Prom 24: A Hero’s Life – 1.08.18

[DracoM]

Just caught up with the whole of the Prelude to Act II of Dame Ethyl's The Wreckers; well done indeed. BTW, since Otto Tausk is Dutch, it's actually "Heer Tausk", or "Mijnheer Tausk", rather than "Herr" Tausk.



Methinks you meant "Mr Skelly", but the point is well taken :) .

Woops, aplogies, misattribuiton a bit of an insult to Mr Handley, methinks.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, a fine Heldenleben - I wasn't sure the orchestra were quite on the same sonic pinnacle as in Part One, but then....
Heldenleben is one of my problem pieces....

I nearly always get carried away by the sweep and grandeur of the opening, I like the contrast with the spiky critics, I empathise with our nobly saddened hero, but then....

The Love Scene. Oh dear…
It never moves me. Why? I think it really is down to how terribly stereotyped both the protagonists sound; the ardent, handsome hero, the pretty little thing (that violin solo, usually described as “capricious” .)….there doesn't seem to be much real tenderness or delicacy there, or not until the very end (compared to the one in Berlioz' Romeo & Juliet, say, so deeply, touchingly hesitant and understated, spiritually kindred and equal).
Passionate embraces? As love goes, it seems very generalised. With Heldenleben's amours, I always feel much further away than arm's length…
The music itself never seems that memorable, and the solo/orchestra exchanges feel tediously repetitive.
So I’ve already lost touch with the music when our macho-man strides off to the battle, whose heroic struggle and victory sound, to me... all too predictable, emotionally and musically.

But then - ah, then… gradually, reminiscence, then some sadness, tenderness, regret, and yes - fear, being to creep into the music, very movingly, and I reconnect with it again, often moved to tears by the great summation, so richly, emotionally ambiguous as it is. Then mortal fear returns... Then the final crescendo mingling triumph, pain and defiance…. (I can still recall the first time I played the Reiner Mercury CD... I staggered from the room, smiling, dazed and tearful...)

Of course, I suppose it can only do that because of the showy, egotistical confidence which went before, so….
I find myself thinking….back to start… I better try again, one day I might enjoy all of it…

[Serial_Apologist]

But then - ah, then… gradually, reminiscence, then some sadness, tenderness, regret, and yes - fear, being to creep into the music, very movingly, and I reconnect with it again, often moved to tears by the great summation, so richly, emotionally ambiguous as it is. Then mortal fear returns... Then the final crescendo mingling triumph, pain and defiance…. (I can still recall the first time I played the Reiner Mercury CD... I staggered from the room, smiling, dazed and tearful...)

Yes - that final outburst: almost more of a foretaste of the Schoenberg to come in Erwartung than any passage I can find in Salome or Elektra! I always cite this short passage as indicating what was to come, when trawling my unfortunate friends through my "examples" of forerunners of musical Expressionism. But I am totally in sympathy with your feelings about Ein Heldenleben, jayne; I would add that I have never got on with Strauss's "enrichment" of the Wagnerian approach to orchestration, or Schoenberg's, which sounds similarly overloaded/coagulated in his own "Pelleas und Melisande" of 4 years later, always preferring the clarity and highlights Mahler achieved in this aspect throughout his music.

[alywin]

I decided to give this one a miss, because I have a low tolerance for Heldenleben. Sounds as if it was the wrong decision :(

[cloughie]

I decided to give this one a miss, because I have a low tolerance for Heldenleben. Sounds as if it was the wrong decision :(

It seems that Heldenleben has the ‘marmite’ factor! I really like it - for me it does what it says on the jar and encompasses the range of RSt’s styles.