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

[johnn10]

Ditto the fact that it is live. Even when in the numerous repeat broadcasts it isn't.

[Bryn]

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!

Hmm. Got a 'does not appear to be working, try again later' part way through. Hopefully next Thursday afternoon's repeat will be without hiccups.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Sorry to hear that - the sound quality in the slow movement was extraordinary - the timps sounded like thunderbolts from Zeus rather than compressing and pumping the overall sound as on FM . I really hope the Beeb roll this out for all live concerts ...

[Dave2002]

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

It was good, but other conductors would have raised the level even higher.

[makropulos]

What a thrilling, fresh, exciting and engrossing performance of the Eroica. I loved this. Owing to dog-walking, I missed Metamorphosen and must listen to it on iPlayer.

[kernelbogey]

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 totally agree, and my first post (9) was a rather boyish response to the exposition of the symphony by him and Nicholas Collon. I thought the whole perfomance of this part by the two of them and the orchestra, obviously carefully scripted and rehearsed, worked really well - and not forgetting the audience's enthusiastic participation, beautifully 'conducted' by the two speakers.

I was obliged to listen in mono (don't ask) and was also struck by the very forward wind sound, especially the bassoon (as noted by Herr Heldenleben above), but somehow this came into its own in IV.

I found I a rather ordinary performance, although I will admit to not having listened as closely as I did to the other three movements. It seemed to me that the playing really came alive in the magnificent II - and there were moments, for me, of extraordinary awe and terror in the music that I hadn't previously experienced.

For me the excellence continued in III; but came really to the fore in the magnificent account of the finale. Here, the forward woodwind sound made real sense. I consider this the greatest of all symphonies, and the music of the latter half, or so, of IV is its apogee. This was a thrilling perfomance particularly of IV.

For once I could forgive Tom Service his gushing about the performance in his back-announcement. He said he'd been with the Aurora all week and I felt I agreed with him that something extraordinary had been created in that time by the musicians.

[jayne lee wilson]

I really didn't enjoy this Eroica very much.... too often it seemed just an energetic delivery of the notes and the calculated shifting of dynamic levels. Tempo & phrase were on a very tight leash in the first movement, the development climax was underwhelming, the recap arrived without much éclat....

Still, the funeral march went better - here, I felt the music itself was inspiring the performers to find some tragedy in themselves, lending their playing some inner tragic animation too.
But after that....
All energy and dynamics again. More of that rapid, neutral, inflexible delivery of - the notes, just the notes....
(I recall responding similarly to Beethoven and Mozart performances from such as Pinnock and JEG through the 1990s. But I find more recent recordings from the latter with the LSO and ORR far more engaging).

Do Androids Dream of Electronic Eroicas?

[bluestateprommer]

Fine rendition of LvB 3, with HIPP-ster features noted in the trimmed vibrato, and the trumpet stopping part-way into the climatic statement of the main theme of I, which I think was a 'Harnoncourt-ism' from the time of his COE cycle, but which seems to have become more common practice (no idea of Jonathan Del Mar's critical edition observes this feature). Happily, NC observed the exposition repeat in I (as he did in their recent Brahms 1, which I need to 'tweet' about in the other thread at some point), even still now not always common practice, that I can tell.

I wonder if the forward woodwind sound that heldenleben & kb noted might be partly due to a reduced-sized string section, if this is the case that Aurora Orchestra's string sections are more at chamber orchestra-scale than full orchestra scale. Applause from the audience after I & II, yes, but NC obviated that in diving attacca from III -> IV.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Make your mind up chum

Fair cop.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Didn't mind the forward woodwind - if fact relished it . If you follow the Norrington theory then these vital elements of the classical symphony tend to be drowned out by excessive string vibrato. Just that the bassoon sounded forward in the woodwind choir. In fact it had become less prominent by the recap of I . I wonder if it was spot miked or whether the mikes on the winds slightly favoured the bassoon. Overall loved the sound but yes it was a hard driven , aggressive performance . I wonder if that's what can happen when you have every note under your fingers.

[edashtav]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Eroica performance, especially the slow movement that had real gravitas and feeling.

but then .... but then... back came bad Tom, free-form,prattling away, and with all the self-control of a medium spouting ectoplasm. He was acting as cheer leader for a concert in which he was an integral part. Utterly bathetic and so irritating that I cannot recall the detailed observations that I'd planned to make about the performance.

Tom is good with a script, without one he's awful.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Didn't mind the forward woodwind - if fact relished it . If you follow the Norrington theory then these vital elements of the classical symphony tend to be drowned out by excessive string vibrato. Just that the bassoon sounded forward in the woodwind choir. In fact it had become less prominent by the recap of I . I wonder if it was spot miked or whether the mikes on the winds slightly favoured the bassoon. Overall loved the sound but yes it was a hard driven , aggressive performance . I wonder if that's what can happen when you have every note under your fingers.

The solution to this can only be found in the concert hall itself. (I can think of many studio recordings where the harp, horns or bassoons were unnaturally close, whilst everything else was well-balanced.) Was it at last year's Proms that a broadcast of Mahler 4 sounded like a horn concerto, so skewed was the engineers' sound balance?

[EdgeleyRob]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Eroica performance, especially the slow movement that had real gravitas and feeling.

but then .... but then... back came bad Tom, free-form,prattling away, and with all the self-control of a medium spouting ectoplasm. He was acting as cheer leader for a concert in which he was an integral part. Utterly bathetic and so irritating that I cannot recall the detailed observations that I'd planned to make about the performance.

Tom is good with a script, without one he's awful.

Yep,ruined a decent Eroica,all I can remember is him prattling on at the end

[Hornspieler]

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.

Another one to write off. Unbelievably bad playing. Dreadful bad intonation from cellos and basses.

Scampered through the first movement of the Beethoven, and I just had to turn it off.

The Metamorphosen was the reason I listened - great music, but for me, this performance was aggressive rather than melancholy.

Let us hope that "Normal Service" will not be resumed as soon as possible.



HS

[Hornspieler]

[QUOTE=Eine Alpensinfonie;630728
The solution to this can only be found in the concert hall itself. (I can think of many studio recordings where the harp, horns or bassoons were unnaturally close, whilst everything else was well-balanced.) Was it at last year's Proms that a broadcast of Mahler 4 sounded like a horn concerto, so skewed was the engineers' sound balance?[/QUOTE]

I can assure you that, when playing this work, you feel as if you are out front, playing a concerto, but with no trousers on. (The same can be said, (no underpants either) when playing Mahler's 5th Symphony!