Prom 50: Orchestre de Paris - 26.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 26 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Robert Schumann: Genoveva – overture
Jörg Widmann: Babylon Suite - London première
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, ‘Pastoral’

Orchestre de Paris
Daniel Harding conductor

Town or country? That's the choice offered here by Daniel Harding and the Orchestre de Paris.
Scored for a 90-strong orchestra, Jörg Widmann’s explosive Babylon Suite (adapted from his 2012 opera) invites listeners into the all-consuming sonic chaos of the city – a babel of sound and sensation.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, by contrast, takes listeners through fields and past brooks in its evocative portrait of pastoral life.
The concert opens with the gathering storm-clouds of the overture to Schumann’s only opera, Genoveva.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Babylon Suite sounds interesting.

[jayne lee wilson]

Alarmingly few Proms left (for me at least...) with this kind of broad orchestral appeal....

Try to make the most of it..... never heard the Widmann before so....

[jayne lee wilson]

Very fine Schumann, beautifully balanced, precise and impassioned. Excellent.

[jayne lee wilson]

What a wild, crazily eclectic, multi-threaded appearing-and-disappearing narrative of a draining, deafening, coloristic musical extravagance that was.....

But that's Babylon for you!
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world!

We had fed the heart on fantasies, the heart's grown brutal from the fare....

Are you not entertained? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

[bluestateprommer]

What a wild, crazily eclectic, multi-threaded appearing-and-disappearing narrative of a draining, deafening, coloristic musical extravance that was.....

But that's Babylon for you! Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world!
No wonder it all falls down.....but did it rise again for you?

I scrawled this back in November 2017 on the CBSO/MG-T R3 relay of Jorg Widmann's Babylon Suite in this thread:

"JW's suite from Babylon was obviously the main 'novelty' of the evening. While it did strike me as rather long, as I didn't realize that it would go 40 minutes, ultimately, it was long in a good way. JW manages the trick, rare for composers these days that I can tell, of writing contemporary concert hall music that has continuous energy and drive, and doesn't stay rhythmically stuck in the mud in one place (unlike too much US contemporary music of recent years that has percussion noodles in short bursts that don't actually move the music on). Parts of JW's music sounded like bits of Mahler and Shostakovich refracted through his own prism, but again in a good way. Cute surprise to hear a Russian-trepak style "Hey!!!" from the orchestra at one point. I think that the opera Babylon got somewhat mixed reviews. But one other thought after hearing this work (twice; 1st time at work on earbuds, 2nd time at home on laptop speakers) was that this music could actually go well as a ballet. Even with the longeurs, JW's Babylon Suite is possibly the most engaging contemporary music for orchestra that I've heard in a good while."

Within the limitations of headphones, my reaction is pretty much the same, in a good way. Will have to give it another listen at home later through speakers. Perhaps MG-T let loose the orchestra more in the earlier reading, if my hazy memory isn't playing false.

The Schumann did sound very good, with only a borderline blip towards the end (something like a potential tempo gear change that almost shorted out). Again with the limitations of headphones, I sensed a heavier, Germanic sound from the orchestra, which gets to something in that El Pais article from the other thread about Harding, the Orchestre de Paris, and airplanes, something that Harding was concerned about changing the orchestra's sound based on his own more Germanic training as a conductor.

[Petrushka]

What a wild, crazily eclectic, multi-threaded appearing-and-disappearing narrative of a draining, deafening, coloristic musical extravance that was.....

But that's Babylon for you! Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world!
No wonder it all falls down.....but did it rise again for you?

I once saw someone walking passed the British Museum wearing a tee-shirt on which was written 'Keep calm - Babylon will fall'!

Agree with your description, Jayne. Worth another listen.

A finely paced, vividly characterised, lovingly played account of the 'Pastoral' with especially fine contributions from the woodwind and first horn. A concert that turned out to be better than it looked on paper in my view.

[oddoneout]

I once saw someone walking passed the British Museum wearing a tee-shirt on which was written 'Keep calm - Babylon will fall'!

Agree with your description, Jayne. Worth another listen.

A finely paced, vividly characterised, lovingly played account of the 'Pastoral' with especially fine contributions from the woodwind and first horn. A concert that turned out to be better than it looked on paper in my view.

Perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind, but I didn't enjoy that Pastoral - at one point I considered switching off, and at the end, listening to the audience's enthusiastic applause I thought that perhaps it was one of those 'you had to be there' occasions.. It always intrigues me how listening experiences can differ.

[Serial_Apologist]

Widmann certainly placs himself in a sort of post-Mahler bag - the orchestration was brilliant, transitioning from reference to reference by way of almost spectralist psychedelics, holding the attention throughout, and was brilliantly relayed through my FM system with barely any compression - what an improvement this year, if this was typical! From an orchestration point of view I've been waiting a long time for sounds as ear-grabbing as these were. Being a suite as opposed to symphony or symphonic poem, the music was episodic: one was not expecting any sense of organic continuity. But, notwithstanding the thrill of it all, the references were very knowing, suggesting a debased Shostakovitch mixed with debased Henze (one of his teachers I see), and I didn't find myself moved in any way.

I coldn't help chortling at Mr Service's dismissal of those declaring Schumann's orchstration bland, delivered amid the applause following the overture: anything blander would have been hard to imagine!

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 50/II /BEETHOVEN 6/ ORCH.DE PARIS/Harding.
R3 LIVE AAC - Glorious sound tonight to match this wonderful Pastoral. No other word will do.

