Proms 29 & 30: Brandenburg Concertos Project - 5.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Prom 29

15:00
Royal Albert Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 1 in F major, BWV 1046
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Maya - UK première
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G major, BWV 1048
Anders Hillborg: Bach Materia - UK première
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Uri Caine: Hamsa - UK première

Pekka Kuusisto violin
Antje Weithaas violin
Maya Beiser cello
Fiona Kelly flute
Uri Caine piano
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor


Prom 30

19:30

Royal Albert Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G major, BWV 1049
Olga Neuwirth: Aello - ballet mécanomorphe - UK première
Brett Dean : Approach – Prelude to a Canon
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 2 in F major, BWV 1047 (arr. Felix Mottl)
Steven Mackey: Triceros - UK première

Antje Weithaas violin
Brett Dean viola
Tabea Zimmermann viola
Claire Chase flute
Fiona Kelly flute
Marten Larsson oboe
Håkan Hardenberger trumpet
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is more like it. Mindless saturation concerts can be tedious, and a single concert with all 6 Brandenburg Concertos could have been precisely that.

But instead we have the six works spread over two concerts and interspersed with new works.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For my money the six "Brandenburgs" are so varied (both within and between each) that, played well, they could never become "tedious". But yes - this is a novel way of presenting them, and one I hope lives up to the potential.

[Beef Oven!]

This is more like it. Mindless saturation concerts can be tedious, and a single concert with all 6 Brandenburg Concertos could have been precisely that.

But instead we have the six works spread over two concerts and interspersed with new works.

You really need to work a bit harder at understanding the difference between your personal likes/dislikes and facts. I for one enjoy saturation concerts and was disappointed that all 6 weren't to be performed in one night. But this is merely my preference. You should take a leaf out of my book.

[doversoul1]

I wouldn’t mind hearing a new work/new works with early music in one concert but I’m afraid my musical mind is not trained enough to enjoy interspersing of the two. I personally prefer listening to one thing at the time in separate blocks.

[jayne lee wilson]

I'll try it this way of course - you never know - but I too would have preferred the 6 Concerti alone, either side of an interval....

Some years ago I bought an SWR/Gielen Mahler 3 album with the filler of extended Schubert Rosamunde selections, but - the Schubert movements were interspersed with Webern's 6 Orchestral Pieces Opus 6...

I only ever played it as presented once... ...despite both works being played as well as I'd ever heard, it just didn't work for me.... do other listeners like programmes like this, or recall successful ones...?
Or put them together themselves, off CDs, files etc....?

Incidentally- wouldn't it be better to combine these concerts in a single thread?

[cloughie]

I know nothing of the non-Bach works. How were they chosen - were they in some way influenced by the Brandenburgs and why would they be suitable in this juxtaposition?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I know nothing of the non-Bach works. How were they chosen - were they in some way influenced by the Brandenburgs and why would they be suitable in this juxtaposition?

https://www.konserthuset.se/en/programme/calendar/concert/2018/swedish-chamber-orchestra/

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Incidentally- wouldn't it be better to combine these concerts in a single thread?

A good suggestion Jayne. I've merged them.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wouldn’t mind hearing a new work/new works with early music in one concert but I’m afraid my musical mind is not trained enough to enjoy interspersing of the two. I personally prefer listening to one thing at the time in separate blocks.

But surely, each Bach work is presented in full without interruption. It isn't like interspersing new works between the movements.

[Bryn]

But surely, each Bach work is presented in full without interruption. It isn't like interspersing new works between the movements.

No, that would be the Art of Fugue (well. part of it) interspersed with Kurtag.

[BBMmk2]

I can listen to this collection no problem.

[jayne lee wilson]

They've achieved a lovely balance so far - just the right distance from the stage, good presence and detail but with a distinctively spacious setting in the RAH...
Excellent on HDs.

Remarkable concert so far - but something of an epic!
We've only just reached the interval (at 1630) after that wild, wierd and wonderful Hillborg improvisation with Pekka Kuusisto both vocalising and whistling....

OK! Coffee-Time in the garden with the Parakeets (I think Kuusisto channelled a few, shrieking away into the Bach Materia too...)

[bluestateprommer]

In keeping with what I've heard of Dausgaard's concerts with the BBC SSO, I sensed some edgy tension in TD's reading of JSB's Brandenburg 1, which may (or may not) have caused some split notes in the reading. TD likes to go with a more HIPP-informed approach, in the brisk tempi and trimmed vibrato. M-AT's Maya showed a very lyrical side of Turnage, as he alluded to in his pre-concert recorded remarks, in the slow and singing feel of the music, which the work's namesake, Maya Beiser played very well.

[DracoM]

Staggering! Riveting stuff!
At LAST, something to wake us out of the becalming predictability of the usual Proms season.
Hypnotic, and I can see this being a go-to repeat for me this autumn!