Prom 28: NYO perform Mussorgsky, Ligeti and Debussy – 4.08.18

[edashtav]

I thoroughly enjoyed the NYO and Benjamin's colourful and confident Lontano, a wonderful piece from a composer I hugely admire.

I felt La Mer started in rather too relaxed a fashion, it seemed to me saturated with this year’s sunshine with something of the mood of Honegger’s Pastorale d’été. As the work progressed so did the urgency of the performance. When the full complement of the orchestra came together for the final peroration, the soundscape was stupendous!

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, a very fine Lontano, on the same high level of execution as the Dance Figures...

For finally, the conductor does create the performance. With all that implies...
I was left to fantasise an evening entirely of Ligeti and Benjamin, and how wonderful a sequence that might have been...

[jonfan]

Because they have no idea about how to do things well.

It's OK for the BBC to have contests that allow incompetent BBC presenters to conduct a professional orchestra, yet they are not prepared to show true respect when younger players reach a near professional standard of performance.

A bit harsh here I think. The interviews in the interval and the performance of the wind quintet on In Tune last Wednesday shows the BBC gives them the highest respect of their near professional playing. According to information from a NYO member the introductions were aimed at the very young, 8-10 year olds in the audience, to fire their interest in classical music and not, shall I say, the more long in the tooth forumistas. So Blue Peter’s about right then. A lot of time in the three residencies over the year is spent by members inspiring new players that classical music is for them. Not just the ClassicFM pot boilers but Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and much of last night’s programme.
I understand that instead of the Mussorgsky , The Poem of Ecstasy by Scriabin was intended but the West Eastern Divan had nabbed it. A better piece to suit the programme and it really wouldn’t have mattered to hear such a rarely performed work twice in one season. Anyway West Side Story’s being done twice in one day!

[BBMmk2]

This is what the BBC is doing these days. Getting the next generation interested in classical music. That’s what we want isn’t it? We don’t want it extinct, do we?

[Bryn]

Anyway, West Side Story’s being done twice in one day!

[BBMmk2]

So, I have'nt missed much then?

[Roslynmuse]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the encore Tamara Stefanovich played - another Knussen tribute, his Prayer Bell Sketch. It was perhaps less intimate a performance than we are used to (hardly surprising in the RAH) and sounded more Scriabinesque than usual as a result, but it was nonetheless a welcome and moving addition to the programme.

I caught this concert twice, at Snape on Thursday and then on Saturday in London. Broadly speaking, both evenings played out with similar strengths and weaknesses - tempi in Mussorgsky and Ravel seemed sluggish at times (and George Benjamin himself looked unexpectedly frail) and the Ravel in particular didn't catch fire as it usually does. The opening - double basses and contra-bassoon - did not feel unbalanced in the hall (although the more immediate acoustic at Snape worked against delicacy throughout the programme). Stefanovich's opening solo was finely voiced, I thought (as was the Knussen, especially with the fabulous instrument she had in Suffolk), and I felt it (her first solo) flowed even at a relatively sedate tempo, but the following tutti was very ponderous.

I too was surprised that the Mussorgsky was given in the R-K version, but short of playing both versions one is bound to disappoint someone... (And if this part of the concert was aimed at a Fantasia-familiar audience then R-K is a clear choice).

In the hall, the Ligeti was notably non-Lontano (NOT a result of large forces, which are perfectly capable of playing extremely quietly) but was otherwise very well-played; GB's own piece came over well and the Debussy got better and better as it went on - some fabulous playing in the 2nd mt and tremendously exciting in the 3rd mt. Playing the three movements almost attacca worked extremely well (especially 1 into 2).

As far as those spoken introductions go - someone in the NYO hierarchy would have decided that it was a good idea and therefore would happen (there has often been a single introduction on stage before their concerts by a member of the orchestra - although not at the Proms); the players would have been coached and given a script (a shame that the script itself was embarrassing at times), and they all did as well as they possibly could with the material and under the circumstances. It was just a bad idea, and one that I hope will not be repeated.

[kernelbogey]

Television broadcast tomorrow, Sunday 12 August at 1900, BBC4.

[BBMmk2]

That be worth seeing, a visual rather than aural.

[jonfan]

The only presentation offerings in the TV broadcast were from the teenagers in the orchestra and I thought this was a brave move by the director of the programme. It worked very well and the excitement of taking part and community spirit were obvious. Great to see normal young people sharing their talents with us and each other, and communicating so well musically and verbally.

[underthecountertenor]

(and George Benjamin himself looked unexpectedly frail).

I thought he looked pretty fit and trim, and that would be a hell of a programme for a frail person to conduct. He’d done the excellent Roundhouse prom too, 2 weeks earlier.

[Bryn]

I thought he looked pretty fit and trim, and that would be a hell of a programme for a frail person to conduct.

For those who knew him in his late youth/early 20's, I reckon he just looked old. Older than I, for one, had expected.

[underthecountertenor]

For those who knew him in his late youth/early 20's, I reckon he just looked old. Older than I, for one, had expected.

He looked pretty much how I’d expect a 58 year-old to look (at least one who has looked after himself reasonably well but on the other hand made no attempt to gild the lily by artificial means). As a 54-year old, I try not to be shocked when I accidentally (never deliberately) see myself in a mirror and a youthful early 20s Adonis isn’t staring back at me.