Prom 66: Berlin Philharmonic & Kirill Petrenko (I) - 1.09.18

[edashtav]

I’ve actually been involved in playing of La Péri. Very good one to play. Can’t wait for the Schmitt.

Me, too, bbm, but I hope it’s Franz not Florent.

[BBMmk2]

Me, too, bbm, but I hope it’s Franz not Florent.

Yes Edash. Thanks!

[bluestateprommer]

Excellent start to the 1st "Kirill and the Berlin Phil" double header, with the Berlin PO firing on all cylinders splendidly. (Contrary to Martin Handley, I did note a cough of sorts near the start of the main ballet.)

PS: Well, as the one lyric from the musical Chicago goes, "Give 'em the old / Razzle dazzle...". This Yuja Wang, KP and the Berlin Phil certainly did just now, in spades. Lucky folks who are there in the RAH now. YW's Rachamaninov encore (op. 23, no. 5) is now archived in the Forum Calendar.

PPS: OK, the 2nd encore is now archived as well ;) , the Fazil Say & Arcadi Volodos jazzed-up version of Wolfie's "Rondo alla Turca".

[jayne lee wilson]

What on Earth, Mars or Venus do you say about a Prokofiev 3rd Concerto like that?
Yuja Wang is always likely to go her own brilliantly wayward way, and given such staggering dexterity and creativity anything can happen... so what do her accompanists do about that?
Kirill Petrenko and the Berliners answered in kind, displaying a fair bit of almost improvisatory brilliance themselves; with inevitable consequences for co-ordination. Which often left this listener physically uneasy...
But of uncoordinated brilliance we had a wildly eccentric, moment-to-moment creative abundance... which it is probably best to be in the hall for... for the sheer presence, the visual and tangible event of audience/performer involvement.

I guess you'll either love it or hate it... I'm not quite sure........ it wouldn't surprise me if, on a second hearing I feel very different...

As for Dukas, I've heard orchestras sounding better - cleaner, clearer - than this, on HDs, during the season...the BPO didn't seem to be as acoustically happy as they might be in La Péri, or perhaps they've been difficult for the soundbalancers...the early climax sounded slightly congested, but later I wondered if this was a little too refined for its own good.

All a bit hmm... then.

[edashtav]

Excellent start to the 1st "Kirill and the Berlin Phil" double header, with the Berlin PO firing on all cylinders splendidly. (Contrary to Martin Handley, I did note a cough of sorts near the start of the main ballet.)

PS: Well, as the one lyric from the musical Chicago goes, "Give 'em the old / Razzle dazzle...". This Yuja Wang, KP and the Berlin Phil certainly did just now, in spades. Lucky folks who are there in the RAH now. YW's Rachamaninov encore (op. 23, no. 5) is now archived in the Forum Calendar.

PPS: OK, the 2nd encore is now archived as well ;) , the Fazil Say & Arcadi Volodos jazzed-up version of Wolfie's "Rondo alla Turca".

I heard only the encore, by accident , as I’m a confirmed Yuja Wang-phobe, I’ve found her celerity often out of control or proportion, and I’ve detected a lack of warmth and heart. I have to admit that I admired her Rachmaninov, this evening, and as for the Mozart, which was arranged and played as a pure exhibition of virtuosity, well I have never heard such fast, and on the whole accurate, fingerwork.

[jayne lee wilson]

What's with the sound tonight? Upper strings sound terribly gritty in the Schmidt tuttis so far....(HDs, crosschecked on FM - same or worse there..)...

I may have to abandon this & try again via iplayer later... no cool cats or happy bunnies in this HCH tonight...

[Beef Oven!]

What's with the sound tonight? Upper strings sound terribly gritty in the Schmidt tuttis so far....(HDs, crosschecked on FM - same or worse there..)...

I may have to abandon this & try again via iplayer later... no cool cats or happy bunnies in this HCH tonight...

Don't abandon it Jayne, keep listening to the music and worry about the sound quality tomorrow.

Beethoven is better than Thomas Dolby

[BBMmk2]

I think in this evening’s concert The Berliners wee not on top form. There seemed to be something missing thought. The playing was flawless, for sure. The Schmidt, yes, but even here, horn and trumpet, lapse of concentration? The Prokofiev has felt sounded hurried and the pianist, I felt played the Concerto at quite a lick, and at that speed suffered in clarity.

[bluestateprommer]

Very fine reading of Schmidt 4, part of the first series of performances ever by the Berlin PO of Schmidt 4, per MH. Some solo horn bobbles about 2/3 of the though, the only noticeable blemish. To be honest, this work is a hard nut to crack, at least for me, although I haven't heard it in any form in a good long while.

.... it wouldn't surprise me if, on a second hearing I feel very different....

Try the Lucerne relay via BR-Klassik that I linked to earlier in the thread, for the same program presented elsewhere. If that link holds out for a while, that's where I'll give this program a 2nd listen (after catching up with numerous Proms via iPlayer).

[edashtav]

I think in this evening’s concert The Berliners wee not on top form. There seemed to be something missing thought. The playing was flawless, for sure. The Schmidt, yes, but even here, horn and trumpet, lapse of concentration? The Prokofiev has felt sounded hurried and the pianist, I felt played the Concerto at quite a lick, and at that speed suffered in clarity.

