Prom 56: Henry Wood Tribute - 31.08.19

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is that the performance on YouTube?

It is, indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh44fnjc_bc&list=PLPcQEoBgSwHXWnU12mZ9csUSmOqzbmacb&index=7&t=0s

Many thanks, LMcD

[mathias broucek]

We went (Etherea's choice).

Ravel Rapsodie lacked subtlety and quiet playing in the first movement and the orchestra wasn't always together in the Ireland.

Tabakova was rather good in an Adams-ish sort of way and was well received. I thought the interpretation a little tame: kept imagining what Dudamel and the LAPO might have done with it (which is perhaps unfair).

Transcriptions were fun and well-played, although the Wagner transcription is a bit pointless and a solo violin lacks the body needed for the solo part.

I thought La Valse quite successful: the orchestra's background in light music coming through?

[Constantbee]

Fine job by Leon McCawley with the John Ireland Piano Concerto.

Wasn't looking forward to it. Eyes usually glaze over at the mention of John Ireland's piano output, but this was a gem of a performance. Neat, tidy, expressive and everything you'd expect from a RCM teacher - I hope, anyway. A pleasant evening's entertainment that even raised a 'That's nice, what's that?' from next door.

[Master Jacques]

Wasn't looking forward to it. Eyes usually glaze over at the mention of John Ireland's piano output...

Not mine, Constantbee! Ireland's solo piano output - with Sarnia at the sharp end - seems to me to get more satisfying with every hearing, and every passing year. Next to Bax, of course, Ireland's large corpus of work for piano solo is surely the most artistically substantial by any British composer.

It's been a bit of a shock to me to find that the Piano Concerto (given a very decent performance here, it seemed to me, without - as Mathias Broucek says - quite the precision it needs to make its full effect) isn't so well known to Forumites as I'd have assumed: the reaction amongst died-in-the-wool Ireland-lovers when it was programmed was, "Oh no, not the concerto again, why don't they do the 1933 Legend for a change?" That's a much darker, more compressed and monumental work.

Clearly there's work to be done, though the John Ireland Society do a very good job indeed in promoting his work. The better you know it, the less it sounds like other things and the more individual. I suppose that's true for every worthwhile composer. So I'm grateful that this Prom alerted many to how satisfying and wholesome the Piano Concerto is, as it has been officially a "proms favourite" for 90 years now but seems to have become surprisingly obscure to many.

[Master Jacques]

Thank you very much for this recommendation, Jayne, which slipped under my radar: I'm a great Roussel lover, and relish the old Martinon Aeneas on Erato very much, but would be glad to hear a more modern alternative.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not mine, Constantbee! Ireland's solo piano output - with Sarnia at the sharp end - seems to me to get more satisfying with every hearing, and every passing year. Next to Bax, of course, Ireland's large corpus of work for piano solo is surely the most artistically substantial by any British composer.

Here hear - and bravo, Master Jacques! A favourite piano piece of Ireland's for me is "Amberley Wild Brooks", which I had while at school, and never really mastered as it is quite virtuosic. An example of Ireland showing influences from Fauré (by way of Frank Bridge), as well as Ravel, in the harmony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5p3_qv3g0

Here is a short amble around the area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK5zhTOSuXg

[Ein Heldenleben]

Is anyone else enjoying the Henry Wood conducting clips as much as I am ? Lovely rhythmic playing in the Bach and Handel.

[LMcD]

Is anyone else enjoying the Henry Wood conducting clips as much as I am ? Lovely rhythmic playing in the Bach and Handel.

I enjoyed the whole concert apart from the 'Timber and Steel' which, to me, was yet another (mercifully short) period of pointlessly relentless rhythmical noise - the sort of thing that Michael Torke does rather better. I thought Leon McCawley made a strong case for the Ireland concerto.

[oddoneout]

Is anyone else enjoying the Henry Wood conducting clips as much as I am ? Lovely rhythmic playing in the Bach and Handel.

I enjoyed the interval items as well, but I'd love to know who the soloists were in the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante - if it was announced I missed it.

[Bryn]

I enjoyed the whole concert apart from the 'Timber and Steel' which, to me, was yet another (mercifully short) period of pointlessly relentless rhythmical noise - the sort of thing that Michael Torke does rather better. I thought Leon McCawley made a strong case for the Ireland concerto.

I did think it somewhat lacking in originality and not a patch on the work of the founder of the Shrapnel Wood and Metal Band.

[Maclintick]

Is anyone else enjoying the Henry Wood conducting clips as much as I am ? Lovely rhythmic playing in the Bach and Handel.

Yes -- HW's enjoyment & that of his players is palpable.

[Boilk]

I enjoyed the whole concert apart from the 'Timber and Steel' which, to me, was yet another (mercifully short) period of pointlessly relentless rhythmical noise - the sort of thing that Michael Torke does rather better. I thought Leon McCawley made a strong case for the Ireland concerto.

It was the main downer for me too in this concert. Not sure why, but with a name like Dobrinka Tabakova I had just expected something with a bit more depth. Had it been a cup of tea, Timber and Steel would have been weak, very milky and with 10 spoons of sugar in it.

[Boilk]

The Debussy was extraordinary and ... appalling. Henry it was written in pastel shades!

I know what you mean, but actually I'm rather taken with this (IMO) extraordinary version from Isao Tomita.

(And no prizes for guessing that there's a Stokowski orchestration.)

[pilamenon]

Real fun concert, kinda lie-back-and-enjoy-it classics really... the easy-listen minimalist uplift of Tabakova too....

Yes, definitely. And the archive clips made it my favourite interval of the season as well.

[gradus]

Here hear - and bravo, Master Jacques! A favourite piano piece of Ireland's for me is "Amberley Wild Brooks", which I had while at school, and never really mastered as it is quite virtuosic. An example of Ireland showing influences from Fauré (by way of Frank Bridge), as well as Ravel, in the harmony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5p3_qv3g0

Here is a short amble around the area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK5zhTOSuXg

Thanks for posting the piano piece which is new to me but a lovely find. Baffling that it and presumably his other piano pieces very rarely appear in recital.