Prom 65: Mozart, Beethoven & R. Strauss - 7.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 7 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio – overture
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Aria: ‘Popoli di Tessaglia! – lo non chiedo, eterni dei’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Cassation No. 1 in G major – Andante
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Aria: ‘No, no, che non sei capace’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, ‘Haffner’
Richard Strauss: Capriccio – sextet
Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos – ‘Grossmächtige Prinzessin!’
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A major


Danae Kontora soprano
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Constantinos Carydis conductor

Greek coloratura soprano Danae Kontora makes her Proms debut with a sequence of Mozart and Strauss arias, while Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony is filled with operatic ornamentation and dramatic effects.

The vitality of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 led to its being famously described by Wagner as ‘the apotheosis of the dance’.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

To be honest, I consider this to be an attractive programme, but is it well planned? Certainly not adventurous.

[bluestateprommer]

To be honest, I consider this to be an attractive programme, but is it well planned? Certainly not adventurous.

Well, the "Mozart gallery" aspect of the 1st half is a bit different for me, at least, with the inclusion of the two concert arias and the Cassation movement in between the two more familiar works. But I do see your general point there.

If anyone hasn't already heard this Prom, I'll simply say about K. 385: be prepared for Constantinos Carydis to channel his inner Harnoncourt at several points, regarding eccentricities of dynamics, Luftpausen, and apparent tweaking of the orchestration (it seems). Danae Kontora had some scary high notes in the concert arias, and AFAICT, hit them, although I don't claim great understanding of coloratura singing. DK was OK, if not necessarily blowing me away, but then I can't sing, and she can.

[jayne lee wilson]

Goodness! This one's not for the fainthearted is it?
Extremes of tempi, phrasing and dynamics in the Haffner Symphony, Carydis milking the live event for all it can give, playing to the gallery, the arena, the radio, the universal web and everyone...!

So wonderful to hear a conductor doing it like this...Fasten your safety belts for the Apotheosis of the Dance!

Glorious singing from Kontora in the arias....so all an astonishing entertainment so far...

[bluestateprommer]

Fasten your safety belts for the Apotheosis of the Dance!

In the second part of the 4th movement, definitely so, where I thought that I heard a sudden gear shift thereupon. CC reined in the eccentricities of K. 385 in the 1st 2 movements, IMHO, but began to indulge a bit more in the 3rd movement, especially the really ... spacious ... pace for the middle section.

I found DK's singing of the Richard Strauss selection "Grossmachtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos much more sympathetic and winning in comparison to the Mozart in the first half. Perhaps her Edinburgh Festival work in one of the Ring operas that Ian Skelly mentioned put her in the suitably Germanic mood :) .

BTW, very enjoyable interval discussion, particularly from Barbara Eichner, on how Richard Strauss advocated for Mozart as a conductor. Well worth a listen on iPlayer if you haven't heard it yet.

[jayne lee wilson]

Wonderfully spontaneous, dynamic and firecrackingly energetic Beethoven 7, but one that had plenty of space to breathe, to allow those oases of lyrical calm and intensity to sing out, gentle or loud as apt..lovely wind detailing too....(and all the repeats)....

Above all - it was live and alive, made new in the moment - I wish more performances of familiar classical symphonies sounded like this....!

Wonderful concert, one of the best of the season for me....and as a footnote: wonderful R3 AAC 320 kbps sound too, catching the dynamic extremes, very loud to very very soft with perfectly natural clarity & presence - terrific stuff!

[David-G]

I was lucky enough to have the best "seat" in the hall - centre front row of the Arena. Perhaps the most enjoyable of the Proms I have attended this season. Will give a more detailed report when I get back to my computer. For the moment I'll just say this. Not sure I would always want to hear Beethoven 7 played like that, but oh my word that was thrilling. I don't think I have ever experienced such sheer excitement in an orchestral concert.

[David-G]

Just got home. Still rather stunned after that Beethoven. Altogether a lovely programme. Like the Cellini Prom on Monday, one could tell from the verve and precision of the first few notes of the overture that the concert was going to be a success. Very good to hear Mozart concert arias, we don't hear them often enough. Aloysia Weber (for whom these were both written) must have had an extraordinary voice. Danae Kontora was a charming singer, and fearless in the upper range. Wonderful rendition of the Haffner - which however left me quite unprepared for that Beethoven! The energy, the precision, the lightning changes of dynamics - wonderful. As the tempo increased in the last movement I began to fear that it might be unsustainable and the whole thing might come off the rails. But I and the orchestra had trust in the conductor and we made it through. Thrilling.

