Prom 34: Barber, Britten & Copland – 8.08.18

[Bryn]

For me, the Interludes need the Passacaglia to do the job properly.

[Beef Oven!]

For me, the Interludes need the Passacaglia to do the job properly.

I agree

[edashtav]

Looking forward to Sally Matthews in the Britten.

Quite right, Alpie... how lacking in “ Les Illuminations” was I when I adopted the pose of “ J’accuse” ...typo. If I don’t know that the Britten in the first half needs a soloist, who does?


Sincere apologies.

[edashtav]

As stunning a half-prom as I ever heard
I can barely bring myself
to write
A single word

Walton tripped the light
through sea and sky
Copland delved deep-dark
into the
Tonal Overgrowth, and left us
Asking Why.....

Britten left me
tearful, so hushed and
so calm

Thank you , Jayne for your genuine, original and creative comments.

[edashtav]

However, Jayne, I have bones to pick with you:
Portsmouth Point was rushed, and strings were strung up from a yard-arm! Satire was reduced to comedy as the whole was (mis)played as fun. A disastrously, unidiomatic performance, showing that the PP tradition has been lost through infrequent programming.
I was shocked aghast, and as sea-sick as a ship’s parrot.
We must fill the harbour with strong, briny water and depopulate the quays of Land-lubbers.

[jayne lee wilson]

However, Jayne, I have bones to pick with you:
Portsmouth Pointbwas rushed, strings were strung up from a yard-arm! Satire was reduced to comedy the whole was (mis)played as fun. A disastrously, undiomatic performance, showing that PP tradition has been lost through infrequent programming. I was shocked and aghast!

Heavens - I had the exact opposite reaction, finding it polished and precise (as the orchestra were, and far more than that, all evening)... and finely-differentiated stylistically from Britten or Copland..(I will listen again with the owls, as it is handily placed at the start...)...more soon...

[edashtav]

For me, the Interludes need the Passacaglia to do the job properly.

Oh, you’re so right, Bryn!.

[edashtav]

Heavens - I had the exact opposite reaction, finding it polished and precise (as the orchestra were, and far more than that, all evening)... and finely-differentiated stylistically from Britten or Copland..(I will listen again with the owls, as it is handily placed at the start...)...more soon...

Rhythmically, very exciting but string melodies had no time to breathe. My ideal performance would have taken a minute longer!

[edashtav]

Ooh, I loved the shiny, grimy, industrial Copland: it was played with bright, pseudo- American confidence and belief. This was Aaron reacting against the cosy, pastoral, dare I say, “cowpat” idiom of Appalachian Spring & etc., giving us an unvarnished, rust-belt and all, throbbing account of the USA, as a 20th century Industrial giant. One wobble apart, I loved this, and rated it the best performance of Connotations that I’ve ever heard : hard-driven, unvarnished, and intense. Well done!

[edashtav]

So... what about Sally in the Frenchified Alley? The work is a favourite of mine. I loved the strings and thoroughly enjoyed Sally’s “Do I sound big in this?”, “OUI”, “Well, deal with it, luv.” Her interpretation was in my face, full on, and very dramatic. Oh dear, I shall sound ungrateful, Sally, but I longed for a young, delicate, pastel-shaded voice with a narrower , less over-whelming vibrato. But, good on you, Sally, because that was a personal preference, and you sang your socks off and shivered my ancient timbers, and must have thrilled thousands on Radio 3 and in the Hall, and ... your characterisation was extremely thrilling.

On balance , A-.

[BBMmk2]

I hated the singer!

[edashtav]

I hated the singer!

You’re a sensitive soul, BBM... were you younger,
I might term you a snowflake....
But...
I sympathise with you!

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 34 BBCPHIL SAY FAREWELL TO JUANJO MENA AND THANKYOU TO LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Not much of a classical-vocal connoisseur myself, but I thought Sally Matthews sang wonderfully well tonight.
I might have imagined a preference for a more youthful vocal personae to assume Rimbaud’s impulsive, adolescent visions, but her rich, soaring yet precise articulations were marvellously offset by the leaping agility and finesse of the BBC Phil strings. Has the Fanfare ever grabbed our attention quite so rivettingly? Such shades of colour, such delicate articulations. Wonderfully sweet, expressive violin, viola and cello solos.
It is my favourite Britten work anyway (and I love Rimbaud as much as any other French poet), but I’ve never heard it better done, so clear yet so impassioned.
And perfectly balanced: Sally Matthews says she likes to stand within the orchestra, (feeling that Rimbaud’s words, and Britten’s settings, transform her into another instrumentalist) and the benefits to image and balance seemed apparent on the splendid HDs feed tonight.

As it turned out, the familiar Britten Sea Interludes were part of Bernstein’s last concert (at Tanglewood, with Beethoven 7) hence its inclusion here in this Bernstein-less Bernstein tribute.
But I felt this was something of a Mena tribute too, as the BBC Phil played with terrific brilliance and panache all night, from Portsmouth Point to the Aldeburgh South Lookout.
If I’m honest though, I still felt slightly shortchanged to end with them. Despite the impressive power and beauty (and Matthew’s glorious singing) of the Barber excerpts, I longed for a more substantial closer. Adding the Passacaglia still wouldn’t have been enough.

