Prom 65: Stravinsky, Ravel & Berio – 31.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00
Royal Albert Hall

Maurice Ravel: La valse
Luciano Berio: Sinfonia
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

London Voices ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra


Three 20th-century classics explore the fantastical beginnings of modern music. Semyon Bychkov leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a journey that contrasts the pre-war, avant-garde provocations of Stravinsky’s infamous ballet The Rite of Spring with the darker post-war reflections of Ravel’s La valse, also commissioned by Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes.
At the centre of the programme is Berio’s extraordinary Sinfonia. Dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, it is a technical tour de force for orchestra and eight solo voices that gathers together familiar fragments of classical music (including nods to both the Ravel and Stravinsky works) to create something bewilderingly brilliant and utterly, joyously original.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

London Voices ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Wot? No BBC Singers?

[Pulcinella]

Wot? No BBC Singers?

No conductor either, Alpie!

[Bryn]

No conductor either, Alpie!

Who needs a conductor when we have Katie Derham Presenting? (Semyon Bychkov, by the way.)

[BBMmk2]

Who needs a conductor when we have Katie Derham Presenting? (Semyon Bychkov, by the way.)

The Prom be alright, apart from KD!

[bluestateprommer]

Generally good account of La valse to start, with a few slight quirks of tempi shift from SB. Some fractional slips, and at one point, I thought that the bassoon sank slightly beneath the waves.

Well, if the BBC Singers had been called upon, one would have needed but 8 of them. The one group of modern times with a great tie to Berio's Sinfonia is the Synergy Vocals, although interestingly, Roomful of Teeth (of which composer Caroline Shaw is a member) has recently taken up the challenge.

PS: Very fine performance of the Sinfonia just now, well done by all involved. Given the requirement of mentioning the name of one other work on the program in the 3rd movement, I wonder how people here would react to the phrase "Ravel's Le sacre du printemps" .

[jayne lee wilson]

You can play La Valse as vast, spinning and toppling stormy impressionism, or with sharper, cleaner, more figurative brush-strokes; the fall of a civilisation or the devastation of the dance....

Tonight I heard a very well-played Concert Overture with a loud ending.

***

Orchestrally sensational and vocally stunning (often physically!) performance of Berio's Sinfonia...

Bychkov drew a response from a BBCSO - clearly, wonderfully in their element - of savage precision and dreamlike, visionary evocations... I have some problems with the work, that perennial difficulty of speech and music ramming up against each other. This is both creatively exciting and a listening challenge..(which I don't always meet)....

Tonight, almost in spite of myself, and especially due to the sheer virtuosic violence of the vocal delivery in the Mahler movement, I was dragged into its wild orbits and altered states once again....

(Writing this on an awkward old laptop with a dodgy backlight... more reflections later perhaps...)

[Keraulophone]

A suberbly achieved Berio Sinfonia, with the amplification of the eight voices very well judged in the hall.

Has anyone else noticed an immediate echo from the timps (x8) and bass drums (x2) whenever they play fortissimo? There was so much percussion in the back row tonight that it was positioned quite close to the crescent of screens so beloved of the beeb. When thwacked, these drums produce a sub-thwack approximately a semiquaver after being struck. I don’t know if this effect comes over via the mics, but I found it very distracting in the hall, particularly in Le Sacre as the extra sounds are quite loud, roughly mf after a ff thwack.

[jayne lee wilson]

I didn't notice any unusual resonances via HDs, Kera, but despite a reluctance to confront Le Sacre these days (familiarity problem as ever) I certainly did notice a tremendous performance of ...savage precision again. Which came over with great sharpness, clarity and focussed dynamic impact here at home. I didn't think I would go through with it, but it compelled me to stay to the end.

[Beef Oven!]

Decided to Prom it tonight, I enjoyed the seat in the Liszt/Mahler a few days ago, but nothing beats promming in the Arena!

Kicked off with a very horizontal rendering of La Valse. No 'fatal whirling motion', no parody, no 'tragic allusion'. Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to Charles Dutoit's Montreal SO performance on the London Underground en route - whetted my appetite and perhaps set my expectations too high.