I was riveted by one of the principal viola Friederike Latzko, always with a smile on her face - I have never seen the viola played with such sheer energy.

Wonderful.

[vinteuil]

BTW, very enjoyable interval discussion, particularly from Barbara Eichner, on how Richard Strauss advocated for Mozart as a conductor. Well worth a listen on iPlayer if you haven't heard it yet.

... yes, a really good interval discussion. I was intrigued by what they said about Strauss's re-writing of Mozart's Idomeneo - I think I'll have to give it a try :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000UY4142/

As the perceptive reviewer on amazon says : "But who can answer the important question. Do I file it under M for Mozart or S for Strauss?"


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[Once Was 4]

... yes, a really good interval discussion. I was intrigued by what they said about Strauss's re-writing of Mozart's Idomeneo - I think I'll have to give it a try :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000UY4142/

As the perceptive reviewer on amazon says : "But who can answer the important question. Do I file it under M for Mozart or S for Strauss?"


.


.

Was it me or was it my radio? I found the upper strings almost inaudible in the Beethoven 7 1st movement. and also the horns. That was a shame as, yes, a very exciting performance. And I speak as someone who has an aversion to 'elite' groups (note the snide comments in the interval about not being employees!) There is nothing wrong with being 'employed' in an orchestra; the problem is the way that many orchestras are worked by their employers.

Some years ago I played 2nd horn in a run of an 'opera' which had been manufactured using several of those lovely arias. Totally disrespectful of the music! The conductor, highly respected as a rule by most of the orchestra, was assailed in a rage by one of the players at one point in a rehearsal and we got the impression that the maestro, normally a person with whom it did not pay to argue, could not answer back effectively because he agreed with what was said, or rather shouted, at him. These stood on their own as little jewels last night without any whippersnapper of a straight theatre producer tinkering with them. Discuss!

[jayne lee wilson]

The "anthology" approach can work very well as here.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/liberta-mozart-the-opera-pygmalion-raphael-pichon-and-sabine-devielhe/ljyat703xvjib

...played this a lot recently, had it flowing through the house.....a lot of fun & much unfamiliar music too.

No problems with horns/strings here in that thrilling Beethoven 7 on the AAC webfeed, though the horns were mostly balanced within & to the rear of the orchestra rather than, say, brought out more explicitly at the end of the first movement. I missed the usual thrill of them here to some extent, but they were perfectly clear in the sound balance. Carydis doubtless wished to avoid them being too dominant in the smaller orchestra.
But I did note we were hearing less of them than in some performances, balanced as they were.

[vinteuil]

The "anthology" approach can work very well as here.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/liberta-mozart-the-opera-pygmalion-raphael-pichon-and-sabine-devielhe/ljyat703xvjib

...played this a lot recently, had it flowing through the house.....a lot of fun & much unfamiliar music too..

... that looks interesting : I'm a big fan of Pygmalion/Raphaël Pichon.

This one's worth a listening to, too -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophers-Hennebert-Schikaneder-Pearlman-Baroque/dp/B01M74PUPL

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[Keraulophone]

...the horns were mostly balanced within & to the rear of the orchestra rather than, say, brought out more explicitly at the end of the first movement. I missed the usual thrill of them here to some extent, but they were perfectly clear in the sound balance. Carydis doubtless wished to avoid them being too dominant in the smaller orchestra... But I did note we were hearing less of them than in some performances...

...such as about this time last year, same place, by Sarah Willis, Stefan Dohr and the Berlin PO playing as though their lives depended on it for their then chief conductor-elect Kirill Petrenko. That was an extraordinarily fine Beethoven 7 that I'll never forget, having the weight and firepower of a symphony orchestra as well as the litheness and clarity of a chamber orchestra.

...I'll just say this. Not sure I would always want to hear Beethoven 7 played like that, but oh my word that was thrilling. I don't think I have ever experienced such sheer excitement in an orchestral concert.

David, were you there that Sunday evening of 2 September last year for Beethoven 7/Berlin PO/Petrenko (having, perhaps, also heard Boston SO/Nelsons's Mahler 3 the same afternoon?!), and if so, how did it compare in your opinion to this Bremen chamber orchestra performance? IMO the larger and richer-sounding Berlin orchestra generated even greater thrills and panache in this 'apotheosis of the dance' and one might have thought that they'd be more suited to the un-chamber-like RAH. Unsurprisingly, since you were standing in the front row of the arena, it would be difficult not to have felt maximum impact from the smaller orchestra. (Incidentally, I'd been standing approximately one third of the way back from the front centre of the arena last year - sadly, I've never made it to the front row!)