***
The Connotations has certainly had its detractors, but, having not heard it for many years, tonight I wondered why. The piece came across as - yes, quite stern and unremitting, but wide-ranging and dramatic in its orchestral effects, and this performance gleamed with tonal brilliance and machinelike exactitude. The great RAH spaces lent it a metallic lustre, far from the startling, gritty immediacy of Ehrling’s Juilliard account.
If anything, it reminds me most of early Elliott Carter and in fact the work was first released c/w Inscape and Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra on a 1973 NYPO/Bernstein LP.

Perhaps only the Illuminations was truly one for the heart tonight; but the head and the well-pleasured ears were pretty happy with the rest!

***
Note to Ed - sorry but the more I played Mena’s Portsmouth Point (which was rather more than once more, it was irresistible) and the louder I played it, the better it got!
(And this one's for you....

It went with snazz and jazz and zing,
it sung with schwung
like Previn’s LSO the rhythms
Sprung
So loud and fast
(their leader’s 70s boast)
A powerboat’s foaming blast
As it sweeps around the
Point
of Portsmouth’s coast

[edashtav]

“Jayne’s” Book of FIGHTING SHIPS :

It went with snazz and jazz and zing,
it sung with schwung
like Previn’s LSO the rhythms
Sprung
So loud and fast
(their leader’s 70s boast)
A powerboat’s foaming blast
As it sweeps around the
Point
of Portsmouth’s coast.

I can see a short, fast programme emerging like the Bluebird from the depths:

Willy Walton: Portsmouth Point
Dicky Wagner: Overture to the Flying Dutchman
Art Honegger : Pacific 2.3.1.
Johnny Adams : A Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

I’m afraid it’ll leave me way behind ‘cos I only own a velocipede.
But such poetry in motion
Or is it motion in poetry?
Has set me an irresistible challenge,
Once my inner man is fortified by a Harty breakfast
With the Wild Geese
I shall see if Mena’s wilfully Fast account
Will float my morning boat.

ta
(From an old tar?)

[cloughie]

PROM 34 BBCPHIL SAY FAREWELL TO JUANJO MENA AND THANKYOU TO LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Not much of a classical-vocal connoisseur myself, but I thought Sally Matthews sang wonderfully well tonight.
I might have imagined a preference for a more youthful vocal personae to assume Rimbaud’s impulsive, adolescent visions, but her rich, soaring yet precise articulations were marvellously offset by the leaping agility and finesse of the BBC Phil strings. Has the Fanfare ever grabbed our attention quite so rivettingly? Such shades of colour, such delicate articulations. Wonderfully sweet, expressive violin, viola and cello solos.
It is my favourite Britten work anyway (and I love Rimbaud as much as any other French poet), but I’ve never heard it better done, so clear yet so impassioned.
And perfectly balanced: Sally Matthews says she likes to stand within the orchestra, (feeling that Rimbaud’s words, and Britten’s settings, transform her into another instrumentalist) and the benefits to image and balance seemed apparent on the splendid HDs feed tonight.

As it turned out, the familiar Britten Sea Interludes were part of Bernstein’s last concert (at Tanglewood, with Beethoven 7) hence its inclusion here in this Bernstein-less Bernstein tribute.
But I felt this was something of a Mena tribute too, as the BBC Phil played with terrific brilliance and panache all night, from Portsmouth Point to the Aldeburgh South Lookout.
If I’m honest though, I still felt slightly shortchanged to end with them. Despite the impressive power and beauty (and Matthew’s glorious singing) of the Barber excerpts, I longed for a more substantial closer. Adding the Passacaglia still wouldn’t have been enough.

***
The Connotations has certainly had its detractors, but, having not heard it for many years, tonight I wondered why. The piece came across as - yes, quite stern and unremitting, but wide-ranging and dramatic in its orchestral effects, and this performance gleamed with tonal brilliance and machinelike exactitude. The great RAH spaces lent it a metallic lustre, far from the startling, gritty immediacy of Ehrling’s Juilliard account.
If anything, it reminds me most of early Elliott Carter and in fact the work was first released c/w Inscape and Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra on a 1973 NYPO/Bernstein LP.

Perhaps only the Illuminations was truly one for the heart tonight; but the head and the well-pleasured ears were pretty happy with the rest!

***
Note to Ed - sorry but the more I played Mena’s Portsmouth Point (which was rather more than once more, it was irresistible) and the louder I played it, the better it got!
(And this one's for you....

It went with snazz and jazz and zing,
it sung with schwung
like Previn’s LSO the rhythms
Sprung
So loud and fast
(their leader’s 70s boast)
A powerboat’s foaming blast
As it sweeps around the
Point
of Portsmouth’s coast

I will add this concert to my iplayer list. I will be sorry to see Juanjo Mena leave the BBCPO as I have really enjoyed the performances I have heard in a wide ranging repertoire. I hope he will continue to conduct Elgar with the Cincinnati Orchestra.