Prom 4 - 16.07.17: Daniel Barenboim and Staatskapelle Berlin

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:45 Sunday 16 July 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Sir Harrison Birtwistle : Deep Time BBC co-commission with the Staatskapelle Berlin: UK première
Edward Elgar: Symphony No 2 in E flat major


Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim conductor

Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin bring the generous scope of their interpretation of Elgar's Second Symphony to their second concert of the season, celebrating a work whose modernity and astonishing textural effects startle even now.
Dedicated to the memory of Peter Maxwell Davies, who died last year, Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Deep Time continues his career-long fascination with time and its manipulation in a sweeping new orchestral work that swaps the relentless tick-tock of the everyday for something more powerful and more alien.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Two great concerts on one day.

[Serial_Apologist]

a sweeping new orchestral work that swaps the relentless tick-tock of the everyday for something more powerful and more alien.

Er: Sir Harry's tick-tock has never been of the everyday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmi3PT6-Tvo

[Zucchini]

This seems to have been forgotten - Haitink/COE in the afternoon, Barenboim in the evening (and on TV)

[ARBurton]

In my humble opinion this Birtwhistle is...er....not my cup of tea....

[pastoralguy]

In my humble opinion this Birtwhistle is...er....not my cup of tea....

It's difficult to tell on first hearing but I've heard a few works of Birtwistle's works great over the years and I really don't get his idiom. It's difficult to imagine other orchestras taking a work like this up due to the sheer number of players required.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

B i r t w i s t l e

(He's a Lancastrian - the "h" is dropped.)

[pastoralguy]

B i r t w i s t l e

(He's a Lancastrian - the "h" is dropped.)

Of course. Although I don't respond to his music I should at least spell his name correctly.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A very rich, generous piece - great tribute to his old foefriend - and too much to take in on one hearing; bits that sounded as if The Triumph of Time had been playing non-stop since its first performance, and we were returning to the hall to hear how it was continuing; bits that sounded like the stutters and stabs of Earth Dances - I did have doubts in the early pages that Birtwistle was relying a little too much on his own tried-and-tested fingerprints. But then so much that hasn't appeared in his writing before - the rallentando violin pizzications, the unison string flurries, ending with full section descending glissandi. I shall raid TV and radio i-Players to listen to this frequently and with great pleasure over the next month.

The "sheer numbers" - a perfect concert opener for Shostakovich #4

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Responding to just criticism ...

- or the Fifth, of course!

[Bryn]

The BBC FOUR transmission has just fallen flat on its face.

[pastoralguy]

Bloody fault in transmission on BBC4. Obvious it's not Wimbledon!

[pastoralguy]

SERIOUSLY pi***d off here!

Don't they like music?

[Barbirollians]

The FLAC on Concert Sound is fabulous through headphones .

[Ein Heldenleben]

Can't beat steam radio - particularly when it's a FLAC stream of this quality ...