Prom 50 - 21.08.17: Beethoven, Stravinsky and Gerald Barry

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 21 August 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture 'Leonore' No. 3
Igor Stravinsky : Violin Concerto in D major
Gerald Barry: Canada BBC commission: world première
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No 5 in C minor

Leila Josefowicz violin
Allan Clayton tenor
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conductor

The CBSO and Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla explore the theme of political and artistic freedom. Beethoven's Leonore overture No. 3, written for his rescue opera Fidelio, celebrates the triumph of truth over tyranny in music of radiant beauty, while his Fifth Symphony rewrites the rules for the Classical symphony.

In his new work, maverick composer Gerald Barry is inspired by revolutionary events in Canada's history, also setting the text from Fidelio's Prisoners' Chorus; and violinist Leila Josefowicz amps up the drama in the fierce brilliance of Stravinsky's neo-Classical concerto.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

With all the weird and wonderful programming of concerts around us, it's reassuring to have one like this that seems so well balanced. Just a thought ...

[Pulcinella]

... and violinist Leila Josefowicz amps up the drama in the fierce brilliance of Stravinsky's neo-Classical concerto.

Let's hope we get a high-voltage performance, if there's enough wattage going spare.


(As Alpie has said before, who writes this drivel?)

[pastoralguy]

Fantastic performance of Stravinsk's Violin Concerto!

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 50 PART ONE. BEETHOVEN, STRAVINSKY. JOSEFOWICZ/CBSO/MGT. R3 CONCERT SOUND. EXCELLENT BALANCE.

From the first bars of Beethoven's Leonora No.3 - the control of phrase, pace, level, colour - this was orchestral direction and response of pure class.
Not HIPPs, not Beethoven the Revolutionary, just a beautifully played, distinctly Romantic concert piece.

In Stravinsky's Violin Concerto MG-T switched the CBSO to a sharper, sinewy texture. Leila Josefowitz produced a rather small, spiky tone tonight as relayed; but also poetic and highly articulate, alive to each mood; it was a study in the many shades of delicacy - from haunting withdrawal in Aria 2 (wonderfully matched accompaniment from MGT here) to gutty high spirits in the Capriccio, a very virtuosic delicacy which always served the music.

[doversoul1]

Fantastic performance of Stravinsk's Violin Concerto!

I did not know anything about this work but this was a sort of performance that made me stop what I was doing with one hand suspended in the air. Amazing. And the encore! It was so spectacular that it almost made me laugh aloud.

[pastoralguy]

I did not know anything about this work but this was a sort of performance that made me stop what I was doing with one hand suspended in the air. Amazing. And the encore! It was so spectacular that it almost made me laugh aloud.

If you're interested in obtaining a recording, I can happily recommend Patricia Kopatchinskaja's.

[doversoul1]

If you're interested in obtaining a recording, I can happily recommend Patricia Kopatchinskaja's.

Thank you for your recommendation. I know this is a silly question but do you think it was the work or the performance that made this performance sound how it was?

[pastoralguy]

The performance was terrific. It has to be like a Swiss watch since any attempt at excessive rubato can result in it falling apart. (There's a live performance by my great heroine, Ida Haendel, that threatens to fall apart since the conductor and soloist have completely different ideas of tempi!) Every soloist I've heard play it brings something unique and tonight's brought absolute clarity.

The work itself is very fine, imho, and shows Stravinsky's neo-classical writing at its best.

[pastoralguy]

Excellent concert, tonite! And well presented by Andrew McGregor!

[Roger Judd]

What an extraordinary concert, in the best sense! Terrific Stravinsky, and the Barry novelty 'Canada' - bonkers or what! The first movement of Beethoven 5 quite the fastest I've ever heard, but the CBSO delivered from first note to last with brilliant virtuosity. Brilliant choice of encore too. What a run of fantastic music-making.
RJ

[bluestateprommer]

Couldn't hear all of this CBSO Prom, so will have to return to it. But from hearing Beethoven 5, some general impressions are in order. I won't spoil any details, as I tend to do, so that everyone who hasn't yet heard it can go back to iPlayer (or presumably Afternoon on 3 in a few days) and hear it with fresh ears. I'll just simply say that MG-T does some new things with LvB 5 that I don't think that I've heard any other conductor do, regarding tempi and bringing out certain lines. That might make it sound self-conscious, except that overall, it isn't. MG-T has clearly thought through the score afresh, has ideas of her own, and perhaps most importantly, totally convinced the CBSO to go along with her ideas, in a piece that they, like any orchestra, have played many, many, many times before.

Likewise, the idea of an encore after Beethoven 5 is probably the closest thing to blasphemy in classical music. Given that MG-T seems to have started a tradition of encores in her concerts in Birmingham, I wondered if she would dare to do this here. She did, which worried me for just a moment - until the first note indicated that she brilliantly chose the one encore that was perfect to follow LvB 5. If nothing else, this should lay to rest any worries that she knows what she's doing in Birmingham with the CBSO, and that the CBSO made the correct choice in taking their time, and appointing her when it became clear that she was 'the one'.

(I also had a slight worry because a few weeks ago, she had to withdraw from a US engagement at the Hollywood Bowl, so that raised health concerns, or some concern about her being out of action. Fortunately, she obviously kept herself safe for her CBSO dates.)

[jayne lee wilson]

Thank you for your recommendation. I know this is a silly question but do you think it was the work or the performance that made this performance sound how it was?

On Concert Sound at least, the violin in the Stravinsky concerto was very much with the orchestra, an essential part of the weave of instrumental textures, very audible but not dominating the band at all in a soloistic sense. So you heard the orchestral virtuosity and the musical intricacies very clearly tonight from both. In fact the Kopatchinskaya recording is almost the opposite, with the (admittedly extraordinary) soloist and orchestra very closely balanced, like Isaac Stern's justly famous one with the composer directing. It makes for a very different impression of the whole work, much warmer and more immediate. (I guess producers tend to balance the piece closely because of its chamber-orchestral textures).
The Prom tonight presented the work in an unusually spacious setting, hence its distinctiveness...

[EdgeleyRob]

What an extraordinary concert, in the best sense! Terrific Stravinsky, and the Barry novelty 'Canada' - bonkers or what! The first movement of Beethoven 5 quite the fastest I've ever heard, but the CBSO delivered from first note to last with brilliant virtuosity. Brilliant choice of encore too. What a run of fantastic music-making.
RJ

Agreed,absolutely breathtaking.

[edashtav]

What an extraordinary concert, in the best sense! Terrific Stravinsky, and the Barry novelty 'Canada' - bonkers or what! The first movement of Beethoven 5 quite the fastest I've ever heard, but the CBSO delivered from first note to last with brilliant virtuosity. Brilliant choice of encore too. What a run of fantastic music-making.
RJ

I agree entirely!
Jayne made an important point about the balance in the Stravinsky: the soloist was the first among equals. One slight worry about MG-T : she marks the ends of paragraphs with an emphasis not heard since George Thalben Ball was Brum's City Organist and I was at its premier University reading Chemistry, or was it Evelyn Waugh?