Prom 74 - 8.09.17: Vienna Philharmonic – Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven

[David-G]

One might be forgiven they are trying to encourage us to support the digital switch over - I do hope they never get to force us to jettison our battery efficient portable FM radios.

(Desperately trying to drag the discussion away from politicians...) I couldn't agree more. Just wish though that FM quality was as good as in the good old days.

[makropulos]

They may not play much British music, but when they do, they do it well. Two years ago, they played Elgar's Dream of Gerontius as though they'd been performing it all their lives.

Beautiful as it is (and what a lovely performance), it's quite a stretch to consider Delius's "Cuckoo" as "British music" at all. The main tune is Norwegian - Delius borrowed it wholesale from Grieg's Norwegian Folk Songs Op. 66 (No. 14), the cuckoo was one he heard in Grez-sur-Loing (no doubt similar to the one about which he wrote to Heseltine a couple of years later also from Grez), the score was first published in Cologne, and the premiere was given by the Hungarian Arthur Nikisch with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. None of that makes it any less marvellous, of course. I don't know about the Vienna PO and "Cuckoo" (the Musikverein concert archive starts in 1948, which is frustrating), but in 1911 they played the Mass of Life and there's a recording of Barbirolli doing the Walk to Paradise Garden with the orchestra in 1947. One of Delius's main publishers was the great Viennese firm of Universal Edition (though not of Cuckoo) and it would be surprising for there not to have been a few performances of his works by the orchestra. Incidentally, the first performance anywhere of the Cello Concerto took place in Vienna in 1923 (before Beatrice Harrison played it) - a mark of just what an international figure Delius was.

[cloughie]

I think Jezza is actually a classical buff unlike Blair before him .

...and being a liitle older than Blair maybe was exposed to more Classical music in his formative years!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...and being a liitle older than Blair maybe was exposed to more Classical music in his formative years!

Not necessarily whilst at school - he went to Adams' Grammar School at the same time as ... Simon Bates.

[cloughie]

Not necessarily whilst at school - he went to Adams' Grammar School at the same time as ... Simon Bates.

...and for all we know Simon Bates' broad taste in music encompasses Classical - you are making assumptions ferney!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...and for all we know Simon Bates' broad taste in music encompasses Classical - you are making assumptions ferney!

Yup - I'm assuming this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ZDsUGiGqM

[Darkbloom]

...and for all we know Simon Bates' broad taste in music encompasses Classical - you are making assumptions ferney!

I'm pretty sure he used to be a presenter on Classic FM, so as to the question whether Bates has any interest in classical music, the answer is presumably 'no'.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm pretty sure he used to be a presenter on Classic FM, so as to the question whether Bates has any interest in classical music, the answer is presumably 'no'.

[teamsaint]

Not necessarily whilst at school - he went to Adams' Grammar School at the same time as ... Simon Bates.

.... and at the same time as R. Choon ?....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

.... and at the same time as R. Choon ?....

- took me a couple of seconds!

[Nick Armstrong]

- took me a couple of seconds!

It's taken me a couple of hours and I still haven't got there....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's taken me a couple of hours and I still haven't got there....

"R Choon" - "Our Tune" (a regular feature on Mr Bates' R1 programme). Always seemed to be playing whenever I went for a haircut in my teens. ("Sadly, Doris died on their honeymoon, but Darren always thinks of her whenever he hears Mrs Mills' Party Special") Fond memories.

(Of the necessity for haircuts ... not R Choon.)

[Nick Armstrong]

"R Choon" - "Our Tune" (a regular feature on Mr Bates' R1 programme).

Ah, you comfort me. Never heard / heard of it!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah, you comfort me. Never heard / heard of it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5i1cJIwE7M

The schmalzy theme from Zeffirreli's Romeo & Juliet (linked in #66) simpered away in the background of thousands of stories of love, loss, and (sometimes) triumph over the years.

[PhilipT]

.

... we went to this Prom. Mme v claims not to have a musical bone in her body (not true); I really hoped that a live experience of the Viennese Phil wd be something magical. We had excellent stall seats (tho' the noisy presence of a pompous disgraced former tory politician nearby was not conducive to anything... )

Very disappointed. The Brahms bland and never took off; the Mozart all a bit fumbly and uninspired (tho' the Schubert encore was charming). I really disliked the Beethoven 7. The second and third movements were nice enuff after a rather lacklustre first; but the fourth I found really awful - it just came over as a repetitive onslaught, and the insistent aggressive blare of the trumpet crassly over-riding the rest of the orchestra was physically unpleasant. The Delius encore was nice enough, if you like Delius.

A great shame. Mme v kindly said that she had found the whole experience "enjoyable" - but I so wish her first experience of such great music with notionally such a great orchestra had been truly sublime. The tickets (we were guests) must have cost hundreds of pounds. The best parts of the evening were the walk across Kensington Gardens to get there, and Ax's little Schubert encore.



.

I can't connect with this view, and I am left wondering whether we were at the same concert. Yes, the Mozart was uninspired. Ax's encore was pleasant enough - I did not know it was Schubert until I started reading here - but not much more. I liked the Brahms, and was stunned by the musicianship of the orchestra during the Beethoven. I'm with EA - this is how it should be played. I thought I knew the piece well but the details of how each instrument contributes to the whole came across in a way I've not experienced before.

I missed the Delius, having been posted to hold a bucket at Door 9 (where one of my donors was a woman I first met when we both undergraduates - ouch!).