Prom 10 - 22.07.17: Aurora Orchestra – Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 22 July 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 with live excerpts
Tom Service and Nicholas Collon introduce Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, with live excerpts
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No 3 in E flat major 'Eroica'

Tom Service presenter
Aurora Orchestra
Nicholas Collon conductor


No symphony pulses more vigorously with the rhythms of political protest than Beethoven's 'Eroica', whose defiant opening chords mark the arrival of the Romantic symphony. In their novel introduction, BBC Radio 3's Tom Service and conductor Nicholas Collon dismantle and reassemble this groundbreaking work, with the help of live excerpts, before the Aurora Orchestra gets under the skin of the work by performing the complete symphony from memory.
The concert also includes Richard Strauss's 1945 Metamorphosen. Scored for 23 solo strings, this ecstatic, elegiac work closes with an 'Eroica' quotation that mourns the devastation brought about by another, even darker, political regime.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I do like the idea, but I still fear the worst, whilst hoping to be proved wrong.

As for playing from memory, I'm very envious, but perhaps there are more important things in life?

[Once Was 4]

I do like the idea, but I still fear the worst, whilst hoping to be proved wrong.

As for playing from memory, I'm very envious, but perhaps there are more important things in life?

Sadly I also fear the worst in a different way. The Aurora Orchestra are a wonderful ensemble and, despite my instinctive dislike of elite groups ('World Youth Orchestras' etc), it would take something mega important to make me miss this one. But I can just see the comments of second rate (and even first rate) critics now: "could the average professional orchestra stand up and play this from memory?" No they could not - and neither could the Aurora if their workload and conditions were similar to the average professional orchestra. Please let us give a bit more attention to the wonderful musicians who bring live music to people day in, day out, year in, year out.

[kea]

Orchestral musicians play from memory a lot of the time anyway, particularly in more difficult orchestral works (which the Eroica definitely is) where one's eye should be on the conductor/section leader/one's neighbour rather than one's music stand. The score is more of a safety net and thing to scribble bowings, breath marks, etc on. It may be psychologically more difficult for orchestral musicians not to have one, simply because they're used to it, but a certain amount of memorisation is pretty much inevitable; memorising one's entire part isn't a huge step from that, I don't think.

[Once Was 4]

And do not forget transposition! I memorised a lot of the A and A flat basso stuff in Verdi operas and I know at least one professional Principal horn who plays the slow movement of Brahms' second symphony from memory - B basso with lots of accidentals!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suspect they'll hype up the fact that the orchestra are playing from memory, despite the fact that it's musically irrelevant.

[Barbirollians]

Possibly but I imagine it will be good - Collon conducted an outstanding performance of Beethoven 7 with the Halle last year in Sheffield - best I had heard in a very long time .

[Bryn]

Possibly but I imagine it will be good - Collon conducted an outstanding performance of Beethoven 7 with the Halle last year in Sheffield - best I had heard in a very long time .

No noisy page turning or pages knocked off stands. I can see certain musical advantages to their playing from memory, not least that lack of the distraction of page turning.

[kernelbogey]

Hey! This is quite fun!

[bluestateprommer]

Hey! This is quite fun!

Agreed. I can too easily forget just how much goes into a great piece of music, or artwork, that we all might take for granted.

PS: The 23 Aurora strings did a very fine job indeed with Metamorphosen. Even though I've heard it a few times on record and once live, until the NC/TS/Aurora pre-performance presentation, it didn't really sink in until now just how much LvB's 'Eroica' informs the Strauss work.

[edashtav]

Hey! This is quite fun!

Tonight we heard the best of Tom Service, a pre-programmed, thought through, enlightening and interlinked examination of Beethoven's Eroica and Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen. Tom's passion for the music, and the almost boyish enthusiasm he feels about spreading the word, shone through and, for once, were not drowned by garrulous effusion.

I'm a great admirer of Nicholas Collon and the Aurora orchestra. I felt that they played Strauss's Metamorphosen with panache and virtuosity. It was not the executants' fault that the complex polyphony descended into Royal Albert Hall soup and became Brown Windsor. I need help, not hindrance, to hear all the lines all of the time. I'm a heretic and would prefer to hear Strauss's late masterpiece in a dry RFH acoustic, devoid of bloom!

[johnn10]

No noisy page turning or pages knocked off stands. I can see certain musical advantages to their playing from memory, not least that lack of the distraction of page turning.

I can see that encores will be rather different too - the audience near the platform will no longer be able to spot the tell tale sign of an extra few pages of music still unopened at the end of the advertised programme. And none of that special excitement and anticipation when one can just about make out the name of the composer but still have no idea of what the piece will be. Or indeed, even whether the conductor will decide to play an encore or not.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No noisy page turning or pages knocked off stands. I can see certain musical advantages to their playing from memory, not least that lack of the distraction of page turning.

It also means the composer's orchestral balance can be maintained. When string players have a page turn, 50% of the section drops out for a few seconds. No amount of playing experience can fully compensate for this, other than by having no music.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Enjoying the Eroica but in the FLAC feed the bassoon is so forward in the balance its sounding in places like a bassoon concerto . Superb bassoon playing though!

[MrGongGong]

It also means the composer's orchestral balance can be maintained. When string players have a page turn, 50% of the section drops out for a few seconds. No amount of playing experience can fully compensate for this, other than by having no music.

Make your mind up chum

I suspect they'll hype up the fact that the orchestra are playing from memory, despite the fact that it's musically irrelevant.