Prom 31: Minnesota Orchestra & Osmo Vänskä - 6.08.18

[Bryn]

That was pretty good, wasn't it? This very polished much-recorded ensemble (their many recordings owned, I'm sure, by many here) showing their pedigree...
Guess the Gershwin never figures in my top ten, but it was hot-to-trot and cool-to-move tonight.. even my fussy internal rhythm-o-meter was happy with the soloist/orchestra snap, give and take....

Not in my top ten, maybe, but I am indeed very fond of the Gershwin Piano Concerto, and this was a very fine performance of it. The Wild version of the "I Got Rhythm" variations was also very well polished. Still wary of what might be to come witht he final chord of the Ives 2nd.

[Well wadyano, J.P.E. Harper-Scott to the potential rescue. Perhaps we will hear the final chard as Ives wrote it. I do hope so.]

[Bryn]

. . . And now for the main event: will the Bronx Cheer get the Bryn Award? [/I]

You should know better, jlw. It's no "Bronx cheer" but a salute to a far less urban event, the final chord traditionally played at a barn dance. I am certainly very much in favour of this performance, so far. Quite the best I have heard, to date.

[Bryn]

[jayne lee wilson]

You should know better, jlw. It's no "Bronx cheer" but a salute to a far less urban event, the final chord traditionally played at a barn dance. I am certainly very much in favour of this performance, so far. Quite the best I have heard, to date.

Hey, I'm not quite the first person to call it that...usually associated with the Bernstein you so dislike, yes, but I think it's absolutely in the spirit of it all at the end!
(Anyway you didn't get Bernstein tonight did you?...so there you go!)

After a staggering Ives 2, I feel like I just went from philosophical investigations in a Bachian Sunday Retreat to Saturday-Night tequilas in The Tipsy Cow...
Just so out-of-my-chair wonderful....that Minnesota band can really turn it up can't they? Wow.Too full of smiles, tears and laughter to say more now...

[Bryn]

Hey, I'm not quite the first person to call it that...usually associated with the Bernstein you so dislike, yes, but I think it's absolutely in the spirit of it all at the end!
(Anyway you didn't get Bernstein tonight did you?...so there you go!)

After a staggering Ives 2, I feel like I just went from philosophical investigations in a Bachian Sunday Retreat to Saturday-Night tequilas in The Tipsy Cow...
Just so out-of-my-chair wonderful....that Minnesota band can really turn it up can't they? Wow.Too full of smiles, tears and laughter to say more now...

Kicking myself for not attending tonight. I could have driven to Hounslow West, parked up a few hundred metres from the Station and gone on to the RAH via bus, then gone to both Proms. Trouble is, the tree surgeon, who was to take down the bay tree whose roots were begining to strain the front wall of my abode, turned up late and by the time he had finnished the job it was too late to get a decent place in the Arena day queue. Whst a great Prom that was.

Re. the Gershwin, I recalled a Sky Arts broadcast of wellover a decade ago in which the piano was situated in a boxing ring. I tried Googling for details but could find none. However, the search did turn up this. My ire at reading it was asuaged by also finding this.

[edashtav]

Was I alone in detecting a trumpeter over-stressed by his big solo in the slow movement of the Gershwin?

I enjoyed the Ives.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I enjoyed the Ives.

What?! With all those structurally-deficiting Folk melodies?!

Who are you, and what have you done with our ed?

[edashtav]

What?! With all those structurally-deficiting Folk melodies?!

Who are you, and what have you done with our ed?

Edmk2: edmk1 is Haydn in the Ash Grove , feeling Phrygid, and dreaming lofty thoughts about modality saving RVW from drowning in pasteurised cowpats.


Seriously... I’m beginning to think the impossible... that ferney was almost right about RVW’s position in the constellation of contemporaries. Onwards... towards the Unknown Region! But can I bare, to tell all?

[bluestateprommer]

Was I alone in detecting a trumpeter over-stressed by his big solo in the slow movement of the Gershwin?

Nope; I detected the same 'stress', or perhaps nerves. (Or maybe not quite recovered from jet lag.)

[mrbouffant]

Nope; I detected the same 'stress', or perhaps nerves. (Or maybe not quite recovered from jet lag.)

Am I alone in detecting a number of slips from the pianist? Perhaps it was my ears and I should take out the score and work through it with the iPlayer recording to check...

The pianist's encore was fantastic though!

Very enjoyable concert indeed.

