Proms at ... Cadogan Hall 8 – 3.09.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00
Cadogan Hall

Lili Boulanger: Nocturne (version for violin and piano)
Claude Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Nina Šenk: Baca - BBC commission: world première
Lili Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano
Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro

Soloists of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Maja Avramović violin
Daishin Kashimoto violin
Amihai Grosz viola
Bruno Delepelaire cello
Emmanuel Pahud flute
Andreas Ottensamer clarinet
Marie‐Pierre Langlamet harp
Alasdair Beatson piano

Hear some of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s finest players perform as soloists in a concert of 20th-century French chamber music.

Marking the 100th anniversaries of both Debussy and Lili Boulanger, the programme includes the latter’s evocative sequence of miniatures, Trois morceaux, alongside the neo-Classical melancholy of the former’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.

The concert also includes a world premiere by Slovenian composer Nina Šenk, using the same instrumental forces as Ravel’s vivacious Introduction and Allegro

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A bit of extra Berlin Phil is always welcome, especially in this repertoire.

[Serial_Apologist]

A bit of extra Berlin Phil is always welcome, especially in this repertoire.

Du bist ein Berliner, Alpen?

[bluestateprommer]

Jelly doughnuts aside, this was a splendidly performed Prom by the 7 Berlin Phil musicians and "honorary guest member of the Berlin Philharmonic for the occasion" Alasdair Beatson. The proceedings ran a few minutes over the hour, perhaps because the new commission from Nina Šenk ran perhaps a bit longer than the Proms organizers had expected. The term 'Baca' roughly translates as 'glass sphere', if I recall correctly from her remarks before the performance. The opening put me briefly in mind of Dutilleux, a bit, and perhaps her work ran a bit long. Interesting to see in the Proms performance archive that the Lili Boulanger Nocturne got one earlier Proms performance, on 5 September 1931 (!).

BTW, there needs to be an update to the list of musicians, as the clarinetist was Wenzel Fuchs (rather than Andreas Ottensamer), according to Petroc. The Forum Calendar entry is duly updated.

[edashtav]

Another reason for this delightful recital running late, bsp, was the time taken to retune the harp before the final item, Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. It was worth the wait. Another, hot summer has passed, but this sensuous work, with Debussy's L’Après-midi d’un faune and Honegger’s Pastorale d’été, epitomises for me a lazy, hazy French summer. The Berliners caught that character to perfection whereas Ravel’s recording sounds hectic and hurried.