Proms at … Cadogan Hall 1 - 16.07.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00
Cadogan Hall, London

Caroline Shaw: Second Essay: Echo
Caroline Shaw: Third Essay: Ruby
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op 44

Calidore String Quartet ensemble
Javier Perianes piano

Praised by The New York Times for their 'irrepressible dramatic spirit', BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists the Calidore String Quartet make their Proms debut here in a concert pairing a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Caroline Shaw with Schumann's richly Romantic Piano Quintet in E flat major - a buoyant, virtuosic work that pioneered the piano quintet genre as we know it today.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Note that these concerts are no longer called Proms Chamber Music

[french frank]

Note that these concerts are no longer called Proms Chamber Music

PCH rather than PCM. Does that mean they aren't all 'chamber music'? (A few 'world music' new commissions, I see)

[Serial_Apologist]

PCH rather than PCM. Does that mean they aren't all 'chamber music'? (A few 'world music' new commissions, I see)

Potentially a definitional quagmire there, ff!

[french frank]

Potentially a definitional quagmire there, ff!

If I put it in quotes, it means what I mean it to mean, rather than what it means .

[Serial_Apologist]

If I put it in quotes, it means what I mean it to mean, rather than what it means .

Ok, a 'definitional quagmire', then!

[french frank]

Ok, a 'definitional quagmire', then!

'Bout time we started talking about the concert

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

'Bout time we started talking about the concert

Caroline Shaw (b North Carolina, 1982) is the youngest ever recipient of a Pulitzer Prize five years ago for her Partita for eight unaccompanied voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVMtnaB28E

For all kinds of reasons it isn't my glass of tea at all, but fits in with what the Proms have been considering "New Music" for the past twenty years or so - and Kanye West likes it, so 'oo am I to ... ? It strikes me as the sort of stuff that makes me all the keener to hear the Schumann, but it's probably fairer - no, "more diplomatic" - to let the composer herself have the last words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acsu7Dk04xE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUkO9vopkws

... and sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JvFLBe7hWg

[bluestateprommer]

Terrific start to the 'PCM' / Proms at...Cadogan Hall series, with the Calidore SQ on great form, and Javier Perianes likewise as the "fifth wheel" in the Schumann. On the Caroline Shaw works, there's one addition, noted in the Forum Calendar, namely CS' First Essay, to make it a trifecta of her works.

I didn't know CS' instrumental music at all, so I went in with no preconceptions and reasonably open ears. Her musical language is fundamentally tonal, but she does use some extended techniques particularly in the Second Essay at its beginning and end, perhaps a bit much in the case of the latter, which I'm guessing was sul ponticello. It almost sounded like an electronic sample, which may have been the idea. That slight over-use aside, I generally enjoyed hearing her works here, and having them in succession does make the package a de facto 3-movement string quartet - "Three Essays for String Quartet", so to speak.

The Schumann received a fresh and no-nonsense performance, reminding oneself again of why it's such a popular piece of chamber music. The whole concert is definitely worth a listen on iPlayer if you missed the live relay.

[LMcD]

PCH rather than PCM. Does that mean they aren't all 'chamber music'? (A few 'world music' new commissions, I see)

Nobody seems to have told Petroc, who referred consistently to 'Proms Chamber Music'

[Quarky]

Caroline Shaw was the subject of a recent Late Junction, courtesy Max Reinhardt:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b53fzr

Sadly, no longer available.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I didn't know CS' instrumental music at all, so I went in with no preconceptions and reasonably open ears. Her musical language is fundamentally tonal, but she does use some extended techniques particularly in the Second Essay at its beginning and end, perhaps a bit much in the case of the latter, which I'm guessing was sul ponticello. It almost sounded like an electronic sample, which may have been the idea.

con pressione (or molto pressione) - the player pushes the bow down onto the string to create a scraping sound. Used much more effectively by many composers who know what they're doing, rather than (as here) just a gratuitous extra device to fill in time (rather like the brief moment of glissando in the first piece) to tease audiences not used to this sort of thing.

Thin works - sort of thing that an 18-year-old might write to get a decent "A"-level mark. Heard plenty enough of those in my time, thank you very much.

[teamsaint]

Caroline Shaw may have won prizes, but having listened to some of the music, I'd have to say that most of this kind of thing has to do with career(s) and little to do with anything interesting musically.