[BBMmk2]

Was I alone in detecting a trumpeter over-stressed by his big solo in the slow movement of the Gershwin?

I enjoyed the Ives.

Yes he was! I thought you can’t beat Howard Snell! Be good to see Wynton Marsalis playing that solo!

[Lancashire Lass]

Am I alone in detecting a number of slips from the pianist?

The pianist's encore was fantastic though!

Dunno about slips, but there a few split notes. Wonderful concert though, the precision and clarity in the first half was stunning, you could hear all the filigree sub-texts to the main orchestral lines. Though this might have been because we were for once in plum seats in the stalls rather than the cheap seats higher up.

They all looked pretty cosy together on stage -- are they always that numerous or was it specifically for those pieces? And why were the cellos on the left?

[Nick Armstrong]

Guess the Gershwin never figures in my top ten, but it was hot-to-trot and cool-to-move tonight.. even my fussy internal rhythm-o-meter was happy with the soloist/orchestra snap, give and take....

After a staggering Ives 2, I feel like I just went from philosophical investigations in a Bachian Sunday Retreat to Saturday-Night tequilas in The Tipsy Cow...
Just so out-of-my-chair wonderful....that Minnesota band can really turn it up can't they? Wow.Too full of smiles, tears and laughter to say more now...

Well I really need to hear how this came across on the radio!

Because I'm afraid it all came across in the hall as a bit lacklustre, after the brilliance of the BBCSSO/Manze concert last week.....

And maybe that's just it - after the perfect acoustic experience of the Choir seats last week, hearing the Minnesota orchestra from what used to be among my preferred seats (front stalls, at about a quarter-to-the-conductor) was a real let-down for a start. The sound of the orchestra came across as muddled, wrapped in a wet towel of RAH reverberation, with the brass (pointing straight at us on the far side of the stage) not really making it through the fug, ditto the piano soloist save for his more exposed passages.

Against that acoustic backdrop, the concerto really seemed to lack the precision and edginess that can make it zing, the trumpet solos in the slow movement seemed lumpy; and the Ives all a bit repetitive and trite until the final movement. Did nothing to persuade me away from what I've always thought since knowing the piece, that I'd be happy hearing the last movement as a bleeding chunk. Nothing in the orchestral playing made me think this was an exceptional orchestra....

Great to hear that the microphones seem to have 'electrified' the whole experience, so I shall definitely be listening again to see how much the Home experience this time seemed to outstrip actually being there

Look forward to hearing from mrbouffant and anyone else in the hall last night*... Were my ears just sulking from being deprived of the wonderful sound up in the choir?

.

*Cross posted with Lancashire Lass:

Wonderful concert though, the precision and clarity in the first half was stunning, you could hear all the filigree sub-texts to the main orchestral lines. Though this might have been because we were for once in plum seats in the stalls rather than the cheap seats higher up.

Whereabouts were your seats, LL?

[Bryn]

Dunno about slips, but there a few split notes. Wonderful concert though, the precision and clarity in the first half was stunning, you could hear all the filigree sub-texts to the main orchestral lines. Though this might have been because we were for once in plum seats in the stalls rather than the cheap seats higher up.

They all looked pretty cosy together on stage -- are they always that numerous or was it specifically for those pieces? And why were the cellos on the left?

"The orchestra had a different seating from the Chicago Symphony, with basses and cellos to the left and first and second violins divided. The advantage of this was most apparent in the concluding Beethoven Seventh Symphony, where Vanska made much of the back-and-forth play of the violins. The first movement had its exposition repeat. All dynamic markings were tellingly differentiated. Fast movements had tension without being pushed. Overall the performance was tight and strong, benefiting from a raspy first horn that occasionally hinted at a “period” sound. The result was instructive but lively without showiness."

from https://www.chicagotribune.com/.../c...130-story.html (you might have to view the cached version if based in Europe (that includes the U.K, now and hopefully for a lot longer)).

[Lancashire Lass]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]

Whereabouts were your seats, LL?

Front stalls (seven rows back) about twenty-five to the conductor.

Sorry you were disappointed, Caliban. Admittedly the sound was better in the first half, the Ives seemed a bit fuzzier, but I thought maybe that was the nature of the piece. The brass was very clear throughout, though, especially the trombones (and obviously the trumpets). At one point in the Gershwin they were drowning out the pianist but it didn't take away from the overall performance, from my POV.

Thanks for the explanation and link Bryn, will look it up.