Prom 74: 9.09.16 - Verdi: Requiem

[ardcarp]

I suppose I'll have to relate my Verdi Requiem/trombone story. It was a performance in the early 70s, and to my dismay I saw that the bass trombone player had turned up with a very old G instrument with a handle to reach the far-flung 7th slide position. My worries proved founded when in that scary chromatic scale in the Sanctus the slide came right off and went clattering down the stone floor of the church. Very hard to keep a straight face......

Yes, I too found the bass drum a bit of a damp squib in tonight's performance. Authenticity is all very well, but on the Day of Judgement?

[Petrushka]

I suppose I'll have to relate my Verdi Requiem/trombone story. It was a performance in the early 70s, and to my dismay I saw that the bass trombone player had turned up with a very old G instrument with a handle to reach the far-flung 7th slide position. My worries proved founded when in that scary chromatic scale in the Sanctus the slide came right off and went clattering down the stone floor of the church. Very hard to keep a straight face......

Yes, I too found the bass drum a bit of a damp squib in tonight's performance. Authenticity is all very well, but on the Day of Judgement?

Then there was the 1962 Giulini/Philharmonia performance broadcast live on TV where the bass drumstick head goes flying up in the air.

You can't beat the visual impact of the bass drum laid flat and being hit as hard as possible. Not, as far as I know, the same performance referred to above, but this Giulini account of the Dies Irae opening has it dead right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVJTQcOMLQw

[Flosshilde]

As a radio listener I liked the orchestral sound - much more detailed than you gbet from a modern orchestra, I thought that one could hear more of the music.

But really, why did Sara Mohr-Pietsch think that it was neccessary to remind us, during the brief pause, that we were listening to Verdi's requiem at the Proms on Radio 3? Totally inappropriate.

[oddoneout]

Afraid last night just didn't do it for me. Part of that is the fault of rubbish FM reception over the last 2 days(equipment pre-dates digital and in any case that's not without its problems here), but not all.
Soloists in this work are always a bit difficult for me as I really don't like the operatic style singing which I'm aware is what's needed, but I did find that it became easier to listen to as the piece progressed and certainly I could make out most of the notes written on the score I was following.
The choir as expected was excellent but I did find myself thinking that the youthful sound was, at times, not what the piece needed.
The orchestra I was not taken with - even making allowances for the poor reception they seemed to be distant, to the point of disappearing when the soloists were singing.I had to keep turning the volume up and then down again(not least when S M-P boomed out at the end of the first part to tell us what we'd been listening to, presumably to fill the unacceptable gap while tuning went on.....)
The intonation of the instrumentalists at the start of the Offertorio had me wincing and wondering whether there'd been any point in the previous tuning session.
Sorry folks, perhaps I was expecting too much, and was certainly disappointed as I'd been very much looking forward to this. I imagine that 'being there' and getting carried away with the general excitement would have made for a better experience overall, but I wasn't so it didn't.

[jonfan]

This was one of the happiest Requiems I can recall. The solo team relished their moments in the spotlight and then blended beautifully in ensemble. I thought the choir had learned the piece from memory to start with but picked up their copies after the quiet opening. They blended beautifully with impeccable intonation; what power from the men who often don't have the voices to project at a young age. As MA said in her intro the lightness of the OAE was just right for the young singers. The orchestra was not in your face as sometimes happens; they supported the singers as a pit orchestra would, unobtrusively. Very rewarding experience.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But really, why did Sara Mohr-Pietsch think that it was neccessary to remind us, during the brief pause, that we were listening to Verdi's requiem at the Proms on Radio 3? Totally inappropriate.

It's high time the Radio 3 management decreed that their presenters should either speak only when it's absolutely necessary, or zip it.

[DracoM]

Agreed. Was finely exasperated. Trails, labellings even of spaces, her relentless on-message trailing, and she does it every five minutes in The Choir as well. It's as if she suffers from gross goldfish syndrome and thinks we do too. Verdi produced the Requiem, the BBC merely facilitated the concert. And as for telling us how good the soloists were - actually the tenor's intonation was open to question from time to time ...how good the chorus was.......

...let ME be the judge of that, please. Just back off, woman!

[Barbirollians]

Then don't watch the TV relay Tom Service was at his worst endlessly blithering.

[ardcarp]

Tom Service would do well to hear some old Dan Maskell Wimbledon commentaries. Sometimes a whole game would pass with barely a comment.

[Flay]

Tom Service would do well to hear some old Dan Maskell Wimbledon commentaries. Sometimes a whole game would pass with barely a comment.

Agreed. I think TS getting worse.

[seabright]

Then don't watch the TV relay Tom Service was at his worst endlessly blithering.

Not only blithering but indulging in ludicrously over-wrought hand movements, palms up, fingers outstretched, arms open wide, gesticulating here, gesticulating there, every word or phrase accompanied by a grotesque quasi-semaphore display sufficient to drive at least one viewer up the wall. Where on earth does the BBC find these people?

[Frances_iom]

... Where on earth does the BBC find these people?

on paper all (well most anyway) are more than qualified to discus Music etc - I suspect it is those who produce the shows (and that is what R3 has become just another 'brand' of light entertainment) who select out that sort of on-air behaviour - I doubt if many of these producers especially in TV have any personal interest or knowledge of classical music or attend such concerts away from the job thus they treat it as yet another preaching to the uninterested and moving pictures work better - as for their radio performance I switch off TS + several of the others - as for KD yuk.

[Lento]

Enjoyed much of this performance, but have to say I disliked some of the sections where the soloists sang as a group: found it difficult to decipher the harmonies.

[mrbouffant]

The hall was roasting last night (up in Circle row 1) and I found myself nodding off during the boring bits in the middle of the work (after the rowdiness of the Dies Irae and before the Sanctus). However, I was helpfully raised from my slumbers by a patron opening a packet of crisps and offering them to his party in the row behind.

[Tony Halstead]

The hall was roasting last night (up in Circle row 1) and I found myself nodding off during the boring bits in the middle of the work (after the rowdiness of the Dies Irae and before the Sanctus). However, I was helpfully raised from my slumbers by a patron opening a packet of crisps and offering them to his party in the row behind.