Prom 41: Edward Gardner conducts Elgar & Vaughan Williams - 12.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

20:00
ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Lili Boulanger: Pour les funerailles d'un soldat
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem

Sophie Bevan soprano
Neal Davies bass-baritone
Jean‐Guihen Queyras cello
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner conductor



War casts its long shadow over this Prom given by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus - part of this season's musical survey suggested by the centenary of the end of the First World War.

A precursor to Britten's War Requiem (see Prom 72), Vaughan Williams's cantata Dona nobis pacem is a heartbreakingly beautiful exploration of the violence of war, its expansive lyricism a natural foil for the compressed drama of Lili Boulanger's choral miniature Pour les funérailles d'un soldat.

Elgar's much-loved Cello Concerto, composed in the wake of the conflict, completes this emotive concert, with French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras as soloist.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've fallen a bit behind with these Proms (weekend in Scarborough). The intro writers seem to have mended their ways.

[bluestateprommer]

Lili Boulanger's Pour les funerailles d'un soldat just finished. It does have its academic constructional aspects, even given that all of LB's works are 'youthful' works, but is interesting to hear. Alexandre Duhamel took the brief baritone solo (credited in the Forum Calendar belatedly). EG interestingly placed the works style somewhere between "Berlioz at his most ceremonial and Poulenc at his most chamber-like", or words to that effect.

PS: J-GQ did a very fine job with Elgar's Cello Concerto, with perhaps a bit more spaciousness than usual, perhaps to help "fill out the running time", as it were. To fill out the running time even further, he just gave an excellent encore of Henri Dutilleux's Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher.

PPS: Excellent performance of RVW's Dona nobis pacem just now from all involved. Given the particular logistical demands of this work, it's perhaps not a surprise that it doesn't get performed all that much. That's a shame, of course, given the quality of the work.

Picking up a topic from another thread, EG also seems to have a solid relationship with the BBC SO. Looking down the line, I can imagine that the BBC SO has both EG and Karina Canellakis on their short list of future chief conductor candidates post-Sakari Oramo.

[jonfan]

A pity Huddersfield Choral, as commissioners, weren’t invited to take part in this rare performance of Dona Nobis Pacem. It’s in their repertoire at the moment as they performed it with Belshazzar last year thus employing the extra brass more fully.

[cloughie]

A pity Huddersfield Choral, as commissioners, weren’t invited to take part in this rare performance of Dona Nobis Pacem. It’s in their repertoire at the moment as they performed it with Belshazzar last year thus employing the extra brass more fully.

The N O W factor!?!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

A pity Huddersfield Choral, as commissioners, weren’t invited to take part in this rare performance of Dona Nobis Pacem. It’s in their repertoire at the moment as they performed it with Belshazzar last year thus employing the extra brass more fully.

You don’t need all that extra brass for DNP.

[jonfan]

You don’t need all that extra brass for DNP.

Well not as much as the Walton granted, but there are 4 trumpets instead of the usual 2 and 5 trombones instead of 3. I know having spent quite a bit more on extra musicians for Belshazzar it was a good opportunity to use them again in the same concert.

[Pulcinella]

I'm surprised that there has not been more (favourable) comment on this concert: a highlight of the season so far for us. Loved the interpretation of the Elgar, and DNP is just achingly beautiful in places (Reconciliation, and the Dirge, particularly). And the right type of soprano voice for me, compared with Sally Matthews in the recent Les illuminations concert.

[BBMmk2]

It amazes me how concerts like this one are not talked about more.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Well not as much as the Walton granted, but there are 4 trumpets instead of the usual 2 and 5 trombones instead of 3. I know having spent quite a bit more on extra musicians for Belshazzar it was a good opportunity to use them again in the same concert.

You're not wrong - there can't be many other pieces where you need five trombones without corresponding hikes in other areas. Good programming.

I can sympathise with your original sentiment - it's always a bit annoying to see something going elsewhere when you feel any sort of “ownership”; especially if you end up with some unjustly unneglected “classic” instead.

[BBMmk2]

You're not wrong - there can't be many other pieces where you need five trombones without corresponding hikes in other areas. Good programming.

I can sympathise with your original sentiment - it's always a bit annoying to see something going elsewhere when you feel any sort of “ownership”; especially if you end up with some unjustly unneglected “classic” instead.

I think the Walton Belshazzar and the RVW DNP, would make a good coupling.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think the Walton Belshazzar and the RVW DNP, would make a good coupling.

The second after the first - yes, indeed...

[jonfan]

The second after the first - yes, indeed...

Yes it was that way round and a fantastic concert. Orchestra of Opera North, Paul Daniel and Roderick Williams no less.

[BBMmk2]

The second after the first - yes, indeed...

I might play these two tomorrow.

[secondfiddle]

'DNP is just achingly beautiful in places (Reconciliation, and the Dirge, particularly).'

Couldn't agree more. The Whitman verses are particularly effective and moving. I remember hearing Sargent perform the work in 1964 (with Elgar Into & Allegro and The Planets).