Prom 3 - 16.07.17: Bernard Haitink conducts Mozart and Schumann

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

15:45 Sunday 16 July 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart: Symphony No 38 in D major 'Prague', K 504
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart: Violin Concerto No 3 in G major, K 216
Robert Schumann: Symphony No 2 in C major

Isabelle Faust violin
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Bernard Haitink conductor

[greenilex]

Really looking forward to next Sunday afternoon - a birthday present from my daughter. Hope BH is on great form...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Really looking forward to next Sunday afternoon - a birthday present from my daughter. Hope BH is on great form...

A really great present. I think Haitink is the only conductor still living who I can remember from my childhood.

[pastoralguy]

A really great present. I think Haitink is the only conductor still living who I can remember from my childhood.

Actually, that's a good point, Alpie! All the conductors I was familiar with as a teenager are dead now except Haitink and Blomstedt.

[Petrushka]

Astonishingly, this will be my very first live Schumann symphony in over 42 years of concert-going. Haitink is, as I've said so often on here, my musical godfather, there at the very beginning of my interest in classical music. It promises to be a fantastic Sunday at the Proms with the Barenboim evening concert as well. Really looking forward to both.

[Barbirollians]

Also with the Prague to open a proper concert lengthwise and with another of the world's top violinists playing .

[jayne lee wilson]

15:45 hrs....This is a bit early, for both head and ears, to be primed for....
I'll join it when I can, after the British Grand Prix and several damn fine cups of coffee...

I do love Schumann in whatever medium. Symphonies, Piano Trios and Violin Sonatas especially. Uncountable versions on my shelves...
tbc....(prefer smaller bands - HIPPs, Chamber Orchestral, Freiburg Baroque, Swedish CO etc - in the Symphonies & Concertos)

I adore the COE too (you've heard Harnoncourt's Schumann with them? Or the new YNS Mendelssohn set? Heavenly...)...

[cloughie]

Actually, that's a good point, Alpie! All the conductors I was familiar with as a teenager are dead now except Haitink and Blomstedt.

Mehta and Previn? and how about Rozhdestvensky and Loughran, or am I a bit younger than you?

[pastoralguy]

Mehta and Previn? and how about Rozhdestvensky and Loughran, or am I a bit younger than you?

How old are you Cloughie?

[BBMmk2]

Jayne, not heard the YNS/Mendelssohn yet it on the cards.
I enjoyed the Prom concerts of these artists, Brahms cycle a few years ago, so this Prom will be equally good, I am sure!

[teamsaint]

A late dash to this one for me.too tempting on a lazy Sunday, and the chores done yesterday.....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Before the concert starts - a bit of pedantry. I've adjusted the earlier composer's name in the OP.

[Pulcinella]

Before the concert starts - a bit of pedantry. I've adjusted the earlier composer's name in the OP.

Plain old Robert pales in comparison, Alpie!

[bluestateprommer]

Really looking forward to next Sunday afternoon - a birthday present from my daughter. Hope BH is on great form...

In Mozart 38, BH certainly was on very, very fine form indeed. A nice mix of 'old school' warmth and pacing in the first movement, complete with the exposition repeat, and with what seems to be traces of HIPP, in the trimmed vibrato, perhaps channeling memories of past work with Harnoncourt. Crisp pacing, no dragging, in the slow movement, and a cracking pace in the finale, again with the exposition repeat. Lucky folks, greenilex and Petrushka, to be in the RAH for this Prom. (Just barely made it back from the vet in time to open up iPlayer.)

The Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 just finished. Fine performance, perhaps not quite on the exalted level of the Symphony No. 38 (or maybe I was just on too much of a mental high after the opener), but that's not much of a criticism. Interesting twist to hear the cadenzas by Andreas Staier. Isabelle Faust showed her HIPP-ness in her use of minimal vibrato at quite a few points.

[maestro267]

Remarkable how Haitink managed to get the audience to not applaud between movements. That's what gets me now. I'm coming to accept that applause between movements is an irreversible tradition at the Proms now, but it should be consistent. Either applaud every time there is silence between movements, or don't.