Prom 25 - 2.08.17: Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir

[Goon525]

It did sound absolutely splendid via Concert Sound. This is now providing feeds that are of equivalent standard to good commercial recordings. I haven't said that about R3 ever before. Oh, and the performances were pretty wonderful too. I was glad I had the CD of JEG's millennium recordings - useful to have texts, and JEG's outstanding notes. But I have a feeling tonight's concert even outdid the recorded Wittenberg concert.

[doversoul1]

The Schütz was much more robust than how I tend to think his music was , and the counter tenor (alto) and the soprano in Bach sounded slightly strained but this may have been because I was listening on a small transistor radio. On the whole, I thought it was a very good late night Prom.

[jean]

...the counter tenor (alto) and the soprano in Bach sounded slightly strained but this may have been because I was listening on a small transistor radio...

Or perhaps because they were trying to fill the RAH with their baroque-sized voices...

[Goon525]

I certainly didn't feel the soprano sounded strained. Very much in the style of Joanne Lunn.
Does anyone know how big the attendance was? Even with some all night public transport, getting home from a concert that finished at about 11.35 isn't trivial for lots of people.

[doversoul1]

Or perhaps because they were trying to fill the RAH with their baroque-sized voices...

That was what I thought, especially the alto. I shouldn’t expect all countertenors to be as good as Iestyn Davies.

[ed.] Pygmalion’s soloists in the Monteverdi sounded quite hard-edged (?) but I didn’t think they sounded strained (if that’s what you are implying )

[BasilHarwood]

Or perhaps because they were trying to fill the RAH with their baroque-sized voices...

Please let me assure you that there is no 'baroque-sized' singing in MVC, it's all or nothing.

I was in the choir last night and listened back on the train this morning - the balance was shocking, and I'll lay that squarely at the Beeb's door; but, we did move about quite a lot last night in the Schütz but that's no excuse re. mics. The choir sounded very distant and rather dull to my ears which is odd as friends in the audience said they could hear everything very well.

Glad you all enjoyed it.

[Nevilevelis]

Please let me assure you that there is no 'baroque-sized' singing in MVC, it's all or nothing.

I was in the choir last night and listened back on the train this morning - the balance was shocking, and I'll lay that squarely at the Beeb's door; but, we did move about quite a lot last night in the Schütz but that's no excuse re. mics. The choir sounded very distant and rather dull to my ears which is odd as friends in the audience said they could hear everything very well.

Glad you all enjoyed it.

Yes, that's true. I used to sing in the MVC!

In the interview last night JEG said he was insistent that the orchestra and choir should not strive to fill the hall, but rather draw the audience in with the intensity of their performance - or words to that effect. That certainly came across.

I wonder if because of lack of space after the earlier Prom (JEG mentioned this) you got the sharp end of the stick for balance issues... still, no excuse for the Beeb, you will have had a balance session earlier in the day.

NVV

[Petrushka]

I was in the choir last night and listened back on the train this morning - the balance was shocking,

Forgive the question, but are these ideal listening conditions? Hope you will be able to hear the concert again in better circumstances where your judgement on the choral balance might well be revised. I haven't heard the Prom yet but hope to catch up with it over the weekend. Listening via my home system on Freeview I've had no problems with the choral balance this season.

[Goon525]

There was NO problem with the balance of the choir listening live via the FLAC stream. I'd suggest it was pretty close to the average of the team's recordings of the cantatas (I have them all).

[BasilHarwood]

Forgive the question, but are these ideal listening conditions? Hope you will be able to hear the concert again in better circumstances where your judgement on the choral balance might well be revised. I haven't heard the Prom yet but hope to catch up with it over the weekend. Listening via my home system on Freeview I've had no problems with the choral balance this season.

Modern train, excellent headphones and a new iPad. Seems ok to me!

[EdgeleyRob]

The Schütz was much more robust than how I tend to think his music was , and the counter tenor (alto) and the soprano in Bach sounded slightly strained but this may have been because I was listening on a small transistor radio. On the whole, I thought it was a very good late night Prom.

