Prom 39 - 14.08.17: Debussy, Ravel and Mark-Anthony Turnage

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 14 August 2017
Royal Albert Hall

Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major (22 mins)
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Hibiki European première

Inon Barnatan piano
Sally Matthews soprano
Mihoko Fujimura mezzo-soprano
Finchley Childrens Music Group
New London Children's Choir
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Kazushi Ono conductor


Sunlight and sensitivity dominate Debussy's ravishing Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. The cooler shades of jazz shoot through Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. Mark-Anthony Turnage's Hibiki (Japanese for "beautiful sound") makes reference to the earthquake and devastating tsunami which struck north-east Japan in 2011. A children's chorus and settings of Japanese poetry for soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists create a sequence of threnodies offering solace after loss. This is the European premiere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

https://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Mark-Anthony-Turnage-new-Hibiki-at-Tokyo-s-Suntory-Hall/100949

[BBMmk2]

I am certainly looking forward to this Prom, especially the Mark Anthony Turnage!

[Serial_Apologist]

I am certainly looking forward to this Prom, especially the Mark Anthony Turnage!

Yes - MAT comes in for some flak on here, but I've always liked his style for its consistency and emotional range. There aren't many modern composers with working class backgrounds, especially ones hailing from Essex who profess to radical left sympathies. To me he's a solid composer in the best sense, one who creates an accessible music which is very much his own.

[jayne lee wilson]

A bit more info on the movements on this other B&H page....

https://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Mark-Anthony-Turnage-Hibiki-European-premiere-at-the-Proms/101035&LangID=1

[Richard Barrett]

who profess to radical left sympathies

Working class background:

He says while there are members of his family in traditional local industries, his own working-class identity was "seriously overdone in the press in the early stages of my career, to the point of making my parents furious. I'm not entirely blaming the journalists because I did play on it a bit, but ultimately it seemed to come down to the fact that I like football and came from Essex."

Radical left sympathies: put aside presumably when accepting a CBE.

Hence the "flak" perhaps.

[edashtav]

[...]
Radical left sympathies: put aside presumably when accepting a CBE.

Hence the "flak" perhaps.

Fret ye not, Richard Barrett, the lad should turn out O.K..
I quote from an interview with M-A T that was first published this month...

“All of my music is political,” he says. “I can’t deal with what [the director] Richard Jones calls classy snooze. I have to go for something that sustains my interest.” And if anything, he says, “I get more leftwing as I get older.”

[edashtav]

I am certainly looking forward to this Prom, especially the Mark Anthony Turnage!

[Richard Barrett]

“I get more leftwing as I get older.”

<yawn> Look, I've known him since we were both 22 years old, I know what he's like. "All of my music is political" - if you actually asked him what that meant you wouldn't get much of an answer. Anyway I've said what I had to say, which is that this radical working class image is 99% hype. Whether that matters is another question. I would have more respect for someone who didn't feel they had to exaggerate their humble origins, occasionally said something of political substance instead of vague waffling, and didn't accept "honours" with "British Empire" in their name. (And wrote interesting music.)

[teamsaint]

<yawn> Look, I've known him since we were both 22 years old, I know what he's like. "All of my music is political" - if you actually asked him what that meant you wouldn't get much of an answer. Anyway I've said what I had to say, which is that this radical working class image is 99% hype. Whether that matters is another question. I would have more respect for someone who didn't feel they had to exaggerate their humble origins, occasionally said something of political substance instead of vague waffling, and didn't accept "honours" with "British Empire" in their name. (And wrote interesting music.)

This is sometimes known , in the folk world, as " Eliza Carthy " syndrome.......

[Serial_Apologist]

This is sometimes known as " Eliza Carthy " syndrome.......

When jazz musicians get OBEs, MBEs etc. - which is pretty rare - they usually argue that it lifts the profile of the music rather than themselves. I'll go along with that.

[teamsaint]

When jazz musicians get OBEs, MBEs etc. - which is pretty rare - they usually argue that it lifts the profile of the music rather than themselves. I'll go along with that.

Its a fair point of view, which I completely disagree with !

( If somebody can show me how the profile of folk music has been raised by Eliza accepting the gong, I'll be interested, but still not reconsider my view. It's a flawed system that needs abolishing. However, her own views may be entirely consistent, I suppose.)

I've been told by the doctor* to keep off politics, so enough from me......

* not a real doctor.

[jayne lee wilson]

When I see some newly-ennobled lord or lady posing, with a proud smile, in the ermine, I always think: why would anyone want to do that? It seems tragic-comic.
So, profile-raising justification notwithstanding, I was disappointed when Max and Birtwisle took the sword....

Tonight I'll try to listen without prejudice, as ever. The subject matter is unusual enough....I hope it isn't much longer than the quoted 50'. (Give me a, crisp, concise Mendelssohn or Schumann symphony any day! e.g. tomorrow...)
It's some time since I heard any recent Turnage; after that initial excitement with his early CBSO commissions, after Blood on the Floor , I seemed to lose track....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Its a fair point of view, which I completely disagree with !

- Birtwistle and Davies both also gave the same "reason" for accepting their knighthoods. I'm never sure how much they believe the "profile" has been lifted as a consequence - do they think that people who have never previously heard of them will say to themselves, "Ooh! Peter Maxwell Davies has been knighted - I must order a Psappha's Brian Elias CD from Amazon"?

I've been told by the doctor* to keep off politics, so enough from me......

* not a real doctor.

Oh, he (and now she) are ...

[pastoralguy]

I really enjoyed Turnage's Opera 'Anna Nicole'. Very, dare I say it, entertaining?!

I really must watch it again soon.