Prom 11: Mahler Symphony of a Thousand - 22.07.18

[Beef Oven!]

Don't forget your ear defenders, it can get mighty loud if you're in the right/wrong place.

Obviously never been to a Black Sabbath gig

[oddoneout]

If Carlsberg did trypos......

I think we can safely say that is a great addition to the language......

Available at selected Cambridge pubs...
I too like "pricnipal" - it sounds like a fine addition to the insult lexicon, but perhaps that's just my rather warped view.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I too like "pricnipal" - it sounds like a fine addition to the insult lexicon, but perhaps that's just my rather warped view.

Sounds like something from a Shakespeare Comedy - Zounds! Thou scurvy knave! Thou pimple! Thou pricnipal!

[teamsaint]

Sounds like something from a Shakespeare Comedy - Zounds! Thou scurvy knave! Thou pimple! Thou pricnipal!

I’m going to an “interactive” Much ado about Nothing” at a pub on Friday.I may use this in any interaction........

[Anastasius]

Are there different scores to this ? Listening here it sounds very different to previous performances.

[Beef Oven!]

Are there different scores to this ? Listening here it sounds very different to previous performances.

I think this performance isn't using the full 1,000 participants. That might explain the difference.

[Bryn]

I think this performance isn't using the full 1,000 participants. That might explain the difference.

What "full 1,000 participants"? The soubriquet is not Mahler's. Indeed, he was opposed to it. There may have been the very occasional performance inflated to such proportions, but not with the composer's sanction.

[Beef Oven!]

What "full 1,000 participants"? The soubriquet is not Mahler's. Indeed, he was opposed to it. There may have been the very occasional performance inflated to such proportions, but not with the composer's sanction.

I wasn't being serious, Bryn

Btw, I don't like the subtitle and I'm surprised it actually gets used (by people who should know better)

Ditto the 'Titan' subtitle for #1

[Bryn]

My first live encounter with the 8th was the Boulez performance at the First Night of the Proms 1975. Alberto Remedios had a nasty cold, which he fought through. Sadly, it does not seem to have been uploaded to YouTube, though it was available on dodgy Italian CDs for a while, IIRC. Boulez made the odd 'improvement', such as having the cymbal thumb-rubbed into vibration, rather than struck, at the opening of Part 2. It worked superbly.

[vinteuil]

My first live encounter with the 8th was the Boulez performance at the First Night of the Proms 1975. ... it was available on dodgy Italian CDs for a while, IIRC.

http://a.co/eDFAoNp

.

[Bryn]

http://a.co/eDFAoNp


.

Yes, it's the image on that page that I linked to. The discs used to be very much in the bargain bin. I wish I had bought them then.

Hmm. I have found it on another pair of CDs, along with Berlioz: Nuits d'été. Still over £20 including p&p, but . . .

[Cockney Sparrow]

Much to be thankful for, live, in the hall. The soloists were all up to the part, and could be heard in the hall - so BBC microphones re-balancing and misrepresenting as against the experience in the hall is not a factor here. In fact the men were all rather good, and the ladies too. Not often the whole team of eight have no major weak link. Maybe a few question marks on ensemble in part one but the Orchestra and choruses were really very good (but I wouldn't say it outshone the last, BBC SO performance) . Importantly, Sondergard directed so the piece unfolded in a natural and impressive manner and didn't pull it about (I shudder as I think of Maazel). Reminiscent of Colin Davis who I think really had the measure of the piece.

Minor niggles - offstage brass in a box and not enough of them (Boulez and C Davis had, I'm sure, a markedlynbigger band (whatever the score says) and up in the gallery). Mater Gloriosa - per the programme text "floats into view" - but sounded like she was coming from the corridor and we heard none of the delicious edge/resonance I heard from her on Friday as Cleopatra at Glyndebourne (a great performance from her and all round, there). Major niggle was the balance with the organ - I now know for sure it can dominate a very large orchestra and choirs and wonder why on earth it wasn't checked and amended. At the end of part two, in the magical chorus mysticus, I thought discretion had prevailed as it was more restrained, but that didn't last and it took off as a solo instrument again, albeit not as unbridled nor for as long. Thankfully it didn't ruin the final moments.

But all in all, worth the cost (I picked up ticket in the grand tier a few weeks ago) and certainly worth turning out for.

[Anastasius]

Much to be thankful for, live, in the hall. The soloists were all up to the part, and could be heard in the hall - so BBC microphones re-balancing and misrepresenting as against the experience in the hall is not a factor here. In fact the men were all rather good, and the ladies too. Not often the whole team of eight have no major weak link. Maybe a few question marks on ensemble in part one but the Orchestra and choruses were really very good (but I wouldn't say it outshone the last, BBC SO performance) . Importantly, Sondergard directed so the piece unfolded in a natural and impressive manner and didn't pull it about (I shudder as I think of Maazel). Reminiscent of Colin Davis who I think really had the measure of the piece.

Minor niggles - offstage brass in a box and not enough of them (Boulez and C Davis had, I'm sure, a markedlynbigger band (whatever the score says) and up in the gallery). Mater Gloriosa - per the programme text "floats into view" - but sounded like she was coming from the corridor and we heard none of the delicious edge/resonance I heard from her on Friday as Cleopatra at Glyndebourne (a great performance from her and all round, there). Major niggle was the balance with the organ - I now know for sure it can dominate a very large orchestra and choirs and wonder why on earth it wasn't checked and amended. At the end of part two, in the magical chorus mysticus, I thought discretion had prevailed as it was more restrained, but that didn't last and it took off as a solo instrument again, albeit not as unbridled nor for as long. Thankfully it didn't ruin the final moments.

But all in all, worth the cost (I picked up ticket in the grand tier a few weeks ago) and certainly worth turning out for.

Listening at this end of the airwaves I think we must have been listening to two different concerts. I found the tempo all over the place, at times almost as if he was a desperate hurry getting to the pub. The soloists I thought were dire and it's one of those concerts that I'm glad I wasn't at !

[Bryn]

Listening at this end of the airwaves I think we must have been listening to two different concerts. I found the tempo all over the place, at times almost as if he was a desperate hurry getting to the pub. The soloists I thought were dire and it's one of those concerts that I'm glad I wasn't at !

With a recommendation as strong as that, I must give the iPlayer offering a listen.

[Nick Armstrong]

Of course, having made my decision, I shall be kicking myself for the rest of my earthlies if the performance tonight turns out to be the best I've heard of the work!

Well I happened to switch on just as the final bars were playing, and did start kicking myself - I thought I was going to be away this weekend, but when plans changed I failed to check what was on. Would have loved to cycle over for a Mahler 8 and cycle home with it still light outside...

Then again... with this piece, one's so much a hostage to the singers and I feel increasingly less like taking the risk these days. Cockney Sparrow seems to suggest the gamble would have paid off in this instance... Anastasius less so (but we know singers can sound fine in the hall but rank at the other end of the microphone/broadcast process).

On balance I'm kicking myself again. Whether I'll do so after 'catching up' on iPlayer, time will tell