Me too ds,although I listened early in the morning.

[jayne lee wilson]

Please let me assure you that there is no 'baroque-sized' singing in MVC, it's all or nothing.

I was in the choir last night and listened back on the train this morning - the balance was shocking, and I'll lay that squarely at the Beeb's door; but, we did move about quite a lot last night in the Schütz but that's no excuse re. mics. The choir sounded very distant and rather dull to my ears which is odd as friends in the audience said they could hear everything very well.

Glad you all enjoyed it.

No excuse for such a loose judgement, either.... listening right now on R3 HDs iplayer at 320 kbps, the balance is... truly beautiful. Instruments and chorus as well-balanced as one could wish...all with vivid, late-night Prom, closer-set yet still spacious immediacy.(and as G525 reports, it would've been even better via Concert Sound, I'm quite sure..)

If you say you listened via "Modern train, excellent headphones and a new iPad. Seems ok to me!" you need to say which Radio 3 etc feed you heard. 128 kbps perhaps? It cannot have been a very accurate one, sorry. I'm also intrigued as to how a modern train may have influenced sound quality. Better anti-vibration measures, perhaps?

You feel this is harsh? You are too harsh on engineers/producers who have done a wonderful job this season, as those of us revelling in lossless Concert Sound each night (by some distance the most accurate of feeds) can attest.

[BasilHarwood]

No excuse for such a loose judgement, either.... listening right now on R3 HDs iplayer at 320 kbps, the balance is... truly beautiful. Instruments and chorus as well-balanced as one could wish...all with vivid, late-night Prom, closer-set yet still spacious immediacy.(and as G525 reports, it would've been even better via Concert Sound, I'm quite sure..)

If you say you listened via "Modern train, excellent headphones and a new iPad. Seems ok to me!" you need to say which Radio 3 etc feed you heard. 128 kbps perhaps? It cannot have been a very accurate one, sorry. I'm also intrigued as to how a modern train may have influenced sound quality. Better anti-vibration measures, perhaps?

You feel this is harsh? You are too harsh on engineers/producers who have done a wonderful job this season, as those of us revelling in lossless Concert Sound each night (by some distance the most accurate of feeds) can attest.

Please don't call my judgement loose - I've performed this programme more than once and am very familiar with it; I am totally allowed to say I thought the radio balance was off!

It was too top-heavy (overall) and the 'first half' was only set up for the first Schütz piece, thus loosing the space and breadth of the more polychoral works as mic placement and choirs just didn't match for Schütz pieces 2 and 3.

You mis-interpreted my train comment. The train is very quiet so doesn't interfere with listening. I don't know what 'Kbps' iplayer is......

[doversoul1]

Please don't call my judgement loose - I've performed this programme more than once and am very familiar with it; I am totally allowed to say I thought the radio balance was off!

It was too top-heavy (overall) and the 'first half' was only set up for the first Schütz piece, thus loosing the space and breadth of the more polychoral works as mic placement and choirs just didn't match for Schütz pieces 2 and 3.

You mis-interpreted my train comment. The train is very quiet so doesn't interfere with listening. I don't know what 'Kbps' iplayer is......

Maybe it feels different when you are actually performing but if the balance wasn’t perfect on the radio, you can see from the posts here, it didn’t spoil the performance for many of us. So, many thanks for the wonderful music.

[MrGongGong]

Maybe it feels different when you are actually performing but if the balance wasn’t perfect on the radio, you can see from the posts here, it didn’t spoil the performance for many of us. And here is the Guardian review with four stars. So, many thanks for the wonderful music.

Without adding to disagreements I would say that it ALWAYS sounds different when you are performing unless you are using foldback or in-ear monitoring to give you the sound that the audience will get (but that only works for amplified music).

This is why we should maybe be more than a little sceptical of "big-name-scouse-conductors" who make statements about concert hall acoustics