Proms 29 & 30: Brandenburg Concertos Project - 5.08.18

[bluestateprommer]

Terrific Brandenburg 5 just now, with Mahan Esfahani clearly going to town with his big first-movement cadenza. I'd wondered if he was balanced a bit more closely for that reason, but Andrew McGregor mentioned that ME was using a new harpsichord that incorporates carbon-fiber materials, and has more projection than older instruments.

Pre-interval, Hillborg's work was certainly a wild ride, if clearly the complete opposite of Brandenburg 3 in its sprawl, to the point of self-indulgence (on the composer's part, IMHO). PK is a showman, in the very best sense, and this clearly showed him to best effect there.

[BBMmk2]

The Brandenburg Concerti are such that this programme doesn’t have to happen but my goodness, these new works are something else!

[jonfan]

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!

The predictable thing about the Proms this season is it’s unpredictability. I think you must have been hibernating somwhere DracoM because we’ve had the Hall projected inside and out in Five Telegrams, all the BBC orchestras in stunning form, Jacob Collier, Pioneers of Sound, Musica Aeterna, Havana meets Kingston, the Unthanks, The Soldier’s Tale from Lincoln and a recital by a solo oud. So it’s taken Bach for you to experience something unpredictable.

[jayne lee wilson]

THE BRANDENBURG PROJECT (1)….PROM 29.

Beautifully placed and perfectly balanced on HDs, the orchestra seemed at first very relaxed in the Concerto No.1, laid-back Bach for a summer afternoon; Bach barefoot in the park. It was delicate and precise, always alive, never dull or routine, with no extremity or eccentricity of tempi or phrase, but with a welcome extra perkiness from Horns and winds in the 2nd trio and an emphatic conclusion.
One missed the colours and textures of period instruments, but this was beautifully done.
The Turnage Maya, a surprisingly intense minor-key lament for cello/orchestra, had a powerful central climax and a lengthy cadenza, wonderfully voiced, (with on-the-bridge contrasts that seemed to be quoting…something bachian?) by Maya Beiser. Long-held, late-Stravinskian wind chords were haunting at the close, as the cello’s final resonance slowly faded….

Concerto No.3, with a freshly-composed, high-pitched and hovering transition between the movements by Anders Hillborg, was again precise, straightforward and quite easy-going (you'll probably have sensed that I'm a Reinhard Goebel fan by now...), but with a much livelier finale.
The whole event leapt up to another level of excitement and intensity with the Anders Hillborg Bach Materia…
“50 -60% improvised” around the 3rd Brandenburg, this was - dramatically busy, then suddenly still; floating in rapt reflection, then flippant, jazzily throwaway, tongue-in-cheek….our soloist Kuusisto vocalised, whistled, produced parakeet-shrieks from his violin, in a wild, hazy, inextinguishable piece of many moods, many abstractions... Extraordinary.

Were we really only at the interval? Phew.

***
Onto the Bach Concerto No.5, a beefier response from the Swedish Chamber Orchestra here, their greater momentum offset by a concertante group that wore their virtuosity lightly - then came Esfahani, preternaturally dazzling in his big cadenza, in that effortlessly individualistic manner we’ve almost taken for granted now.
Our soloists took the affettuoso very easily, lazin’ on a summer afternoon again - but always kept in touch with each other and the band.

By the time Uri Caine’s Hamsa fired off, after another platform rejig, evening was approaching, (from a 1500 hrs start)…
Was this why I found it harder to go with, or at least stay with, through all its kaleidoscopic, even manic, invention? It darted about restlessly through distorted quote, fragment and improvisation of the 5th Brandenburg; I was finding it a touch inconsequential, but then - the first movement strengthened and focussed into an impressively sustained cadenza for Caine himself on piano; I began to recover my musical senses….

The slow movement had whirligigs at the beginning and end (sounding rather like ocarinas) but I sometimes wished it would stay calmer, for longer…the restless invention and directional chop-and-change almost never stopped…I longed for some greater sustainment again, like the 1st movement cadenza.
The finale improvised and paraphrased upon Bach’s own finale in a way I found exciting but less compelling than I’d hoped…(even, in all its improvised unpredictability, a shade predictable?)
But it had a lot to live up to at the end of a marvellous sequence, and so did my music loving brain, after a very long afternoon…

[DracoM]

Agreed. This was a true 2018 Proms highlight for me.
Inventive, illuminating, and genuinely exciting llistening.

[oddoneout]

Agreed. This was a true 2018 Proms highlight for me.
Inventive, illuminating, and genuinely exciting llistening.

Sums it up for me.This is one I need to hear again as I heard less than a third of the first part, and the second part had so much to take in that it left my brain a bit scrambled. Initial reactions: Uri Caine - felt rather unconnected to my ears - ideas that didn't necessarily relate to each other and the whole very well; Olga Neuwirth - really liked this, look forward to hearing it again, made me smile; Brett Dean - interesting piece for viola, possibly a useful addition to a rather sparse repertoire, but I really didn't like the transition straight into No 6, sounded rather a scramble and took a while to settle, possibly something that will change with further performances?;the transition from No 2 into Steven Mackey's piece seemed tidier but after the the astonishing virtuoso trumpet playing I really needed a chance to breathe rather than launching straight into something else, found myself resenting Triceros!
Thee were some parts of the Brandenburgs I wondered about, but overall what I heard was immensely enjoyable, with several standout moments, and the project as a whole I felt was well worth doing. All credit to the performers, for what must have been quite a marathon, in keeping up the energy and quality to the end.

