Prom 46: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - 22.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Thursday 22 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Dorothy Howell: Lamia
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Oliver Knussen: The Way to Castle Yonder
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Symphony No. 3 - London première

Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Grafiinyte-Tyla conductor



The CBSO and Music Director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla celebrate the centenary of Mieczysław Weinberg the man Shostakovich hailed as ‘one of the most outstanding composers’ of his day – with a rare performance of his Symphony No. 3, a work that combines folk melodies and dances with confessional urgency.

That intensity is shared by Elgar’s passionate Cello Concerto, performed here by 2016 BBC Young Musician winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

The concert opens with Dorothy Howell’s radiant tone-poem Lamia (first performed, like Elgar’s concerto, 100 years ago) and also includes The Way to Castle Yonder, a suite from the much-missed Oliver Knussen’s opera Higglety Pigglety Pop!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does anyone know the Dorothy Howells work?

[Edgy 2]

Does anyone know the Dorothy Howells work?

It’s a lovely piece,highly rated by Henry Wood I believe

https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Composers-Premiere-Collections-Vol-1/dp/B00I4TFTCS/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=dorothy+howell&qid=1565994610&s=gateway&sr=8-10

[bluestateprommer]

Does anyone know the Dorothy Howells work?

I heard it live at the 2010 Ulster Orchestra Prom. It's a nice charmer, and was so here with MG-T and the CBSO. (Unfortunately, have to catch up with the rest later.)

[Edgy 2]

If Sheku Kanneh-Mason‘s performance of the Elgar in Birmingham yesterday could have been slotted in tonight’s Prom then you’d have the concert of the season IMO.
Seemed slightly under par this evening in comparison,a wee bit scratchy and ever so slightly out of tune at times.
Loved the Weinberg cello prelude encores,hoping to hear all 24 at Manchester University later in the year.
A wonderful couple of evenings listening and the promise of more Weinberg DG recordings from Mirga and the CBSO to come,marvellous.

[edashtav]

Well, I heard the Howell and the Weinberg 3rd Symphony. The Howell was played with affection and delicacy. Well done.

Similarly, I thought the CBSO were well prepared in the Weinberg. Its's not a great piece but it is varied, colourful, tuneful (folk tunes) and well-orchestrated. In my mind, I compared it to a roughly contemporaneous symphony by a fellow Pole: Panufnik's Sinfonia Rustica. I found more depth, more variety, finer structure and more compelling music in Panufnik's work which I know very well and have heard live twice. Weinberg tends to be a tad obvious and predictable. Not always, some corners in the middle movements of the 3rd, revealed unexpected twists and facets. The slow movement had an elegiac wistfulness and subtlety that was compelling. The finale leaned heavily on Shostakovich with some 'figures of speech' that were too close for comfort. Overall, it was the type of lighter fare that used to surface in Saturday Night Proms.
B-

[DracoM]

Genuinely thought it WAS DSCH when I first tuned in - was too late to hear the presenter don;t have an RT. Quite jolly, quite rousing, pretty effectively played.

[Alison]

A real treat to hear the Weinberg symphony and another really absorbing programme as a whole.

Good comments Edgy, Tavers and DracoM.

I struggle to grasp the Proms as a ‘season’ now; it feels more like an extended time of individual concerts.

And this CBSO/Mirga was one of the very good ones.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I struggle to grasp the Proms as a ‘season’ now; it feels more like an extended time of individual concerts.

- a "season", perhaps, but not a "Festival"? I've felt this for many years now. (The "Moon Landing Theme" seemed an attempt to recapture a sense of "continuity" between concerts, but seemed to me to be somewhat superficially thought-out/realized.)

That said - there's no reason now why the Forum shouldn't continue discussions of the R3 evening concerts for the rest of the year.

[edashtav]

- a "season", perhaps, but not a "Festival"? I've felt this for many years now. (The "Moon Landing Theme" seemed an attempt to recapture a sense of "continuity" between concerts, but seemed to me to be somewhat superficially thought-out/realized.)

That said - there's no reason now why the Forum shouldn't continue discussions of the R3 evening concerts for the rest of the year.

Since you believe we must be programmed to review every concert 24/7, will you review our overtime, rate, mate?
Back to the past with Ferney

[Zucchini]

The Howell was played with affection and delicacy. Well done.

How patronising

[edashtav]

How patronising

Once a teacher ...

[Richard Barrett]

The item in this concert I was interested in listening to was the Howell. As Edgy says, it was a favourite of Henry Wood, who programmed it seven times at the Proms between 1919 and 1940. It struck me as a refreshingly non-bombastic take on Straussian harmony and orchestration and really quite sensitively done, but rather empty of memorable events. I suspect this is how a lot of today's orchestral music will come to seem with the perspective of a few decades - a competent enough compilation of whatever happened to be fashionable in that sort of music at that time, but nevertheless containing little that sticks in the memory.

I haven't listened to the Weinberg, but I think Ed's assessment coincides more or less exactly with mine on the strength of the music of his I've heard (most recently the disc of symphonies with MG-T) - with Shostakovich what often saves the music from getting tedious (with some exceptions like the 11th and 12th symphonies) is the moments of waywardness where suddenly something incomprehensible and disturbing happens to reveal the sometimes routine surface in a completely different light. Weinberg seems more concerned with making things that "work" musically, while DSCH is more concerned with the question of what it means (in several different senses) for something to "work".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Since you believe we must be programmed to review every concert 24/7, will you review our overtime, rate, mate?
Back to the past with Ferney

A translation of this into English would be greatly appreciated, ed.

[edashtav]

A translation of this into English would be greatly appreciated, ed.

Twas whimsy...Maybe, like Jabberwocky, it cannot be rendered into English, ferney.