A first movement exquisite in its classical voicing; lovely, spring-heeled, light bass buoyancy with a bright, spring-fresh tone from the orchestra (I soon forgot it was late-August...or perhaps, felt the lateness of the year, the season, more keenly).
The tempi were just giusto for me as the woods and fields greeted my view (just back from my real-life country walk...I'd seen Hares, and Magpies, Jackdaws and Red-Legged Partridges...)….
Ear-engaging 1st/2nd Violins dialoguing across the stage, with carefully-nurtured wind detail. A sunny day for sure!

Harding's Parisian blend of flowing pace and clear rhythmic emphasis to the brook and its liquid energies charmed the ear, and the heart; vividly individual yet gentle winds as voix de la nature, strings never too dominant - the shrubberies around the wild things.

A tipsy euphoria to the swift and sharp-edged merry dancing, with great schwung! If you fell asleep by the brook, this’ll wake you up!
Then - Stooorrrrmm!
Speed, brilliance and attack, more dazzling lightning than rumbling thunder, all the better to stun us with….!

So pure and clear of tone and line, the Thankful Song settled upon our brows and ears as an inspiriting Beatus….calmly but brightly radiant in its final prayer.

All shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well

….and so we inherited this bountiful Beethovenian Earth.

[edashtav]

K

Widmann certainly placs himself in a sort of post-Mahler bag - the orchestration was brilliant, transitioning from reference to reference by way of almost spectralist psychedelics, holding the attention throughout, and was brilliantly relayed through my FM system with barely any compression - what an improvement this year, if this was typical! From an orchestration point of view I've been waiting a long time for sounds as ear-grabbing as these were. Being a suite as opposed to symphony or symphonic poem, the music was episodic: one was not expecting any sense of organic continuity. But, notwithstanding the thrill of it all, the references were very knowing, suggesting a debased Shostakovitch mixed with debased Henze (one of his teachers I see), and I didn't find myself moved in any way.

I coldn't help chortling at Mr Service's dismissal of those declaring Schumann's orchstration bland, delivered amid the applause following the overture: anything blander would have been hard to imagine!

I feel that you've got the measure of Jörg Widmann, S-A. He's a charming clever clogs who is an able executant and a fluent composer of trendy trifles. Had Nali Gruber written this Suite he might have entitled it a Pandemonium. It was a weird fish, stuffed to the gills with quotations, all used with style and aplomb whilst they jodtked against each other in a rather random, throwaway manner. His company is excellent and his music diverts. What more do we want on a hot, sultry Bank Holiday? Actually, quite a lot more! But, I mustn't be too stiff: having fun, listening to music that puts a smile on one's face is therapeutic. But, pace Tom Service, it isn't great music, it is not the stuff of the future, but, for now, it adds spectralism to Schnittke's polystylistic toolbox.

As for Genoveva, I forgive Schumann all the time for his blind spots e.g. scoring in 50 shades of mud, simply for the outrageous twists and turns of his romantic spirit.


Performance and transmission of these two works were fine.

[jayne lee wilson]

Well, the comments on Schumann's Genoveva Overture above leave me puzzled....
The one says "bland" the other says "50 shades of mud..."...

Tonight's performance came across in my Home Concert Hall as keenly phrased, sharply defined, and transparent....but then in most recordings on my shelves it usually does.... despite the manifest differences in orchestral character from - Swedish CO/Dausgaard to OM/Abbado, to BPO/Kubelik.....

Those "twist and turns of his Romantic Spirit" seem clarified, not obscured, by their musical realisation....

But I adore Schumann as much as any other of my Musical Gods. So I can't pretend to objectivity...only offer an impassioned defence.

[edashtav]

Jayne wrote:
Those "twist and turns of his Romantic Spirit" seem clarified, not obscured, by their musical realisation....

The chasm between us is simply "fan" vs. "Critical admirer".

[cloughie]

PROM 50/II /BEETHOVEN 6/ ORCH.DE PARIS/Harding.
R3 LIVE AAC - Glorious sound tonight to match this wonderful Pastoral. No other word will do.

A first movement exquisite in its classical voicing; lovely, spring-heeled, light bass buoyancy with a bright, spring-fresh tone from the orchestra (I soon forgot it was late-August...or perhaps, felt the lateness of the year, the season, more keenly).
The tempi were just giusto for me as the woods and fields greeted my view (just back from my real-life country walk...I'd seen Hares, and Magpies, Jackdaws and Red-Legged Partridges...)….
Ear-engaging 1st/2nd Violins dialoguing across the stage, with carefully-nurtured wind detail. A sunny day for sure!

Harding's Parisian blend of flowing pace and clear rhythmic emphasis to the brook and its liquid energies charmed the ear, and the heart; vividly individual yet gentle winds as voix de la nature, strings never too dominant - the shrubberies around the wild things.

A tipsy euphoria to the swift and sharp-edged merry dancing, with great schwung! If you fell asleep by the brook, this’ll wake you up!
Then - Stooorrrrmm!
Speed, brilliance and attack, more dazzling lightning than rumbling thunder, all the better to stun us with….!

So pure and clear of tone and line, the Thankful Song settled upon our brows and ears as an inspiriting Beatus….calmly but brightly radiant in its final prayer.

All shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well

….and so we inherited this bountiful Beethovenian Earth.

Don’t know what you are on Jayne but I think you should hand it round!

[Serial_Apologist]

Don’t know what you are on Jayne but I think you should hand it round!

Whatever it is, it seems it enables one to hear Beethoven's Pastoral as if for the first time!