[jayne lee wilson]

BRANDENBURG PROJECT PART TWO…

Perfect balance again, this time between echo-flutes and strings, in the Concerto No.4. “ More of the same” I thought - effortlessly stylish MOR-CO Bach, but - wait a minute: in the finale, perhaps responding to the mood of the moment, (come on, sauce it up a little!) - was suddenly alive, brilliant and exhilarating! (dare I say it probably needed to be?)
On to the 4th Concerto-related new piece, this time Aello (one of the Harpies) by Olga Neuwirth.
Beginning (and mostly, continuing) with cartoonish distortions of No.4, this used a typewriter with a synthesised harpsichord as basso continuo, cocking many a snook in a primary-coloured fairground ride through various instrumental/synthesised combinations, all apparently inspired by Colette’s famous description of Bach as a “divine sewing-machine”. Not that such a sonic, or metaphorical, relation was obvious…hooting and honking from muted trumpets, swishes, puffs, swoops and slides from the flautist and various mock-ghostly instrumental effects; the jokes wore a bit thin for me.
I felt, for the first time, a sense of disappointment here: a vague sense of hearing such sounds once-too-often in contemporary and not-so-contemporary music; that it was bit too collagiste and cliché-ridden. Or was it, itself, a deliberate send-up of modernismus? A Nielsen-6 style humoresque?
It felt directionless; or in the critically-clichéd euphemism, “over-extended.” I perambulated around the room, behind the speakers, came back to my chair… prommed about a bit. Peered outside, looking for the cat…
Ballet Mécanomorphe? Love to see the choreography for this one. Harpies suspended on wires! Maybe that’s just what it needs…..

***
Next, a change of direction, as the new piece was designed to precede the Brandenburg, in this case No.6….
Brett Dean’s Approach - Prelude to a Canon, conceived as a prelude to the canonical No.6, was like a fast-slow-fast modern-neo-classical concerto-in-one-movement….with a mysteriously remote slow central section, where viola melodies sang against whispers and murmurs from the orchestra. The harpsichord flitted about like a will-o-the-wisp. Then the music darkened and quickened with some lovely edgy, earthy harmonic and coloristic effects between the soloists and, with mounting excitement - bang!
We suddenly segued into the 6th Brandenburgische.
With Brett Dean himself and Tabea Zimmermann leading off, there was more phrasal freedom here, the two outsiders changing the response of the SCO as Dausgaard, so closely and flexibly engaged, went with them - or played against them. So they bought some expressive warmth at a cost of precision - the two weren’t always “timing with” the orchestra, but this only intensified my own involvement; it was wonderful to hear yet another change of approach…..

***
Hakan Hardenberger soared free of the ensemble at the start of Concerto No.2, dancing though the clouds while below, Dausgaard kept the engine running jauntily.There was softness, grace and light as the other soloists - flute, violin and oboe - floated us through the andante, so sweet and sad. HH’s gleaming, piercing tone was reaching its final pinnacle when everything stopped; we dissolved into the airy delicacies of Steven Mackey’s Triceros….
A three-horned chameleon of a shape- and colour-shifting concerto for flugelhorn, trumpet in C and in piccolo, an HH showcase, yes (Batter my ears, three-person’d God of the Trumpet!), but a largely relaxed and playful work: a continuous-play fantasia, with many changes of pace and intriguing, seductive textures; minimalist-style string figures and pulses, approaching and receding around our trinitarian soloist, threading and guiding us through, held the flightiness together. Hardenberger’s piccolo-horn led a final dynamic surge and then… we arrived at the last conclusion of all, as the Triceros ended by quoting the last phrases of the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto itself.

***
A day-long listen, a rare experience of musical defamiliarisation in ever-changing contexts; of novelty and invention inspired by that familiarity; one that left me with a profound equanimity, a peace of mind that our conflicted world (or my own inner world) so rarely allows.
I was grateful for it.

[underthecountertenor]

The predictable thing about the Proms this season is it’s unpredictability. I think you must have been hibernating somwhere DracoM because we’ve had the Hall projected inside and out in Five Telegrams, all the BBC orchestras in stunning form, Jacob Collier, Pioneers of Sound, Musica Aeterna, Havana meets Kingston, the Unthanks, The Soldier’s Tale from Lincoln and a recital by a solo oud. So it’s taken Bach for you to experience something unpredictable.

[bluestateprommer]

Sums it up for me.This is one I need to hear again as I heard less than a third of the first part, and the second part had so much to take in that it left my brain a bit scrambled.

There's another chance for this Proms season's Brandenburg marathon, on Sunday 30 December, in 2 parts:

Part 1 (19:30): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ssg

Part 2 (22:10): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ssj

The more attentive here will note that bsp is recycling the appropriate Proms threads as the repeats appear on R3's future schedule (hint, hint for any possible future discussion).

[jayne lee wilson]

Just a wonderful Prom, and a wonderful musical day....a great adventure, glowingly recalled.... do try to hear it all if you can fit it in somewhere...