Prom 58: Tchaikovsky, Janácek, Szymanowski and Linda Catlin Smith - 1.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 1 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Linda Catlin Smith: new work - BBC commission: world première
Leos Janácek: The Fiddler’s Child
Karol Szymanowski: Love Songs of Hafiz, Op. 26
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 2 in C minor, ‘Little Russian’

Georgia Jarman soprano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov conductor

Folk songs and folk tales run through this programme from the BBC SSO and Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov.

A runaway success at its premiere, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.2 takes a different Ukrainian folk melody as the theme for each of its four movements, including the dizzyingly inventive finale, while a gruesome Czech legend provides the starting point for Janáček’s atmospheric orchestral ballad The Fiddler’s Child.

Szymanowski’s exotic songs based on texts by the 14th-century Persian mystic poet Hafiz and a world premiere by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith complete the concert.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So, if Tchaik 2 was a runaway success at its premiere, why did the composer completely rewrite it? Or did he do the rewrite before the first performance?

[Serial_Apologist]

Ms Catlin Smith is a name new to me; and I have not heard or even heard of the Janacek previously. The Hafiz songs caught Szymanowsky at a crucial transition point between his earlier Straussianisms and influences from Ravel and Scriabin in harmony and sound colouring as exotic ingredients to flavour his sensuous choice of settings, and I for one am particularly fond of them. Tchaikovsky 2 should provide a wonderful culmination to this concert.

[Bryn]

Ms Catlin Smith is a name new to me; and I have not heard or even heard of the Janacek previously. The Hafiz songs caught Szymanowsky at a crucial transition point between his earlier Straussianisms and influences from Ravel and Scriabin in harmony and sound colouring as exotic ingredients to flavour his sensuous choice of settings, and I for one am particularly fond of them. Tchaikovsky 2 should provide a wonderful culmination to this concert.

You very much surprise me re. both Linda Catlin Smith and Janacek's The Fiddler's Child. The latter was indeed recorded by Volkov and the BBCSSO a few years ago, and the former has featured on this forum previously, and on Radio 3, too. Both well worth your attention, I think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Smith is a wonderful composer - I'm concerned how her delicate, intricate as gossamer (but tough as diamond) Music will fare in the Albert Hall, and for people looking forward to th Tchaikovsky; but really looking forward to seeing it sweep away my concern with a gentle, implacable grace.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Incidentally, Smith's work is called Nuages:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ezj6gw

Score avaialble for £11 (+ p&p) or £8 download:

https://composersedition.com/linda-catlin-smith-nuages

[Serial_Apologist]

You very much surprise me re. both Linda Catlin Smith and Janacek's The Fiddler's Child. The latter was indeed recorded by Volkov and the BBCSSO a few years ago, and the former has featured on this forum previously, and on Radio 3, too. Both well worth your attention, I think.

Now you come to mention the Janacek...

[edashtav]

Incidentally, Smith's work is called Nuages:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ezj6gw

Score avaialble for £11 (+ p&p) or £8 download:

https://composersedition.com/linda-catlin-smith-nuages

Here's a link to one of her works, for string band, played a couple of years ago at the ISCM Festival:

https://youtu.be/q7yBW_cjirQ

[Ein Heldenleben]

Whoops .. do you know in decades of Proms listening I don’t think I’ve heard the interval feature faded up during a piece ...

[jayne lee wilson]

Gosh yes...applause during a piece..? ...Rather broke a rather beautiful spell....

which was soon re-cast....Linda Catlin Smith's Nuages, which was a beautiful, evocative, sound- and nature- poem, drifting and glistening as it very slowly shifted its layers and shapes....

[gurnemanz]

At first I thought it was premature Prom clappers.

[Pulcinella]

Rather broke a rather beautiful spell....

Indeed it did!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes I am enjoying this .
For a moment I thought it was American sitcom style entrance applause as the star walks on....

[bluestateprommer]

Smith is a wonderful composer - I'm concerned how her delicate, intricate as gossamer (but tough as diamond) Music will fare in the Albert Hall, and for people looking forward to th Tchaikovsky; but really looking forward to seeing it sweep away my concern with a gentle, implacable grace.

I see your point, about the mixture of the shimmering atmosphere with that "diamond"-hard edge in her instrumentation, where the shimmer isn't prettied up or anything like that. Fine piece, if a bit protracted IMHO, but I've not heard any of her music before, so maybe that's her style. This work would actually make an interesting opener for a concert with Richard Strauss' An Alpine Symphony in the 2nd half.

[Bryn]

I was watching/listening to the Ireland Piano Concerto on BBC FOUR. What, exactly, happened? Was the Smith interrupted? If so, I wonder what will happen with the Sounds ib demand offering. It will probably remain as broadcast, as with Aimard's live dawn sequence of Messiaen'sCatalogue d'oiseaux from Aldborough.