Prom 68: Wagner Night - 9.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 9 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz – overture
Richard Wagner: Siegfried – Forest Murmurs
César Franck: Le chasseur maudit
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung – Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey
– Duet ‘Zu neuen Taten, teurer Helde’
– Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March
– Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene

Christine Goerke soprano
Stephen Gould tenor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Marc Albrecht conductor

Composer-themed evenings were a distinctive and popular feature of Henry Wood’s early Proms seasons: if it was Monday, it was Wagner Night.

We revive this tradition with a concert whose first half explores the enchanted forest (both beguiling and darkly supernatural) – a key symbol of the German Romantic movement.

The second half presents pivotal scenes from Götterdämmerung, the climax of Wagner’s four-opera magnum opus The Ring of the Nibelung – including Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music and the vocal tour de force of Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What? Every Monday?

[jayne lee wilson]

This could be a lotta fun!

Some time since I heard the RPO, or Wagner. I used to save Wagner up, Ring especially, for complete performances, avoiding soi-disant highlights.
Well, that was decades ago. Now, I'm very unlikely to take on a Ring in whole or part, I'll indulge tonight.....

Nicely designed Part One....

[Sir Velo]

What a magnificent composer of overtures Weber was. Freischutz, Oberon and Euryanthe stand out of course as masterpieces, but Abu Hassan and Turandot with their pictorial orientalism and the unforgettable Beherrscher Der Geister never cease to delight.

[bluestateprommer]

This could be a lotta fun! ... Nicely designed Part One....

Indeed, a very enjoyable "old school Romantic" first half from the RPO and Marc Albrecht just now. Have to catch up with the 2nd half later on.

[jayne lee wilson]

The RPO may not have the glamour, polish and distinctiveness of some of the European ensembles we've heard recently, but they played the Enchanted Forest sequence with more than enough power, freshness and spontaneity; so those Forests and their natural and supernatural inhabitants were all very vividly rendered as - sinister, seductive or devilish!

Terrific Part One!
(Hope the Cats & Hogs don't demand too much interval time, this time...)

[Sir Velo]

No lack of polish from the RPO brass at the start of the Franck! Fearless horn playing with power and panache in equal measure in some of the most terrifyingly exposed passages in the repertoire.

[Bert Coules]

I switched on the radio just in time to catch the closing notes of the Götterdämmerung extract and was surprised by what sounded like a very lacklustre reaction from the audience. Did it not go well? I wasn't able to keep listening to hear if things improved for the calls.

[jayne lee wilson]

Things were going quite well in part two ….but then the singing began and I realised why I no longer listen to Wagner, or opera much, anymore. So I began craving some Schubert or Mozart, but each time the orchestra took over, I cheered up and felt involved once again…
But later still, I recalled enough of the Ring-Complete experience to feel a little underwhelmed and shortchanged by such excerpts…and I felt the orchestra played less well after the interval.

Leaving others to judge the individual vocal qualities, I just wish this had been an all-orchestral Wagner sequence, or a devils-and-angels overtures/poems part two arrangement (all sorts of possibilities there...) …..
But that’s just me, and it was Wagner Night, so….

***
Ah well! Still DSCH 8 (Czech Phil! ) and those Four Bach Suites to immerse in….

Cats restrained in their demands tonight…….Iggy Hogg probably needs a refill now…
Wait a minute! They’re all queueing up at the back door!

[edashtav]

What a magnificent composer of overtures Weber was. Freischutz, Oberon and Euryanthe stand out of course as masterpieces, but Abu Hassan and Turandot with their pictorial orientalism and the unforgettable Beherrscher Der Geister never cease to delight.

Indeed, a very enjoyable "old school Romantic" first half from the RPO and Marc Albrecht just now. Have to catch up with the 2nd half later on.

The RPO may not have the glamour, polish and distinctiveness of some of the European ensembles we've heard recently, but they played the Enchanted Forest sequence with more than enough power, freshness and spontaneity; so those Forests and their natural and supernatural inhabitants were all very vividly rendered as - sinister, seductive or devilish!

Terrific Part One!
(Hope the Cats & Hogs don't demand too much interval time, this time...)

No lack of polish from the RPO brass at the start of the Franck! Fearless horn playing with power and panache in equal measure in some of the most terrifyingly exposed passages in the repertoire.

I agree with all of the above. It's over a decade since I enjoyed performances by the RPO so much. César Franck's Le Chasseur Maudit was astonishingly vivid and scary!
All rollicking good fun: The epitome of Sir Henry Wood's Proms!

[gedsmk]

I switched on the radio just in time to catch the closing notes of the Götterdämmerung extract and was surprised by what sounded like a very lacklustre reaction from the audience. Did it not go well? I wasn't able to keep listening to hear if things improved for the calls.

Incandescent brass in the Wagner! The trumpets reminded me of the Pittsburgh players, all so gorgeously phrased and blended. Horns and trombones likewise. I’d be hard pressed to remember better brass playing this season. Not so keen on the singers though. Some key high notes were rather forced, not quite getting there.

[Bert Coules]

Perhaps I was mistaken about the reception: I'll take a listen myself tomorrow and see. Siegfried's funeral march plus the immolation scene can normally be expected to bring the house down (even with the slow and serene final note), torn-out chunk or no.

[Darkbloom]

I switched on the radio just in time to catch the closing notes of the Götterdämmerung extract and was surprised by what sounded like a very lacklustre reaction from the audience. Did it not go well? I wasn't able to keep listening to hear if things improved for the calls.

I was in the hall for this one and it went very well indeed. Goerke is more Elektra than Brunnhilde but she managed quite well overall, and Gould was very impressive in what he was given to do. This is the first time I heard the RPO live and I was very impressed. The Weber didn't quite come off for me but the Cesar -Franck was tremendous and was quite a clever addition to the programme.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks; I'm pleased to have been mistaken.

[Maclintick]

Incandescent brass in the Wagner! The trumpets reminded me of the Pittsburgh players, all so gorgeously phrased and blended. Horns and trombones likewise. I’d be hard pressed to remember better brass playing this season. Not so keen on the singers though. Some key high notes were rather forced, not quite getting there.

This chimes with what I heard on the wireless, except I'd widen the plaudit to include the entire RPO, playing their socks off for Marc Albrecht, who held it all together brilliantly -- some gorgeous oboe-playing, as well -- so important in Wagner.