Prom 75: 10.09.16 - Last Night of the Proms

[Hornspieler]

You're right about Handley's uneasiness ... surely a classic case of miscasting? ... Click the link! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WUPvp5q2tg

............. However, going back to Handley & Cherkassky, where else would we see that Gershwin Concerto today except on You Tube, so it has turned out to be a very important archiving site!

Please allow me to quote from my own "Bravo Maestro" in the chapter regarding gramophone recording.

One unfortunate outcome of the technical advances in recording is that many distinguished
artists now refuse point-blank to have their concert performances relayed live on radio. Their fear is that private listeners will `tape' their performances on home, (domestic) recording equipment and will then compare it with commercial recordings by a rival artist -- as if it were also a commercial recording; with the facility to replay over and over again that which the artist only had one go at.
I
If I appear to be labouring this point, the following (true) story will perhaps reinforce my
argument:-

A certain Russian pianist, of moderate reputation, spotted the Recording Manager of a well
known Record Company and ran over to greet him.

“I've just heard my recording of the Greig Piano Concerto” he lisped. “Isn't it wonderful?”

The Recording Manager regarded him with faintly disguised scorn.

“Yes,” he said. “It is rather good. Don't you wish you could play it like that?”

I rest my case!

Yes, it was Cherkassky and I was with the recording manager from EMI when the incident occurred.

HS

[PhilipT]

Outrageous as I am sure it would be regarded as being by some but I think it is time to address the London centric nature of the Proms . I would hand out half the Prommer places on the last night to under 21s and sell them across the country .

But which country? At most recent Last Nights the front two rows have included several Germans and a Swede. Admittedly none was under 21.

By the same argument, I think it's grossly unfair that the Edinburgh Festival is in Edinburgh. It is, you know - every bloomin' year. And don't get me started about Bayreuth and Salzburg and Verona Arena ..

[french frank]

Incidentally, does anyone know how the BBC powers-that-be feel about their programmes being uploaded off the telly and on to You Tube by anyone who cares to do so? Someone in the record business once told me that because the Proms, for example, are bought and paid for out of the licence fee, the Beeb isn't losing out financially anyway.

Rights agreements would presumably be needed for the performers if the BBC made them available, wuldn't they? But I can't see how they could be responsible for bootleg recordings made off-air. They do upload videos themselves but presumably have to go through … procedures If they were losing out in any way, I'm sure they'd be very diligent about getting the YouTube videos removed.

[gradus]

Amusing story but I wouldn't describe Cherkassky's reputation as moderate. In his final years his recitals were widely acclaimed but was he one of those artists that were not much admired within the profession though lauded outside it?

[ahinton]

Amusing story but I wouldn't describe Cherkassky's reputation as moderate. In his final years his recitals were widely acclaimed but was he one of those artists that were not much admired within the profession though lauded outside it?

No, I don't believe that this was the case; his reputation with the public and his professional colleagues was immense. Yes, he had his detractors (who doesn't/didn't), some of whom would seek to criticise him by mistaking supposed inconsistencies of approach for sheer spontaneity; some even claimed that he was just one of those "natural" artists who had little need to practise, which is utter nonsense. He was a highly disciplined pianist who could make warhorses like Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody sound as though it had just been composed and the precision-engineered nature of a performance of Venezia e Napoli that I once heard him give live was such that you could set your clock by it, yet it drew in the audience to a degree that few artists can manage to do.

He did seem to have few obvious interests outside his piano playing, which appeared to consume a very large part of his life indeed.

I once sent him a copy of a Schumann transcription of mine and he wrote back complimenting the work but said that he wouldn't play it because he didn't approave of "altering" Schumann's works; a few weeks after this I attended a performance of Études Symphoniques that made me think "oh, come on, you alter them all the time!" - but it was truly astonishing! Legend has it that, late in life, he managed to get applause in the middle of that work in recital; he heard a mobile go off quite close to him and he immediately stopped playing and got up and said "is that for me?"...

[kernelbogey]

Some backstage pictures from the Guardian may entertain some here.

[ahinton]

Some backstage pictures from the Guardian may entertain some here.

Didn't there just have to be one of - oh, never mind...

[jean]

Yes but only one. And loads of JDF!

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes but only one. And loads of JDF!

...who appears to be brandishing a pair of garden shears in the first photo!

[BBMmk2]

Thanks for the photos, KB! :)

[pastoralguy]

Thanks for the photos, KB! :)

Seconded. Thanks.

[Padraig]

Yes but only one.

... on reflection...

You must be doubly pleased ah.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Didn't there just have to be one of - oh, never mind...

This one? So many fans here will really want to see it

Contact me by PM with LARGE bribes to delete this post

[kernelbogey]

Thanks for the photos, KB! :)

A pleasure. I assume some boarders appear in the pic of the season ticket holders....

[Cockney Sparrow]

Florez is charming, on Saturday night's showing. I heard him sing Fille du Regiment in the opera house a few years back and wondered if I would hear the like from him again - if he would thrive in that sort of repertoire and preserve his vocal powers. It was a pleasure to hear and see him on such good form, and to experience his contribution generally.