Prom 21: An Alpine Symphony – 30.07.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Notturno in D major, K286
Georg Friedrich Haas: Concerto grosso No. 1 - UK première
Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

Hornroh Modern Alphorn Quartet
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov conductor



A concert of sonic scope and spectacle from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov climaxes in Strauss's dramatic An Alpine Symphony, which paints a vivid picture of a day's hiking in the Bavarian mountains.

The Alps also make their way into Georg Friedrich Haas's Concerto Grosso in the form of four alphorns - enormous wooden horns, whose other-worldly overtones also inspired Rossini and Berlioz.

The concert opens with Mozart's Notturno, an unfinished Salzburg carnival serenade, whose four separate instrumental groups will be dispersed around the Royal Albert Hall for maximum acoustic drama.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This should set the cat among the pigeons (and seagulls). Four alphorns in the same concert as the work that has been claimed to include the instrument, by people who should know better.

(I forgive Hoffnung.)

[aeolium]

Though no alphorn in the Alpine Symphony, there is the lesser spotted heckelphone, and this site suggests specialist players of this instrument are pretty hard to find:

http://orchestrationonline.com/orchestration-tips/heckelphone-bass-oboe-realities/

I quite like Hindemith's Trio for heckelphone, viola and piano, though you have to wait a while for the heckelphone to make an appearance.

[Bryn]

Though no alphorn in the Alpine Symphony, there is the lesser spotted heckelphone, and this site suggests specialist players of this instrument are pretty hard to find:

http://orchestrationonline.com/orchestration-tips/heckelphone-bass-oboe-realities/

I quite like Hindemith's Trio for heckelphone, viola and piano, though you have to wait a while for the heckelphone to make an appearance.

Hindemith, eh? Now where did I put that trautonium?

[vinteuil]

Hindemith, eh? Now where did I put that trautonium?

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0UA0-heeFo

.

... if you've mislaid it, you can always get a replacement -

http://www.trautoniks.com/

.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Often overlooked is Strauss' use in operatic contexts of the heckelphone's relative, the boophonium.

[MrGongGong]

Balthasar Streiff

Probably the best alphorn player on the planet IMV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-fUvjca2pA

(this is with Christian Zehnder as Stimmhorn)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I quite like this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EcRg7KPiLM

[MrGongGong]

Not a patch on Arkady

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not a patch on Arkady

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Music of Georg Friederich Haas (b1953) tends to divide opinion sharply amongst New Music enthusiasts, if discussions at recent Huddersfield Festival events are anything to go by. For the most part, it seems that "you have to be there", as the positive comments come mostly from people who attend Live performances (and Simon Rattle has declared Haas' In Vain as "the first great masterpiece of the 21st Century"), the negative ones from those who have experienced the work from broadcasts (Morgen und Abend was broadcast from Covent Garden in 2015, and Hear & Now featured many performances recorded at the 2016 HCMF) and recordings. Haas likes to involve unusual "staging" requirements in performances of his work, not least performances in total darkness (in In Vain and the 10th String Quartet, for example).

To me it sounds like ... well, the sort of Music that a conservative Music Director of one of the World's Greatest Symphony Orchestras would regard as "great masterpieces", and I don't really get what all the fuss is about. But tonight's half-hour-long Concerto Grosso (from 2014; another, for chamber orchestra, was also written that year) is already youTube-able for anyone who wishes to "prepare" themselves for tonight's performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOHi0foN3zU

[BBMmk2]

EA’s favourite Prom!

[MrGongGong]

The Music of Georg Friederich Haas (b1953) tends to divide opinion sharply amongst New Music enthusiasts, if discussions at recent Huddersfield Festival events are anything to go by. For the most part, it seems that "you have to be there", as the positive comments come mostly from people who attend Live performances (and Simon Rattle has declared Haas' In Vain as "the first great masterpiece of the 21st Century"), the negative ones from those who have experienced the work from broadcasts (Morgen und Abend was broadcast from Covent Garden in 2015, and Hear & Now featured many performances recorded at the 2016 HCMF) and recordings. Haas likes to involve unusual "staging" requirements in performances of his work, not least performances in total darkness (in In Vain and the 10th String Quartet, for example).

To me it sounds like ... well, the sort of Music that a conservative Music Director of one of the World's Greatest Symphony Orchestras would regard as "great masterpieces", and I don't really get what all the fuss is about. But tonight's half-hour-long Concerto Grosso (from 2014; another, for chamber orchestra, was also written that year) is already youTube-able for anyone who wishes to "prepare" themselves for tonight's performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOHi0foN3zU

I enjoyed In Vain at HCMF
but not 100% sure whether it was all to do with the sound of the music, seeing friends in the ensemble OR the combination of walking about the crowded town as the Christmas lights were switched on by an abseiling Santa then going into the Town Hall with the feeling of being surrounded by the carnival outside?

The "unusual" staging didn't strike me as terribly "unusual" but I guess that's down to what other experiences audiences have had.
Thanks for the link

[jayne lee wilson]

That's quite a few winds!

https://www.universaledition.com/composers-and-works/georg-friedrich-haas-278/works/concerto-grosso-nr-1-14222

The sonority should be enjoyable in itself... I guess this is continuous play, no separate movements?

[jayne lee wilson]

Though no alphorn in the Alpine Symphony, there is the lesser spotted heckelphone, and this site suggests specialist players of this instrument are pretty hard to find:

http://orchestrationonline.com/orchestration-tips/heckelphone-bass-oboe-realities/

I quite like Hindemith's Trio for heckelphone, viola and piano, though you have to wait a while for the heckelphone to make an appearance.

Not to mention the Sonata for 4 Horns OP.52.. couldn't they have squeezed that in somewhere?