Prom 8: Youthful Beginnings - 20.07.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps
Lili Boulanger: D’un soir triste
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor
Morfydd Llwyn Owen: Nocturne
Robert Schumann: Symphony No 4 in D minor (original 1841 version)

Bertrand Chamayou piano
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Søndergård conductor

In his final season as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales's Principal Conductor, Thomas Søndergård explore the music of two 20th-century female composers whose early deaths cut their careers tragically short: Prix de Rome winner Lili Boulanger and Wales's Morfydd Owen, whose Nocturne showcases a sensuous and utterly original musical voice. Bertrand Chamayou makes his Proms debut in Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto - composed when Mendelssohn was just 22 - while Schumann's jubilant Fourth Symphony is also the work of a composer exploring new musical maturity.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

An opportune live performance of the 1841 Schumann 4 should be interesting in view of the recent BaL.

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine start to this Prom, with the two Lili Boulanger works and the BBC NOW and TD on solid form. D'un soir triste runs a bit long, perhaps, but one shouldn't be ungrateful for what we have from her.

Follow-up: well, that was quite a romp through the Mendelssohn. BC chose a very appropriate, contrasting encore from Felix M. to dial down the energy level just right. The interval talk on Morfydd Llwyn Owen is off to a very good start now.

Further follow-up: Rhian Davies has this article on Owen:

https://www.illuminatewomensmusic.co.uk/illuminate-blog/rhian-davies-an-incalculable-loss-morfydd-owen-1891-1918

[jayne lee wilson]

Almost the perfect Prom Part One, a lovely balance of light and shade.... the Boulanger pieces sensuously evocative of that early French 20th Century sound, the Roussel of the 1st Symphony especially (his own Fête de Printemps is almost contemporaneous with the Boulanger matin). The transparent cut and glitter of her Printemps also put me in mind of the Flowers in the Meadow movement from Mahler's 3rd.

Lighter passions and effortless virtuosity from Chamayou in the Mendelssohn 1st Concerto - I loved it. Truly idiomatic orchestral styling from Søndergård and the BBCNOW here. All deft as a summer breeze, Cabbage Whites dancing around Yellow Ragwort...

[bluestateprommer]

Morfydd Llwyn Owen's Nocturne just finished. While some of it runs long and some bits sound four-square, it was certainly worth hearing, and I have to remind myself that this is young person's music (as all of her music was, given her premature and sad end).

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 8 PART 2. HDs 320 Iplayer Radio.

Hurling his orchestra’s tone out across the Royal Albert Barn Søndergård seemed intent on presenting the 1841 Schumann 4th as if it were the 1851 version - full-blooded in texture and relentless dynamic impact which to these ears, with an initially HIPPs approach to strict rhythms, phrase and pace, made for a rather rushed and rowdy impression. Perhaps Søndergård was unsure whether to present the work as late-Classical or early-Romantic, or maybe he was just trying to fill the space. The Romanze was very sweetly-sung though, I must admit; it had a refinement and attention to detail the performance generally rather lacked.

The 1841 4th seems to benefit even more than most Schumann works from Period Instruments or chamber-orchestral agility and transparency. Presented as it was tonight, the fascinating contrast with the much heavier scoring and less subtle dynamics of the revision are ironed out, to neither version’s advantage.

I love both and find them just as compelling as the various versions of Bruckner’s Symphonies, and artistically of equal validity.

***
(Distracted by the need for a hot drink (cool night, unusual this summer) and the excellent Tim Stanley on Any Questions, I was late back for the Owen work. Will try to catch up, but what I heard seems a product of its late-romantic influences and well, little more…not ideally attentive listening though.)

[edashtav]

PROM 8 PART 2. HDs 320 Iplayer Radio.

Hurling his orchestra’s tone out across the Royal Albert Barn Søndergård seemed intent on presenting the 1841 Schumann 4th as if it were the 1851 version - full-blooded in texture and relentless dynamic impact which to these ears, with an initially HIPPs approach to strict rhythms, phrase and pace, made for a rather rushed and rowdy impression. Perhaps Søndergård was unsure whether to present the work as late-Classical or early-Romantic, or maybe he was just trying to fill the space. The Romanze was very sweetly-sung though, I must admit; it had a refinement and attention to detail the performance generally rather lacked.

