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

[DracoM]

Pretty feeble Prelude a l'Apres- Midi etc IMO. Gosh. I love the piece,e but this perf.....??? Hmm.

[edashtav]

[QUOTE=Richard Barrett;634044]<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. [...]/[QUOTE]

Being a composer is not synonymous with a mastery of words, Richard Barrett. I spent a day with M-A T at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Young Composers Event early in 2017 and can confirm that his music speaks louder and more articulately than his words. Lack of "le bon mot" doesn't make one a hypocrite. I shall listen with an open mind and hope that M-A T does not fall into the Japanese trap that ensnared BB when he was commissioned to write his Sinfonia da Requiem.

[jayne lee wilson]

That Ravel G Major was a very uncomfortable, uncoordinated 20 minutes.... perhaps it's best to simply say - moving swiftly on....

[edashtav]

That Ravel G Major was a very uncomfortable, uncoordinated 20 minutes.... perhaps it's best to simply say - moving swiftly on....

But... the BBC SO played a lot better than the last time I heard the Ravel with Martha Argerich and her ex- conducting the RPO who couldn't sustain the pace.

[edashtav]

And... I loved the orchestra's relaxed Debussy with the principals given so much room and encouragement to shape their phrases.

[pastoralguy]

That Ravel G Major was a very uncomfortable, uncoordinated 20 minutes.... perhaps it's best to simply say - moving swiftly on....

Did the pianist lose his way in his solo at the beginning of the second movement? I can only assume that the majority of the rehearsal went on the Turnage...

[edashtav]

The first movement of Turnage's Hibiki is purely orchestral with the composer creating a jazzy beat with funky rhythms. The complexity increases as if a city is waking up to another busy day, a day not darkened by strangulation from an earthquake. I found this set-up satisfying and it drew on concepts that Turnage's has explored in earlier works: in fact it reeked of the composer and couldn't be mistaken for any other.

That movement was succeeded by a more mysterious, uncertain, worrying slow movement, again for Orchestra alone: it was disturbed by sudden explosive dissonances… things that go creak in the night. The third threnody introduced the two solo singers whose duet relied on the interval if a third and was accompanied by orchestral music, somewhat inspired by the music of Messiaen and Stravinsky.

If this work is Turnage's Sinfonia da Requiem, he side-steps the criticism that BB received for responding to a commission for a celebratory piece with a work of almost unrelieved sadness, by introducing a innocent children's choir and then placing a rhythmic, high-spirited Suntory Dance (the work was first performed in the Suntory Hall) at the fulcrum of his seven movements. I was worried that this dance piece owed too much to similar inspirations that have been written across the USA over the last 40 years.

The penultimate movement was the one that reached out to me with most immediacy: it possessed a yearning mien and was beautifully but economically scored. Its roots could be traced through Takemitsu to some of Mahler's darkest movements.

The final threnody, the children's chorus, apparently, sang but one repeated word: Fukushima, thus identifying the whole with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami some five or six years that created such devastation, not least to the nuclear power station.

The piece was ably conducted by Kazushi Ono who conducted the first performance last November in Japan. The work was accessible in idiom and was more varied than one might expect from 6 threnodies and a dance but I wasn't convinced on this first hearing that it was more than a pièce d'occasion.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, Ed... largely in agreement here...first impressions were of a stylistic generalisation around descriptive tone poem and memorial; various Japanese elements mixed in....but even the dance movements seemed to lack many striking images or memorable ideas.
I may revisit, but I guess it's unlikely.

[edashtav]

Yes, Ed... largely in agreement here...first impressions were of a stylistic generalisation around descriptive tone poem and memorial; various Japanese elements mixed in....but even the dance movements seemed to lack many striking images or memorable ideas.
I may revisit, but I guess it's unlikely.

Oh dear... in his Pre-Prom interview, Mark-Anthony claimed not to like programme music.

[Pulcinella]

..
The third threnody introduced the two solo singers whose duet relied on the interval if a third and was accompanied by orchestral music, somewhat inspired by the music of Messiaen and Stravinsky.
..

It reminded me of (one of the movements of) Tippett's Mask of Time.

[BBMmk2]

I think, last night's Prom was very good. The Debussy was well shaped and paced very well, as for the PC of Ravel, I think maybe a bit too fast but well executed.
I'm rather a Turnage fan. this is a big work. Certainly made an impression on me.

[edashtav]

It reminded me of (one of the movements of) Tippett's Mask of Time.

Well spotted, Pulcinella, I missed that, but "your" influence is obvious, in retrospect.

[doversoul1]

I am intrigued. This was commissioned by Santory, the Japanese brewing and distilling company, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Santory Hall, one of the most prestigious concert halls in Tokyo. The title of the work Hibiki is also the name of their, I assume, latest or most promoted whisky. The material of the work is rather an odd mixture: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; a poem about the poet’s mother who died in the bombing in the Second World War; a popular story (for puppet theatre and later for kabiki) about star-crossed lovers’ suicide pack first performed in 1701; and chanting of a place name.

In the interval interview, MAT sounded as if he was trying his best to make a feasible excuse. He said he did not like programmed music but this sounds to me to be a solidly programmed work. He mentioned that Hibiki was ‘also’ the name of whisky although he didn’t say it was by Santory but he did sound as if to say ‘well, I’ve said it now’. And Santory Dance? Well, how would Guinness Dance sound in a work that is supposed to be a consolation? All very intriguing.

I am all for composers receiving commissions and this is a genuine question; how much freedom do composers give up when composing for a commission? That’s all depends, I suppose. Very intriguing indeed. As for the music, I don’t know enough about contemporary music to make constrictive comments but I can’t say I was terribly excited.

... various Japanese elements mixed in.

Other than the Japanese words sung by the children, which bits do you see (hear) as Japanese elements? And if you had not known about the work, would you have known what the language you were hearing?

[Richard Barrett]

I am all for composers receiving commissions and this is a genuine question; how much freedom do composers give up when composing for a commission? That all depends, I suppose.

My commissions come almost exclusively from performing ensembles or soloists, from music festivals and from broadcast stations. None of these would place any stipulations on what the work should consist of, apart from practical matters like instrumentation, duration and so forth, although these too are generally open to discussion. If I were to be commissioned by a big company like this and it was suggested that I name the piece after one of their products I think I would politely tell them what to do with their commission, which is probably one reason why such a scenario has never happened, another being that some musics might be thought of as being more suitable than others to enhance a corporate image. (I wonder where "radical left sympathies" fit into that.)

I was going to give it a listen but the descriptions here have been quite offputting!

[edashtav]

Doversoul1 and Richard B.arrett have identified and amplified concerns that I felt whilst listening to Turnage's latest piece. My worry was that its angst seemed "generic", manufactured rather than "personal"; that our Essex boy, class warrior was fighting as a Soldier of Fortune rather than a volunteer committed to a cause. It could be that Hibiki is the inversion of BB's Sinfonia da Requiem, that BB write what he felt - damn the consequences, but M-AT's extended pieces was "made to measure".

Imagine Haydn putting an Esterházy Dance in the middle of his Seven Last Words!

Perhaps, I should have listened to the early vibes coming from Richard Barrett.

All very worrying because I have long supported Mark-Anthony.