Prom 28 - 5.08.17: National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 5 August 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Francisco Coll: Mural London première
Thomas Adès: Polaris
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
Thomas Adès conductor

Hear some of the UK's finest young musical talent, directed by composer and conductor Thomas Adès, in a bold programme of works that push the orchestra to its technical and sonic limits. Adès's own Polaris, subtitled 'A Voyage for Orchestra', takes inspiration from the North Star, conjuring a vast interstellar landscape that unfolds from a simple piano theme into a massive sonic spiral. Francisco Coll's Mural, tonight receiving its London premiere, is another richly textured, large-scale work - a 'grotesque symphony, in which Dionysus meets Apollo'. The concert's climax is Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring, whose frenzied rhythms and provocative harmonies prompted a legendary riot at its Paris premiere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's aways good to welcome the NYOGM, though I do wish the presenters could avoid the patronising gush that the presenter(s) will surely throw at us, especially on the revised version.

[Hornspieler]

19:30 Saturday 5 August 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Francisco Coll: Mural London première
Thomas Adès: Polaris
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
Thomas Adès conductor

Hear some of the UK's finest young musical talent, directed by composer and conductor Thomas Adès, in a bold programme of works that push the orchestra to its technical and sonic limits. Adès's own Polaris, subtitled 'A Voyage for Orchestra', takes inspiration from the North Star, conjuring a vast interstellar landscape that unfolds from a simple piano theme into a massive sonic spiral. Francisco Coll's Mural, tonight receiving its London premiere, is another richly textured, large-scale work - a 'grotesque symphony, in which Dionysus meets Apollo'. The concert's climax is Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring, whose frenzied rhythms and provocative harmonies prompted a legendary riot at its Paris premiere.

I shall spare my ears the agony of listening to that.:

Rite of Spring?

Looks more like Wrong of Programme to me!

HS

"Mismatch of the Day?"

[BBMmk2]

I do find that, when youngsters are concerned. We rehearse them week after week in term time, plus*some!) of them practice by themselves, so they should be well versed in the music's structure etc....

[bluestateprommer]

The NYOGB and TA just gave this same concert at the Snape Maltings:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/04/national-youth-orchestra-great-britain-thomas-ades-review-snape-maltings

I've never been to Aldeburgh, but presumably the larger expanse of the RAH will make the loudest moments in the works much less ear-splitting for all involved.

[kernelbogey]

[...]Rite of Spring? Looks more like Wrong of Programme to me!:[...]

Surely a Youth Orchestra is entirely appropriate for ritual sacrifice?

[kernelbogey]

19:30 Saturday 5 August 2017 ON TV...Royal Albert Hall

This prom does not appear in tonight's tv schedules, so I assume is being recorded for later transmission. Is there a BBC listing of televised proms, live and as-live?

[Pulcinella]

This prom does not appear in tonight's tv schedules, so I assume is being recorded for later transmission. Is there a BBC listing of televised proms, live and as-live?

The Proms Guide says that it (this concert) is being broadcast on BBC Four on 6 August.

[jayne lee wilson]

Intriguing Part One tonight....

Coming across in its 13-minute span as something like two crescendos woven from continuously flowing melodic lines, with a calmer reflective passage between them - but with a startlingly unexpected ending, Polaris sounds something like a Scandinavian nature-poem- night skies and dark seas - with a glitteringly brilliant orchestration that should work well in the RAH….

At least that’s what it sounded like this afternoon, when I heard it for the first time in my life…
I'll be keen to see how my impressions change later...

[EdgeleyRob]

I have a cd of the Rite of Spring played by NYOGB conducted by Rattle.
It's rather good IMVHO

[Bryn]

I have a cd of the Rite of Spring played by NYOGB conducted by Rattle.
It's rather good IMVHO

I think there may possibly have been one or two personnel changes in the orchestra since then.

[Pulcinella]

I have a cd of the Rite of Spring played by NYOGB conducted by Rattle.
It's rather good IMVHO

The personnel have changed a bit since that recording was made, though, ER (1977).


PS: Bryn got there first!
Note to self: remember to refresh before posting!

[EdgeleyRob]

Yes I realise that

[bluestateprommer]

From hearing the 1st half, the NYOGB were obviously on very strong form, all the more so with 2 contemporary works on the program in a situation where probably most adult orchestras would be thrown for a loop. As far as the works themselves, the Coll struck me as the more "generic modern music" of the two, while the Ades did have a more restrained start, where the opening piano sort of sounded like "Here Comes The Sun" for a moment, IMHO. I should give each another listen down the line.

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 28 PART ONE. ADÈS, COLL. NYPO/ADÈS. (R3 CONCERT SOUND).

On a very spacious CS webcast, Adès, evidently making the most of those wide-open spaces and remote brass positionings, seemed to make more of the early quasi-climax in his Polaris, (around 3-4 minutes in) on the way to the first of those two big crescendi (at about 8' and at the end). On the recording (which I played again just after the Prom) the earlier one feels more like a preparation on the way to the first, cymbal-topped climax.
Or tonight, you could hear the piece as 3 climaxes, each one louder (or at least longer) than the last, with those beautiful, lyrical episodes in between. Orchestrally it was just a shade de-focussed compared to the LSO Live disc, but rather more atmospheric and evocative - the Barbican is its usual dry, slightly fun-spoiling self. Interesting contrast though.

It's hard to make much of a piece with such explosive, concentrated invention and dazzling multi-colours as Coll's Mural on a single hearing. Clearly laid out in 5 very concise movements (1,2 and 4 very confrontational, 3 and 5 slower, calmer, then growing more ominous), it had a very symphonic-poem-like character, leading me to wonder if there are, or were at any point, movement-titles around the Dionysus/Apollo theme mentioned in the program. I did wonder if those Rite of Spring-type rhythmic attacks were a little obvious in their derivation, and like bsp thought the composer-voice a bit anonymous, as if still searching for its true character - but who knows how these things may seem after more hearings? I've often found such influences to sound better integrated, once the whole shape of a work is better grasped.