In all honesty, Sinfonia did not improve on things much. Yes, there was stonkingly good orchestral playing and the many strands of Berio's score were beautifully articulated and presented to the ear. But there was a fair bit missing in this performance. No humour, no childish discovery that is palpable in the best performances of this work. No sense of wonder.

The female voices were excellent in my opinion. Full of passion and just about remaining in their seats, such was their physically manifested enthusiasm. You could see they clearly loved performing this piece.

The men were dull and grey. And when it got to "And after each group disintegration, THE NAME of MAYAKOVSKY
HANGS IN THE CLEAN AIR" which must be delivered excitedly in declamatory fashion, the guy just said it!!

Of the four or so Sinfonias I have witnessed, this gets the wooden spoon. Tomorrow I shall console myself with Deutsche Grammophon London Voices/Peter Eötvös CD.

Bychkov's Rite more than made up for all this this disappointment, and the feared waste of the £6 entry fee.

In my opinion, the BBCSO excel in post-romantic modern music and tonight, directed by Bychkov they delivered a skilled, powerful, tight, sharp and chic performance of this amazing score. I've seen The Rite performed so many times, but I've rarely found the various orchestral groups so well integrated, they seemed to be listening to one another as much as following the direction of Bychkov. The percussion section I would shine a light on; they struck (no pun) the perfect balance between power and lightness of touch in those primordial passages. The brass were more than up to the challenges of those punchy, almost transient blasts that IS calls for. The string players in particular seemed to maintain such a connection with Bychkov throughout the whole work. I particularly enjoyed the string playing in the second part.

I have witnessed quite a few Rites in my concert-going times, and this was one of the most enjoyable.

[jayne lee wilson]

So, looks like the Home Concert Hall got the better of it in the Berio.. where it came across with astonishing violence and vividness.

Le Sacre..... same-excellence either end..but thanks for the vivid report and photo Beef.
Just like the old days!

[Beef Oven!]

Yes, just like old/recent times!

To be fair Jayne, I was quite close to the stage and the voices may have literally gone over my head. I shall check it out on iPlayer in due course - contrary home-reports make me think the engineers preferanced the broadcast over the hall sound, although bluestateprommer and Keraulophone might have been in attendance* - they report no issues with Sinfonia or the singers.

Btw, £4 for a sub-Wikiipedia programme seems a bit of a rip-off, but it wasn't a bad read, actually.



* their posts seem ambiguous.




.

[BBMmk2]

I rather enjoyed the Prom last night. Despite Beefy’s review.

[jayne lee wilson]

Another one for the "surprising lack of attention here" comment...

I guess the Stravinsky is just played too often for many, but this and the Berio were relayed with marvellously sharp-cut vividness, with an impressively wide and well-focussed soundstage on HDs. Sonically and musically one of the best this year.

[teamsaint]

Another one for the "surprising lack of attention here" comment...

I guess the Stravinsky is just played too often for many, but this and the Berio were relayed with marvellously sharp-cut vividness, with an impressively wide and well-focussed soundstage on HDs. Sonically and musically one of the best this year.

I was there in the upper circle last night.
Even from a very different part of the hall, I would say that Beefy’s review was pretty much how I heard it, so thanks for a great review.

After having heard the last Proms Performance of the Berio a couple of years ago, I strongly suspect that there are performance issues with this work, especially in such a large hall. My suspicion is that the vocal parts have to be , or are sound engineered in ways that make them work clealy on air, but which may not do them any favours in the hall. Who knows. in the group I was with, some thought that the sound on vocal parts were as they ought to be, others ( me included) thought them indistinct, and less than perfect. Nontheless, a fine performance to enjoy live.
The Stravinsky was top class. I thought the strings were absolutely outstanding, and gave a full blooded, highly commited performance. But the orchestra was excellent throughout, and gave a reading that had me longing to see the ballet performed to such an interpretation.

Our somewhat mixed group all enjoyed this concert greatly, demonstrating the power of live performances of works that still have some power to surprise and confront the listener.