Prom 62: Elgar, Bell, Strauss & Bartók – 29.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

18:00
Royal Albert Hall

Edward Elgar: In the South (Alassio)
Iain Bell: Aurora - BBC co-commission: world première
Richard Strauss: Das Rosenband
Richard Strauss: Ständchen
Richard Strauss: Wiegenlied
Richard Strauss: Zueignung
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Diana Damrau soprano
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko conductor

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra present a concert that moves from the lush, late-Romantic soundscapes of Strauss’s songs (with soprano Miah Persson) and the sweeping melodic generosity of Elgar’s Italy-inspired overture In the South to the leaner, more percussive intensity of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – a virtuosic showcase for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert also includes the world premiere of Iain Bell’s concerto for coloratura soprano and orchestra, Aurora, featuring soprano Adela Zaharia.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Isn't Liverpool lucky to have a world class conductor at the present time?

[gurnemanz]

Diana Damrau soprano
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko conductor

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra present a concert that moves from the lush, late-Romantic soundscapes of Strauss’s songs (with soprano Miah Persson) and the sweeping melodic generosity of Elgar’s Italy-inspired overture In the South to the leaner, more percussive intensity of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra – a virtuosic showcase for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert also includes the world premiere of Iain Bell’s concerto for coloratura soprano and orchestra, Aurora, featuring soprano Adela Zaharia.

i.e. Two sopranos were needed to replace indisposed Diana Damrau.

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine start to the RLPO's Prom now, with Catherine Marwood getting well-deserved applause from the audience and a shout-out from Martin Handley for her viola solo (even if I'm not really a fan at all of Elgar's In the South). MH just said that Adela Zaharia got the call on 6-days notice to cover Iain Bell's Aurora. We'll see how she does.

[Serial_Apologist]

She got the Bell, then...

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm not really a fan at all of Elgar's In the South

And up till now, bsp, I'd so enjoyed reading your postings!

[bluestateprommer]

AZ did very well indeed just now in the new Iain Bell work, ably supported by VP and the RLPO. One advantage, perhaps, is that there were no words as such to remember ;) . But clearly it's a tremendous challenge to learn any new score on less than a week's notice. Very audience-friendly in sound and idiom, certainly nothing written against the voice.

[jayne lee wilson]

I'm probably no more devoted an Elgarian than BSP, but from the shallows of my comparative ignorance, I thought the RLPO and Petrenko gave us a magnificent Alassio...

Sadly my ears are in the sort of mood that excludes me from the room when sopranos are soaring, but.... I'll be back for the Bartok, a revealing test of any orchestral partnership...

[bluestateprommer]

Sadly my ears are in the sort of mood that excludes me from the room when sopranos are soaring, but.... I'll be back for the Bartok, a revealing test of any orchestral partnership...

I'd highly recommend revisiting the Strauss selections, at the least, because Miah Persson was absolutely outstanding in this set. Thelma Handy was also excellent in her solo for 'Morgen'. It would have been nice had MP also sung Vier letzte lieder with the BBC SSO earlier this month.

[jonfan]

Isn't Liverpool lucky to have a world class conductor at the present time?

Which city in Great Britain hasn’t got a world class conductor then? Barring Leeds where Opera North have yet to appoint.

[bluestateprommer]

The most striking thing about VP's reading of the Bartok was that he took the movements attacca, which I admit isn't to my personal taste. That aside, and except for a particularly OTT brass slide in the 4th movement during the DSCH 7 parody, the interpretation was otherwise pretty clean-cut, with the orchestra continuing in solid form. The Rachmaninov song encore (archived in over-granular detail in the Forum Calendar), arranged by RLPO principal horn Timothy Jackson, was pleasant, if extremely lightweight in of itself.

PS: Some youngsters in the RAH Gallery this evening, noted thus on Twitter.

[jayne lee wilson]

"Clean-cut"....exactly what I was about to write.......sharp and precise in the first movement then, with lean, clear strings, lacking some warmth, guttiness or depth of tone.
So - not very Hongrois perhaps, but nor was Reiner in his legendary Chicago recording (go to, Kocsis, say, or Iván Fischer, for that...).

The copy-games were pretty, witty, tongue-in-cheek; the nightbirds, the screams, fears and nocturnal apprehensions of the Elegia scarily vivid, the night-air tangibly chill; but by the finale, virtuosity and characterisation were faltering slightly, those hardworked strings wearing a little raw.

Certain conductors may be letting us all know what they think of interstitial applause by playing movements attacca, as Petrenko did throughout the Bartok - which works better for the last three movements than for the first two.... (Home Concert Hall to Arena: you reap what you sow...)...

The concerts have been a bit uneven this week, haven't they? Highlights here and there, but... We're all spoilt!
Maybe Berlin and Boston can lift the levels, or the roof, across the weekend...

[edashtav]

I'd highly recommend revisiting the Strauss selections, at the least, because Miah Persson was absolutely outstanding in this set. Thelma Handy was also excellent in her solo for 'Morgen'. It would have been nice had MP also sung Vier letzte lieder with the BBC SSO earlier this month.

Oh... you’re so, so, so right about those two sopranos, bsp. Miah was as lovely tonight as the Vier Letzte Lieder Lady was poor with the BBC SSO a couple of weeks ago.

[edashtav]

"Clean-cut"....exactly what I was about to write.......sharp and precise in the first movement then, with lean, clear strings, lacking some warmth, guttiness or depth of tone.
So - not very Hongrois perhaps, but nor was Reiner in his legendary Chicago recording (go to, Kocsis, say, or Iván Fischer, for that...).

The copy-games were pretty, witty, tongue-in-cheek; the nightbirds, the screams, fears and nocturnal apprehensions of the Elegia scarily vivid, the night-air tangibly chill; but by the finale, virtuosity and characterisation were faltering slightly, those hardworked strings wearing a little raw.

Certain conductors may be letting us all know what they think of interstitial applause by playing movements attacca, as Petrenko did throughout the Bartok - which works better for the last three movements than for the first two.... (Home Concert Hall to Arena: you reap what you sow...)...
.

I love Bartok but the Concerto for Orchestra has rarely featured amongst my top 10 BB works. I really enjoyed Vasily Petrenko’s interpretation with his RLPO. Why? I admired his thought-through, if idiosyncratic, phrasing, I loved the way he played up the concerto elements; unlike Jayne, the gypsy- Hungarian inflections satisfied me and I enjoyed the propulsion in the faster movements, plus the rhythmic sharpness throughout the performance. I agree with Jayne when she implied that the finale showed signs of tiredness. An A, overall!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm probably no more devoted an Elgarian than BSP, but from the shallows of my comparative ignorance, I thought the RLPO and Petrenko gave us a magnificent [I]Alassio...

I thought it was superb. Some loud noise in the hall did suggest the collapse of the Hall of the Gibichungs, or the influence of the Relaxed Prom.