Yes, bbm, there were flaws in the trumpet’s long solo in the Schmidt, and,later, in the horn during the slow movement but neither bothered me thanks to the majesty of the whole. I have loved, or yearned to love, Schmidt’s final symphony since reading, fifty ears ago, Harold Truscott’s marvellous essay on it in Bob Simpson’s seminal Penguin digest simply called, “The Symphony”. The music is conservative but plumbs great emotional depths whilst showing consistent and unusual contrapuntal mastery. Furthermore, there’s no redundancy unlike the scores if Mahler and, pace or maybe sotto voce, Jayne, dear Bruckner. Look at the scherzo, all the propulsion of Bruckner, plus the lightness of touch of Mendelssohn, yet there is room for the rigour of JSB in the fugal episodes; then there’s a Mahler cstastrophe, but, and here’s the rub, Franz doesn’t dilate over ten minutes but spits it out, done and dusted in two or three minutes! Good man. Tonight I heard the carry over to R. Strauss’s Four Last Songs (so poorly performed earlier in this Proms season) and I heard the mood of the Elgar Cello Concerto in the cello solo and subsequent string music of the slow movement. Wonderful, fin de siècle music

I thought Kirill Petrenko had a fair grip over the score: some moments would have benefited from a slower tempo and a little more rubato, but, overall, I’ve yet to hear a better interpretation. Again, I’d have liked a bit more “gypsy” in the Hungarian elements, but we may have to wait for IF’s wonderful Budapest FO to hear them in full glory. Generally speaking, the BPO played with confidence and apparent enjoyment this evening and I was thrilled to hear the appreciative and warm response in the RAH.

Does anyone except Edward Elgar beat Franz Schmidt at ‘nobilmente’? (Rhetorical) qusetion to Ferney: is this not a perfect example of your late romantic Selfie-Symphony ? Do others hear this piece as a continuation of Schönberg’s Verklarte Nacht?

[Darkbloom]

Maybe a few blemishes in the playing is potentially a good sign, that KP is pushing his players out of their comfort zone a bit. The BPO under Rattle often sounded too sleek, as though they had been over-rehearsed. Or maybe it's just a slightly off-night. Too soon to tell.

[Keraulophone]

The Berliners sounded fine to me, about ten ‘rows’ back in the arena. That last chord in the Dukas was a beautiful enough pianissimo, then the lower brass joined in magically, without it getting any louder.

The first horn fluffs in the Schmidt were a very tiny blemish (I don’t think Stefan Dohr was on duty tonight, unless he’s grown a beard), hardly worth a comment in the face of such an involving performance. I used to think of Schmidt as a sort of Slovakian modernist Elgar, but now I realise the comparison is invalid having heard this, and been to Eric Levi’s pre-Prom talk. There are some elegiac similarities (Elgar’s 2nd and Cello Concerto), but FS was much more sure of his own abilities, being somewhat arrogant with his teachers. This symphony is very cleverly constructed and keeps us guessing; it offers little consolation.

By the end of the concert I had almost forgotten about the rushed-through Prok PC3 and the empty virtuosity of Yuja Wang’s second encore.

To my ears the sound of this orchestra was richer in all departments in the hall than the BBCSO were last night, though they must have found the acoustics the hall in Lucerne easier. It would be a pity if the broadcast sound was below par. I hope they get it right tomorrow: Boston and Berlin.

.

[jayne lee wilson]

Listening back to the Prokofiev 3rd Concerto later just intensified my involvement in the extravagant creative freedom on display; as if soloistic and orchestral command of the music was so effortlessly complete, they could do anything they liked with it, independently, at any given moment; playing with, for or sparking off against each other. The slow central episode of the finale was simply off-the-wall; orchestral shapes and colours, pianistic touch and tone.....astoundingly free.

The final cartoon sprint was as crazy, flashy and splashy as ever I've heard, I was out of my chair and out-of-my-head too.
"My God" Yuja mouthed to the Philharmoniker's leader...

"Grazie Signore" said I, giggling as I looked up at the ceiling...

[mathias broucek]

Well, I only caught the last movement of the Schmidt and even the "hi res" stream is lossy enough to make it hard for me to comment on the condition of the orchestra

But, respect to KP for the program!!! For me the Proms should include a decent amount of good music by second rate composers (Schmidt/tt, Magnard, Roussel, Rubbra, Bax, Schuman etc.) but lately seems to be focused on the kind of music that is played all the time...

KP's Suk recordings are worth digging out. Yes, the Czech Phil, BRSO, RLPO etc. are better orchestras but I heard all sorts of stuff in his performances that I'd not noticed before

[BBMmk2]

Listening back to the Prokofiev 3rd Concerto later just intensified my involvement in the extravagant creative freedom on display; as if soloistic and orchestral command of the music was so effortlessly complete, they could do anything they liked with it, independently, at any given moment; playing with, for or sparking off against each other. The slow central episode of the finale was simply off-the-wall; orchestral shapes and colours, pianistic touch and tone.....astoundingly free.

The final cartoon sprint was as crazy, flashy and splashy as ever I've heard, I was out of my chair and out-of-my-head too.
"My God" Yuja mouthed to the Philharmoniker's leader...

"Grazie Signore" said I, giggling as I looked up at the ceiling...

Perhaps I’m missing something here then?