Prom 24 - 2.08.17: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts John Adams

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Wednesday 2 August 2017
Royal Albert Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach
Canonic Variations on 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm, ich her', BWV 769 (arr. Stravinsky) (11 mins)

Maurice Ravel: Shéhérazade
John Adams: Naïve and Sentimental Music

Marianne Crebassa mezzo-soprano
Philharmonia Voices
Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa‐Pekka Salones conductor

The celebrations of John Adams's 70th birthday continue with his Naïve and Sentimental Music, conducted by its dedicatee, Esa-Pekka Salonen. A symphony in all but name, the work glows with multi-layered textures. From meditative Minimalism to intricate counterpoint in Stravinsky's Canonic Variations on 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her' - a colourful 'recomposition' of Bach's own chorale variations on the Lutheran hymn. Rising French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa is the soloist in Ravel's heady song-cycle Shéhérazade, an exotic musical fantasy of distant lands and forbidden love.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naïve_and_Sentimental_Music

[jayne lee wilson]

Might be worth listening to Busoni's Berceuse Elegiaque before the Adams, as he says the 2nd movement of N&S is a "gloss" on that piece.... but at the very start of the work you'll probably be reminded of something else - a rather well-known 20thC Violin Concerto....

Always a bit of a musical Magpie, JA...

Still, looks a brilliantly-planned program "on paper"... and Salonen's Philharmonia have sounded great in the RAH in recent years... they seem to know how to play out, project into the hall.

[bluestateprommer]

Still, looks a brilliantly-planned program "on paper"... and Salonen's Philharmonia have sounded great in the RAH in recent years... they seem to know how to play out, project into the hall.

E-PS said at the start to Andrew McGregor that the 3 works have absolutely nothing in common, besides the fact that E-PS likes them all, and just put them on the same program because he felt like it. AM seemed a bit bemused in his commentary at the start . The Stravinsky arrangement of JSB did indeed sound "played out" and well projected from the stage, at least through iPlayer. Very fine rendition from MC of the Ravel. Interesting to hear that E-PS asked for MC, for this Prom, after a Chicago Symphony concert a few seasons back. This is the CSO program for that concert:

https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Salonen_Conducts_Ravel.pdf

Don't know if rf attended this concert in Chicago. As luck would have it, I did.

[jayne lee wilson]

Sounds like "Austerity v Sensuality" to me, intuitively planned..(Sentimental (the Stravinsky) vs Naive (the Ravel)....

[Bryn]

Phew! I suffered a loss of Internet service during the interval feature. Fortunately the link was restored shortly before the start of Part 2. Fingers crossed!

[Maclintick]

Sounds like "Austerity v Sensuality" to me, intuitively planned..(Sentimental (the Stravinsky) vs Naive (the Ravel)....

Is the Adams piece really this boring ? I'm continually hearing orchestral lines which seem to be crying out for some musical phrasing & delineation, but which are just being presented as a series of unrelated notes -- same goes for the tutti climaxes...undifferentiated gestures. Is it just me ? Mind you, I've experienced similarly unmusical journeys many times with this conductor...

[Pulcinella]

Might be worth listening to Busoni's Berceuse Elegiaque before the Adams, as he says the 2nd movement of N&S is a "gloss" on that piece.... but at the very start of the work you'll probably be reminded of something else - a rather well-known 20thC Violin Concerto....

Always a bit of a musical Magpie, JA...

Still, looks a brilliantly-planned program "on paper"... and Salonen's Philharmonia have sounded great in the RAH in recent years... they seem to know how to play out, project into the hall.

Ah! Now I understand your pre-Proms listening!

[BBMmk2]

I rather liked the John Adams. I have known for sometime now and good to hear it again.

Not bothering with tomorrow night's Prom.

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 24. JOHN ADAMS NAIVE AND SENTIMENTAL MUSIC. PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/SALONEN
RADIO 3 CONCERT SOUND. GOOD DYNAMICS & CLARITY, & BALANCE (guitar sl. too loud though in (ii)), STABLE STREAM.

What a terrific performance of Naive and Sentimental Music - Wow!

Carved out of air with that characteristic Philharmonia/Salonen blend of power and precision....and distinctly more urgent than the (perhaps more sheerly beautiful) LA recording, with dramatic and dynamic contrasts emphasised through Part One, and Chain to the Rhythm even more judderingly machine-like, with gruntingly powerful basses, gloriously growling tubas and motorific strings. They kept that gleaming finale machine running with even greater focus and definition than in LA, especially at that aforementioned moment (around 2'30, track 3, on the CD) when the strings get into the driving seat. The LA recording may be the more opulent; I felt this one had the edge in exhilarating drive and attack.
Control was aptly maintained through the last extraordinarily complex, contrapuntal build-up; the concluding chord not allowed to become more naively impassioned than it should be. The finale is after all pure process, really: a machine made of rhythms, it gets going, it achieves its various tasks, and then it stops. Pacific 232 has arrived, on time, at the station. (Which doesn't stop me finding it thrilling, to-laughter and almost to-tears...)

Mother of the Man didn't perhaps create that remote, contemplative aura of withdrawal tonight; the guitar was a bit too loud here, though the delicate halo of percussion around the string melody was beautifully realised (and spaciously resolved on Concert Sound, needless to add...). But it will always be hard for a violin section to achieve the requisite soft sheen in the RAH, so exquisitely realised by the LAPO in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The structural parallels with the Adams' Violin Concerto are close, and fascinating, of course; perhaps that allusion to another well-known 20th C. one, at the very outset of N & S, is a very Adamsish tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of that.

Yes, we could do with alternative readings and recordings, to offer fresh insight into how this music might be shaped and articulated, though I'm not sure how much scope there is for such variability in a work like this. But I loved this one, tonight. Top performance of the season for me (oh, OK.... equal with the Wigglesworth Haydn 99...)

[richardfinegold]

[QUOTE=bluestateprommer;632582]E-PS said at the start to Andrew McGregor that the 3 works have absolutely nothing in common, besides the fact that E-PS likes them all, and just put them on the same program because he felt like it. AM seemed a bit bemused in his commentary at the start . The Stravinsky arrangement of JSB did indeed sound "played out" and well projected from the stage, at least through iPlayer. Very fine rendition from MC of the Ravel. Interesting to hear that E-PS asked for MC, for this Prom, after a Chicago Symphony concert a few seasons back. This is the CSO program for that concert:

https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Salonen_Conducts_Ravel.pdf

Don't know if rf attended this concert in Chicago. As luck would have it, I did.[/QUOTE
I had tickets to the Friday, May 15 Concert, but I wound up having Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery that day. I'd forgotten about the Concert, as you might imagine...how was it?

[DracoM]

Ravel topped it for me - lush and exotic, and beautifully sung.

[Nevilevelis]

Ravel topped it for me - lush and exotic, and beautifully sung.

[jayne lee wilson]

http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/prom-24-review-crebassa-philharmonia-salonen-–-thrilling-performance-adams

I'm still waiting for someone to mention...that violin concerto....

[BBMmk2]

I have the recording that Salonen did with the lAPO, so be a good comparison!