Prom 2: Mozart, Ravel and Fauré - 14.07.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Gabriel Fauré : Pavane (choral version)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat major
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe

Francesco Piemontesi piano
BBC Symphony Chorus
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu conductor

An evening of French music from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra opens with Fauré's serene, gently pulsing Pavane, elegantly recalling the French court dance of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Ravel reaches even further back in time in his mythological Daphnis and Chloe, written for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and set in a pastoral Greek-island idyll.
At the centre of the concert is Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 - the composer's final piano concerto, and a work of unusually introspective lyricism. Swiss-born Francesco Piemontesi, a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, is the soloist.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

An evening of French music from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra opens with...

I had no idea Mozart was French, though I understand he visited Paris with his mother and composed a symphony in which the audience clapped during the music.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I know it's a massive question, but has there ever been a greater ballet score than this one? I know there are works by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky that reach similar heights.

[BBMmk2]

But since Daphnis and Chloe perhaps not.

[Barbirollians]

Not greater no - indeed the very thought of it has sent me to the shelves for Monteux.

[edashtav]

But since Daphnis and Chloe, perhaps not.

Maybe not, and certainly Alain Altinoglu with the RPO and the BBC Chorus gave us a primary coloured,high energy performance this evening. They swept all before them including my unresolved question: should the score be played In an impressionist blur or with crystalline, pointillist accuracy and clarity? What we got was DAPHNIS,THE OPERA.

I loved Pietmontesi's wonderful playing and interpretation of Mozart final and most aristocratic piano concerto. It can sound remote and Olympian but the soloist revealed the humour and dance in its finale


I love Faure, and luxuriated in the choral version of his Pavane.
This concert far exceeded my expectations!

[BBMmk2]

Maybe not, and certainly Alain Altinoglu with the RPO and the BBC Chorus gave us a primary coloured,high energy performance this evening. They swept all before them including my unresolved question: should the score be played In an impressionist blur or with crystalline, pointillist accuracy and clarity? What we got was DAPHNIS,THE OPERA.

I loved Pietmontesi's wonderful playing and interpretation of Mozart final and most aristocratic piano concerto. It can sound remote and Olympian but the soloist revealed the humour and dance in its finale


I love Faure, and luxuriated in the choral version of his Pavane.
This concert far exceeded my expectations!

I will definitely catch up then!

[Keraulophone]

Not greater no - indeed the very thought of it has sent me to the shelves for Monteux.

My thoughts precisely.

[cloughie]

Maybe not, and certainly Alain Altinoglu with the RPO and the BBC Chorus gave us a primary coloured,high energy performance this evening. They swept all before them including my unresolved question: should the score be played In an impressionist blur or with crystalline, pointillist accuracy and clarity? What we got was DAPHNIS,THE OPERA.

I loved Pietmontesi's wonderful playing and interpretation of Mozart final and most aristocratic piano concerto. It can sound remote and Olympian but the soloist revealed the humour and dance in its finale


I love Faure, and luxuriated in the choral version of his Pavane.
This concert far exceeded my expectations!

I have still to listen to the rest of the concert - two of my favourite works of each composer! but the Faure was good in that was not quite so overblown as many recordings of the choral version, however, on balance I still prefer the orchestral version.

[jayne lee wilson]

I know it's a massive question, but has there ever been a greater ballet score than this one? I know there are works by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky that reach similar heights.

What about Prokofiev? Not just Romeo and Juliet, but Cinderella - a great favourite with me. The Prodigal Son isn't far behind either.

But the trouble with 20th Century Ballet is that so much of the best of it is almost unknown. I would single out Schnittke's extraordinary Peer Gynt (1985-6), a remarkable 3-Act Epic, as is Henze's Undine (1956 - excellent DG CD issue note by Olly Knussen).
Skalkottas' The Sea (1948-9, 11-movement suite over 45' long) is almost on the same highly inspired, original and inventive level. Whether they'll ever be played, recorded, or let alone choreographed again is another matter of course.

I would place all of these on - at the very least - a similarly elevated plateau to the Ravel Daphnis.

Somewhat better known is Britten's Prince of the Pagodas...lovely piece, if not quite as consistently inspired as those other favourites in my secret ballet garden...
I'm sure there are others, but the heat and the currently favoured breakfast of coffee & cognac are getting to me again...and I need to sober up for the World Cup final...

Here's Knussen in the notes to Undine:
"It seems to be a regrettable fact of life that the composition of a full three-act ballet score - a tremendous challenge to the fertility and inventiveness of any composer - often results in hundreds of pages of fine music which, even when the ballet is a success and the music has survived the sometimes draconian process of cutting, is doomed to a restricted life beneath the dancers' feet in the orchestra pit..."

[BBMmk2]

The Ravel was my attraction to this Prom. Certainly very operatic, edashtv!

[teamsaint]

There’s a great thread to be had on C20 Ballet scores, but as Jayne says , the lack of choreographed performances are a real issue.
Arthur Bliss produced a wonderful group of ballets that deserve better representation both on stage and in the concert hall .Britains finest composer for ballet ?

Not that knocked out by last nights D and C. Perfectly ok, may have sounded fine in the hall, but to me much of it sounded a bit solid, full on, not transparent enough.
VPs transfer to the RPO cant come quickly enough for them, but a real shame for the RLPO.

[Serial_Apologist]

But since Daphnis and Chloe perhaps not.

You don't rate Petruschka as highly then, Bbm? - a question of which score was completed first - Daphnis or Petruschka - being one for the pedants, perhaps!

[Alison]

Very enjoyable concert. Maybe the Daphnis sounded a shade tired by the end.

Quite a coup for the RPO to land Petrenko, an exciting appointment for this low profile yet rather fine orchestra.

[BBMmk2]

You don't rate Petruschka as highly then, Bbm? - a question of which score was completed first - Daphnis or Petruschka - being one for the pedants, perhaps!

Petrushka is a very fine score indeed. I like very much, but Daphnis seems better to me, for some reason, of which I am not sure.