpan against the tenor horn), with terrific crescendoing tension into the sheer physical release of the march's return.
(It takes some getting to know, this first movement; but Mahler's inventiveness and fluidity in his use of sonata (how concise the almost further-developmental recap and coda seem after all that went before!) is one of its prime joys.)

At this point, I thought Rattle was giving us a more studied, "symphonic" view tonight, more like his CBSO/Aldeburgh recording than a later live DCH reading in Berlin itself, which I recall as more extrovert, concerto-for-orchestra in style. But in the central trilogy, the almost bar-by-bar rubato ( fantastical in Nachtmusik 1 & Scherzo, playful in Nachtmusik 2) vanishing-point pianissimos and wind solos' ineffably delicate, almost improvisatory phrasing brought a gentle spotlight back to the orchestra itself. (Were they sometimes a little self-communing? Perhaps, but I enjoyed the eavesdrop).
The coda to the scherzo was echt-schattenhaft but the Berliner Philharmoniker really owned it - at once warm, affectionate, yet so individually characterised - just one special moment among many.
Affetuoso and dolce were the words that kept coming to mind in that unique blend of serenade and nocturnal pastoral of Nachtmusik 2, here directed so effortlessly bar-by-bar as to allow individual players to vary the shape and pulse of their solos virtually within the phrase, or even against Rattle's beat itself. As if he was letting them do what they felt like, by just doing what he liked, in the moment. Climaxes blossomed out from that lovely Berliner lower-string warmth, but swift and fleetfooted, never tonally opulent or indulgent of grand passion.
Throughout this central trilogy Rattle created subtle dynamic gradations, but also ensured that this central part of the work was kept at a generally lower level than the outer movements. Echt-Rattle, thought-through across the arch, and improvisatory in the close detail!

The finale was - Louder!
....Synthesising all this performance's distinctive characters: definitional edge and brilliance (but never hefty or ebullient, no macho conductor-posturing) in tuttis, marches, climaxes; sweetness and intimacy in soloistic and chamber musical episodes. Rattle skittered through the waltz-numbers with nimble-witted switches of pulse and tone-colour; no Wagnerian parodies or indulgent rhetorical emphasis, no tonal coarsening or straining after absolute power. Seductive, but never simply turning on the charm.

It was all so astonishingly effortless.

***

Boulez Éclat: glitterings, ripples and refractions; stillness and movement, a play of light-on-water - came to my ears, then my inner eye.
The fresh and vivid resonances of the wide acoustic space seemed a perfect setting.

[Bryn]

The iPlayer offering from BBC FOUR is now complete. The drawback is that you now get guess who's final peroration following Mahler's.

[Nick Armstrong]

The iPlayer offering from BBC FOUR is now complete. The drawback is that you now get guess who's final peroration following Mahler's.

I'm often glad that my HDD video recorder allows edits. I have just chopped you-know-who out of the recording and am now listening/watching without fear of intrusion. As it says on some restaurant bills: Service Not Included...

[Stan Drews]

Mahler 7 was my first real experience of this composer having played in the Scottish premier back in 1987. I know it's not fashionable to say but this is, by far, my favourite Mahler symphony. It's just so OUT THERE!

I think the SNO did it around 1978. The Edinburgh performance was in St Cuthbert's iirc, as the Usher Hall was undergoing repairs.

[Stan Drews]

Impressive, too, to see the principal horn & trumpet doing a work like this without "bumpers" (assistants).

[P. G. Tipps]

Agree completely with jonfan and pastoralguy. I had a fantastic seat in 'O' stalls to savour this performance and the virtuosity of the BPO is staggering to behold. No less staggering was to see a close up phenomenal display of conducting virtuosity from Rattle completely without a score and bringing out detail I've never heard before. For all that, though, it still didn't displace my favourite ever live performance, that from Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus in the Barbican in 1998 (I think).

I've never had any difficulty with the 7th, taking to it immediately when hearing the Solti recording around 40 years ago.

I have some difficulty really getting 'into' most of the Mahler symphonies, this one probably most of all, but that did not prevent me from appreciating the sheer brilliance of last night's performance. It was quite an experience just watching and listening on BBC4 so what it must have been like in the RAH I can only guess with no little envy!

For all the sour criticism that occasionally comes Rattle's way he really is quite amazing . Does this man require a score for anything he conducts?

[jonfan]

Impressive, too, to see the principal horn & trumpet doing a work like this without "bumpers" (assistants).

The BPO Horn Quartet, playing on Thursday's In Tune, claimed that travelling was more tiring than the stress on the chops of Mahler 7. Perhaps slightly tongue in cheek response but perhaps only the Americans would dare tackle such a big blow without a bumper?
Some delectable horn playing in the last half hour of In Tune, especially an arrangement of some Brahms.

[silvestrione]

PROM 64. MAHLER SYMPHONY NO.7/BOULEZ ÉCLAT. BPO/RATTLE. R3 HDs @ 320 kbps.
Finely-balanced as ever on HDs, but a more open sound than the Berliners tend to produce is often a better match for the RAH acoustic, at least as webcast. They occasionally sounded just a touch too withdrawn. That said, the pure tonal warmth of solos and small instrumental groups came over well, and the warm brilliance of the finale brass were more than compensatory!