The 1841 4th seems to benefit even more than most Schumann works from Period Instruments or chamber-orchestral agility and transparency. Presented as it was tonight, the fascinating contrast with the much heavier scoring and less subtle dynamics of the revision are ironed out, to neither version’s advantage.

[...]

I heard only the pianists’s assured encore, the fascinating interval discussion and the second half. I was a tad disappointed by Morfydd Owen’ s Nocturne to which I responded in a manner analogous to bsp: too four-square, and reeking of a Welsh Chapel organ. I’d have appreciated a lighter touch with more fantasy, but... this was a piece of juvenilia and it showed enough potential tonfeel cheated by Owen’s premature death.

I enjoyed the Schumann but I can see what Jayne was getting at: I found some crescendi to be exaggerated and, in retrospect, I wonder whether the Conductor was over-emphasising to fill the hot, foetid cavern that is Prince Albert’s bathroom. I enjoyed the keen sense of forward momentum in the faster movements.

[edashtav]

Almost the perfect Prom Part One, a lovely balance of light and shade....

[…]

Lighter passions and effortless virtuosity from Chamayou in the Mendelssohn 1st Concerto - I loved it. Truly idiomatic orchestral styling from Søndergård and the BBCNOW here. All deft as a summer breeze, Cabbage Whites dancing around Yellow Ragwort...

Jayne’s strong advocacy has caused me to catch up with the Concerto. I’m glad that Mendelssohn’s G minor Concerto has regained some of the popularity that it possessed in its early years for it’s a fascinating work in structural terms: a piano part thatrudely interrupts theckrchestra’s portentous opening tutti, three brief movements played attacca, and the general concision: there’s not a notecof padding. The bravura outer movements contrast so well with the soulful song without words that acts as the filling in their sandwich.
Bertrand Chamayou tossed it off with conviction and aplomb. He may be new to the Proms but I’m sure he’ll be back... soon! The pianist’s perfection was rewarded by attentive support from Thomas Søndergård and his ( reduced) BBC NOW Orchestra.
It occurred to me that the work has Russian offspring in the Glazunov concerti and Shostakovich’s 2nd.

The Liszt / Mendelssohn encore was introduced with friendly panache. By its end , I felt I’d made a made a new and exciting friend.

[LMcD]

This concert is on BBC4 tonight at 7.00 p.m.

[edashtav]

This concert is on BBC4 tonight at 7.00 p.m.

Many thanks for the “heads up”.

[LMcD]

Many thanks for the “heads up”.

You're welcome!
(FYI: the spare 10 minutes at the end of the allocated 105-minute slot will feature a couple of Chopin preludes, played by Freddy Kempf and Alfredo Perl).

[hmvman]

The playlist on the web page is bizarre...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bbpcmh#play

[Nick Armstrong]

The playlist on the web page is bizarre...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bbpcmh#play

Summer intern time again at Radio 3 Online. Get ready for loads of similar gaffes

[LMcD]

The playlist on the web page is bizarre...

[url]https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bbpcmh#play[/url]

This refers to the repeat on Radio 3 yesterday afternoon, not the BBC4 broadcast. You'd do better to go to yesterday's BBC4 schedule via the iPlayer.
This was a very skilfully structured programme, alternating more reflective and livelier pieces and managing to commemorate/celebrate music by young composers, music by women composers, death centenaries and, in passing, the end of WW1.
I'm afraid the Boulanger didn't do much for me. The Owen initially seemed to inhabit the same sound world as certain pieces by Sibelius - tone poems and the 4th symphony, but I felt it outstayed its welcome. The word that came to mind while listening to the Mendelssohn was 'scamper', which I use in a non-derogatory sense. I thought the Schumann came off very well.
The TV coverage was commendably gimmick-free and CB-H's introductions were enthusiastic and informative without gushing. (I'm not sure whether there were 90 performers at any stage, a number which she said reflected the NOW's 90th anniversary year).

[Richard Tarleton]

I like Richard Morrison's review in today's Times - its title ("Each Prom is now given an 'eye-catching' title".....) tautological and inaccurate, Youthful Endings would have been closer to the mark