Prom 18: Currentzis conducts Beethoven – 28.07.18

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Perhaps the moral here is: don't take too much notice of what the BBC hypists write on their hypewriters.

(or, indeed, "any notice".)

[jonfan]

What this perhaps attempts to gain in excitement it loses in precision. 3 hour rehearsal before the concert? Hadn’t they sorted details before? The musicians must be exhausted. The impression I get is ‘let’s get to the end as soon as possible.’

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think the conductor's intense , almost neurotic , style suited 5 more than 2 but oh for a bit of Klempereresque warmth , some light and shade. It's like being driven in a Ferrari by an amphetamine user ....

[Stunsworth]

There are times I’m happy to be less sophisticated than you lot. I enjoyed the concert - though it must be one of the shortest.

[zola]

Punk proclivities ? More Sigue Sigue Sputnik than Sex Pistols I fear.

[Bryn]

I liked the way the piccolo was not overdriven, as is so often is, but all in all a fairly run of the mill performance. Looking at my watch there would have been time to do the whole of the 7th as the encore.

[kernelbogey]

I enjoyed it all: I heard a kind of spaciousness and detail in the fifth that made this refreshing as well as exciting. I avoid listening to this symphony too often, and this was thrilling. The last movement of the seventh as encore was generous and stimulating. Throroughly enjoyable prom.

[Bryn]

Any day.

Their No.2 as well, come to that,

And here;s their 7th, as an encore.

[oddoneout]

Perhaps the moral here is: don't take too much notice of what the BBC hypists write on their hypewriters.

Neatly put. I think if I'd taken notice I wouldn't have listened, and would then have missed what was for me an enjoyable concert.
I liked the clarity of the strings - parts of the 5th can become a wash of sound to my way of thinking and now and again I like to hear the individual sections' contributions to the whole. The dynamics did pose a problem and I had to accept not being able to hear the quietest sections properly - even if I wasn't mindful of being in a mid-terrace house, turning up the volume for those sections would have made the loud parts too loud for comfort in my room(and the distortion from knackered speakers excruciating to boot), so memory and imagination came into play.
As an aside I seem to be hearing more extraneous noise so far this season - clatters and bangs in addition to the expected audience sniffs and coughs. Is it worse/different this year or am I just particularly noticing it?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As an aside I seem to be hearing more extraneous noise so far this season - clatters and bangs in addition to the expected audience sniffs and coughs. Is it worse/different this year or am I just particularly noticing it?

Maybe they're using different microphones - less directional?

[Bryn]

Neatly put. I think if I'd taken notice I wouldn't have listened, and would then have missed what was for me an enjoyable concert.
I liked the clarity of the strings - parts of the 5th can become a wash of sound to my way of thinking and now and again I like to hear the individual sections' contributions to the whole. The dynamics did pose a problem and I had to accept not being able to hear the quietest sections properly - even if I wasn't mindful of being in a mid-terrace house, turning up the volume for those sections would have made the loud parts too loud for comfort in my room(and the distortion from knackered speakers excruciating to boot), so memory and imagination came into play.
As an aside I seem to be hearing more extraneous noise so far this season - clatters and bangs in addition to the expected audience sniffs and coughs. Is it worse/different this year or am I just particularly noticing it?

You are by no means alone in thinking 'noises off' are more prominent this year.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Re the subject of BBC hype, I'm considering not including these decriptions on the Proms OPs.

[edashtav]

Oh dear, this is going to be a difficult review to pen, as I’m torn and reacting not in a binary black and white manner but in all shades of the critical rainbow from red hot to the indigo of indignation. By the end of the second symphony, in which the finale offered the greatest revelations , I returned to ,perhaps, the first Review which I quoted this afternoon and Martin Handley repeated in introduction at the start of the programme,” [ the second symphony] is a rash monster, a hideously writhing wounded dragon, that refuses to expire, and though bleeding in the Finale, beats about with its tail erect.” WEll, I never ... that review fitted tonight’s performance like a glove for the strings slivered around like demented snakes in the fourth movement. Earlier, I became as annoyed as several other Boarders by the frequency of overwrought sforzandi mercilessly chopped off by Currentzis’s handy cut”less”. However, I did detect a tension, big-night in a huge Hall nerves, that put orchestra and conductor on edge during the symphony’s first movement. Thank goodness, things settled for the slow movement. Overall, there were revealing moments, but insufficient to compose a 2nd Book of Revelations.
At that point, I shall sit back and drink a calming cuppa before facing the C minor that was A major in impact!

[Bryn]

Re the subject of BBC hype, I'm considering not including these descriptions on the Proms OPs.

Fine idea, if I may say so.

[edashtav]

Replying to Alpie and Bryn: yes, please!