PCM 1 - 17.07.17: I Fagiolini and Robert Hollingworth

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00 Monday 17 July 2017
Cadogan Hall

Claudio Monteverdi: Cruda Amarilli
Claudio Monteverdi: Sfogava con le stelle
Claudio Monteverdi: Longe da te, cor mio
Claudio Monteverdi: Orfeo – 'Possente spirto'
Claudio Monteverdi: Chiome d'oro
Claudio Monteverdi: Vorrei baciarti, o Filli
Roderick Williams: Là ci darem la mano BBC commission: world première
Claudio Monteverdi: Laudate pueri Dominum a 5 (concertato)
Claudio Monteverdi: Volgendo il ciel per l'immortal sentiero

I Fagiolini
Robert Hollingsworth director

Who better to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi's birth than I Fagiolini, who have spent a career unpicking the knotty conflicts and emotional truths of the composer's music.
The vocal ensemble is joined by strings, cornetts and continuo to explore love, lust, anger, jealousy and despair in a concert that spans the gamut of Monteverdi's music, both sacred and secular.
This season's first Monday-lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall also includes the world premiere of a new commission from composer, baritone and Proms regular Roderick Williams, inspired by the text of a well known aria from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The first Proms Chamber Music concert of the season.

I never knew Roderick Williams was a composer.

[BBMmk2]

I'm really looking forwRdto this one, as. I have recently purchased their Otger Vespers cd

[Rolmill]

This concert sold out very quickly so I missed out, however I see that 150 seats will be available from 10.00am on the day. Does anyone have experience of queueing for a day ticket at Cadogan Hall?

In particular, how early should I aim to get there in order to be sure of a ticket, do you reckon - 9.30 or even earlier? It seems to have been a very popular concert, so I suspect the queue could be quite long, but I'm in London for the afternoon anyway and really wanted to go to this one...

[bluestateprommer]

This concert sold out very quickly so I missed out, however I see that 150 seats will be available from 10.00am on the day. Does anyone have experience of queueing for a day ticket at Cadogan Hall?

In particular, how early should I aim to get there in order to be sure of a ticket, do you reckon - 9.30 or even earlier? It seems to have been a very popular concert, so I suspect the queue could be quite long, but I'm in London for the afternoon anyway and really wanted to go to this one...

I have such experience. Since you're in London that day, getting to Cadogan Hall around 9 AM might be a good idea, with a book, and maybe also a sandwich to nosh on and a bottle of water. Your seat(s) will be balcony level, off to the side, in very close proximity to the stage.

In general, from past history, even though the Cadogan Hall PCM's tend to 'sell out' quickly, I suspect that, rather like in the US and what also happens in the UK for some popular music big-name events (and also with certain RAH Proms concerts), some semi-nefarious folks game the electronic systems to snatch up a slew of tickets. When I've gone to Cadogan Hall for PCM's, even for ones that 'sold out' on the 1st day of sale back in April, I've noticed that often enough, not every single seat is actually occupied. Hope it all works out for you.

[Rolmill]

Thanks for the advice bsp, I will indeed aim for 9am.

[doversoul1]

15 minutes into the concert.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Good performances, a little spoilt for me by the often rather wobbly women's voices.

The Roderick Williams piece was a bit of fun - all in keeping with a Prom that seemed to be a collection of mates enjoying themselves and inviting the audience to join in. Probably worked much better in the hall.

[Rolmill]

Probably worked much better in the hall.

I was in the hall and suspect you are right - it was a very enjoyable all round experience (vocally and visually): plenty of thought had clearly been given to each of the numbers and they were well presented, as well as being generally well sung. But I can imagine it not coming over on radio quite so well, without the visual element and sense of engagement which communicated itself so readily to those in the hall.

Your comment on the women's voices is interesting. I am usually quite sensitive to 'soprano wobble' in early music, but here found this to be a less intrusive issue than the vibrato of one of the tenor voices. I'll have to LA - it may be that the radio balance differed significantly from my 'live' position in the side gallery.

[Richard Tarleton]

I thought, not for the first time, that there's just too much talking in these lunchtime proms - have thought so in previous years, can think of a couple of televised ones. They've only got an hour - the presenter seems to be part of the performance in the hall, as well as announcing for radio.

[bluestateprommer]

I thought, not for the first time, that there's just too much talking in these lunchtime proms - have thought so in previous years, can think of a couple of televised ones. They've only got an hour - the presenter seems to be part of the performance in the hall, as well as announcing for radio.

Maybe, but it must be remembered that this also allows the musicians to take a brief breather and recharge momentarily for the next work. Plus, this 1st PCM went over the 1-hour time slot, so one can't complain of value for money there, even if it disrupted the scheduled 2 PM R3 program time slot a bit.

The Roderick Williams piece had its cheeky side, with the superimposed spoken text, which somewhat trivialized the moment for me. But it's evidently what Williams wanted to do, so to quote from Amadeus: "Well, there it is." Overall, the concert was very enjoyable, in good fun, and well done.

For Rolmill, just out of curiosity, was 9 AM more than enough time? It would be curious how long the queue end up being (e.g. how long it was at 9:30 AM).

[Rolmill]

For Rolmill, just out of curiosity, was 9 AM more than enough time? It would be curious how long the queue end up being (e.g. how long it was at 9:30 AM).

I actually got there at 8.30am and found myself number 4 in the queue! By 9am there were around 15, so that would indeed have been fine; 9.30 was probably up to 35-40. Tbh I was a little surprised the queue wasn't longer, given how quickly the concert sold out.