***

Rattle seemed to wake the Seventh Symphony from darkness, only increasing level and intensity gradually but then - the main allegro march was lightly flighted, avoiding any stamping, rhetorical overemphasis. The lyrical second group so often described as "Straussian" (because, I suppose, it is) was again free of sentimental Romantic accretion, elegantly phrased. Textures throughout the first movement were notably lean and transparent, somewhat akin to Haitink and the COA in feel and character. Withdrawn chamber musical delicacy (pre-echo of the central nocturne-trilogy) in the development, with the lead-back of the lyrical "love-theme" as sensitively shaped as ever I've heard it, as far from the Straussian hero-of-love as it could be. Structurally very clear with Rattle too, through the fantastically varied recap sections (I loved the double basses here, drily deadpan against the tenor horn), with terrific crescendoing tension into the sheer physical release of the march's return.
(It takes some getting to know, this first movement; but Mahler's inventiveness and fluidity in his use of sonata (how concise the almost further-developmental recap and coda seem after all that went before!) is one of its prime joys.)

At this point, I thought Rattle was giving us a more studied, "symphonic" view tonight, more like his CBSO/Aldeburgh recording than a later live DCH reading in Berlin itself, which I recall as more extrovert, concerto-for-orchestra in style. But in the central trilogy, the almost bar-by-bar rubato ( fantastical in Nachtmusik 1 & Scherzo, playful in Nachtmusik 2) vanishing-point pianissimos and wind solos' ineffably delicate, almost improvisatory phrasing brought a gentle spotlight back to the orchestra itself. (Were they sometimes a little self-communing? Perhaps, but I enjoyed the eavesdrop).
The coda to the scherzo was echt-schattenhaft but the Berliner Philharmoniker really owned it - at once warm, affectionate, yet so individually characterised - just one special moment among many.
Affetuoso and dolce were the words that kept coming to mind in that unique blend of serenade and nocturnal pastoral of Nachtmusik 2, here directed so effortlessly bar-by-bar as to allow individual players to vary the shape and pulse of their solos virtually within the phrase, or even against Rattle's beat itself. As if he was letting them do what they felt like, by just doing what he liked, in the moment. Climaxes blossomed out from that lovely Berliner lower-string warmth, but swift and fleetfooted, never tonally opulent or indulgent of grand passion.
Throughout this central trilogy Rattle created subtle dynamic gradations, but also ensured that this central part of the work was kept at a generally lower level than the outer movements. Echt-Rattle, thought-through across the arch, and improvisatory in the close detail!

The finale was - Louder!
....Synthesising all this performance's distinctive characters: definitional edge and brilliance (but never hefty or ebullient, no macho conductor-posturing) in tuttis, marches, climaxes; sweetness and intimacy in soloistic and chamber musical episodes. Rattle skittered through the waltz-numbers with nimble-witted switches of pulse and tone-colour; no Wagnerian parodies or indulgent rhetorical emphasis, no tonal coarsening or straining after absolute power. Seductive, but never simply turning on the charm.

It was all so astonishingly effortless.

***

Boulez Éclat: glitterings, ripples and refractions; stillness and movement, a play of light-on-water - came to my ears, then my inner eye.
The fresh and vivid resonances of the wide acoustic space seemed a perfect setting.

Brilliant review, thank you!

[jayne lee wilson]

Impressive, too, to see the principal horn & trumpet doing a work like this without "bumpers" (assistants).

Tangentially to this, it's worth recalling that when Rattle was invited to perform and record some Bartok with the Berlin Phil in 1990, invited back after his extraordinary debut with Mahler 6 in 1987, he became suspicious during the setting-up that the principal players in the recording sessions were not the same as those who had played in the preceding concerts. So he cancelled the recording....
(see Nicholas Kenyon: "Simon Rattle: From Birmingham to Berlin", pp. 31-2).

[Richard Tarleton]

The Times Diary informs us that the BPO's football team had earlier played a football match against the LSO in Hyde Park. Being German the BPO have a special strip and had been training, the LSO just turned up in their PE kit. Score 1-1.

I thought it was a superb concert, and thanks to all for the above reviews.

[pastoralguy]

Tangentially to this, it's worth recalling that when Rattle was invited to perform and record some Bartok with the Berlin Phil in 1990, invited back after his extraordinary debut with Mahler 6 in 1987, he became suspicious during the setting-up that the principal players in the recording sessions were not the same as those who had played in the preceding concerts. So he cancelled the recording....
(see Nicholas Kenyon: "Simon Rattle: From Birmingham to Berlin", pp. 31-2).

That's interesting, Jayne since I have it on good authority from a member of Sir Simon's CBSO that their recordings often had principals from the Philharmonia playing. This wasn't SSR's decision but EMI's. It caused a LOT of animosity!

[pastoralguy]

I think the SNO did it around 1978. The Edinburgh performance was in St Cuthbert's iirc, as the Usher Hall was undergoing repairs.

I'd become an SNO regular as a 14 year old and, iirc, it wasn't the Usher Hall that was the problem but numerous strikes during the 'winter of discontent' which left the Usher Hall without staff. The Edinburgh Youth Orchestra were due to play Tchaikovsky's fifth and I was keen to hear them play it. However, the concerts were transferred to St. Cuthbert's and Tchaikovsky 5 was replaced by Beethoven 7 since the acoustic was too small for the great Russian composer. I was really disappointed but, the orchestra's leader, Edwin Paling, generously gave me half an hour of his time to show me how to approach some tricky passages.