Prom 66 - 2.09.17: Haydn and Mahler

[Alison]

Well, we didn't get one anyway. Fine by me.

[jonfan]

Is this the same orchestra as last night? Superb throughout IMO. Interesting comment from Dominic Seldis, just before the Mahler symphony, the orchestra's principal double bass, that as there have been so few MD's that there is pressure on a new one to succeed. He doesn't think longevity of position a good thing. Watch this space then.

[Alison]

Must admit I felt quite tense and nervous in the first half especially!

Slightly odd comment from Dominic Seldis adding to the rather messy feel from Fridays Prom.

Lots more quality on display tonight, I will listen again before any further comment.

[Prommer]

Agree in a way. Which Mahler symphonies invite (or at least do not discourage) an encore?

Unimaginable after the 9th. Redundant after the 2nd, 3rd or 8th, surely? Bit difficult after 5th or 6th!

The alternative to an encore with Mahler is a bis. Stokey-style...

[Petrushka]

Certainly better than last night (in the hall for this one) but still passages which seemed directionless where the music came to a standstill and the flow was interrupted. Gatti's style is minimalist, almost like the present day Haitink, and sometimes he stops altogether.

Also too many audience 'noises off' which may or may not have come over on the radio and this hindered enjoyment.

[antongould]

Certainly better than last night (in the hall for this one) but still passages which seemed directionless where the music came to a standstill and the flow was interrupted. Gatti's style is minimalist, almost like the present day Haitink, and sometimes he stops altogether.

Also too many audience 'noises off' which may or may not have come over on the radio and this hindered enjoyment.

..... a lot of coughing on my radio .......

[Maclintick]

..... a lot of coughing on my radio .......

...but disappointing not to hear any clapping between movements...

[Ferretfancy]

As heard in the hall it was a very scrappy performance with too many abrupt tempo changes and a tendency to accentuate the parody elements at the expense of the line. I never felt any real tenderness from within, it all seemed applied, even in the closing bars.

Chen Reiss sang from one of the high risers at the right of the stage. She processed slowly into the hall wearing a tight sheath dress in dusty gold, looking for all the world like the lady in the Paramount logo of old. Her singing was OK, but sadly not more.

None of my friends thought much of this performance, least of all the keen Mahlerites. One of the charity collecting team told me that from her close standpoint the orchestra seemed bored. It certainly seemed that way.

[richardfinegold]

I went to Mahler 7 with Barenboim and the CSO in 2001. They played some of the Midsummer Night's Dream as an encore.

Interesting. I heard DB in M7 in Chicago but not with the CSO; he was touring with the Berlin Staatskapelle. No encore

[DracoM]

RCOrchA tiring of Gatti already - so rumour suggests on grapevine?

[oddoneout]

Listening at home I found the 'feel' of the performance somewhat odd and am still not quite certain what was wrong. The closest I can get is a sense of disengagement - the orchestra playing the notes but not saying very much with them, so that there wasn't that much difference between the Haydn and the Mahler in some respects. And yes there did seem to be a fair bit of extraneous non-musical noise, which didn't help.

[Darkbloom]

I think Rattle had a brief flirtation with the RCO but they didn't get along. Haitink fell out with them before smoothing things over later on. Jansons never got compelling performances from them and didn't last all that long by RCO standards. They must be a difficult bunch all round.

[Petrushka]

I think Rattle had a brief flirtation with the RCO but they didn't get along. Haitink fell out with them before smoothing things over later on. Jansons never got compelling performances from them and didn't last all that long by RCO standards. They must be a difficult bunch all round.

Haitink's problems were with the management, not the players. Not sure of the real reasons why Chailly and Jansons went but Chailly had been there from 1988 to 2004(?) which is a reasonably long stint and Jansons' well-publicised health issues must have tried their, and their audience's patience at times. I'm sorry to say that the frequent cancellations tried mine as well.

Gatti, though, I really don't know. Does anyone know the process for choosing a new conductor for the RCO? If he was foisted on the players without their say then one can understand but if he was chosen by the players then they have only themselves to blame.

Saturday's concert was better played but, yes, oddoneout, disengagement is the right word and applies to both Gatti and his players. The restless audience betrayed the boredom all round. Friday's Bruckner 9 was nothing short of a shambles and a disgraceful one at that.

It will be interesting to see where the RCO go from here. Concerts are upcoming at Lucerne with the same programmes as at the Proms and a string of bad reviews of poor performances could well seal Gatti's fate. Audiences will only tolerate so much before the numbers begin to dwindle.