Prom 42: Youthful Beginnings - 18.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 18 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No 1 in C major
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto
Sofia Gubaidulina: Fairytale Poem
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor

Mariam Batsashvili piano
Ulster Orchestra
Rafael Payare conductor

Belfast's Ulster Orchestra and its dynamic music director Rafael Payare present the Proms premiere of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, performed here by Mariam Batsashvili.
Begun when the then Clara Wieck was just 13 years old, it’s a work whose mellow mood and lyrical melodies conceal no little technical intricacy and formal innovation.
Sunny good humour also runs through both Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 – famously described as a musical ‘comedy of manners’ – and Shostakovich’s First Symphony, lively with satirical wit and mischief.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

An interesting concept, but it doesn't really apply to the Beethoven.

Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto captivated me the very first time I heard it.

[edashtav]

An interesting concept, but it doesn't really apply to the Beethoven.

Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto captivated me the very first time I heard it.

Has nobody responded to the considerable publicity given to the first Proms performance of Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto? I listened to it sympathetically and found it sustained my interest throughout through powerful lyricism, a prodigious, virtuoso piano part and formal originality. I compared it with the Rachmaninov first piano concerto heard last night in its original form and thought that the Schumann piece was less derivative and showed a greater knowledge of development. Do give it a listen: the chamber music slow movement that follows the powerful opening movement without pause is a gem and, in a curious way foreshadows the 21st century habit of adding a chamber music encore featuring some of the front desk musicians from the accompanying orchestra.
I was pleased to note that the Clara Schumann Concerto was programmed alongside Mendelssohn's First which featured in the Golden Piano Concert a few days ago.
The Interval talk was relevant, lively and well-informed.


What to make of Sofia Gubaidulina's early Fairytale poem? Well, it followed on beautifully from the Liadov miniatures showcased on Saturday Evening, not to mention Rimsky's folktale efforts. Sofia's score was charming and encompassed a wide range of sonorities that tricked out its essential sturdy traditionalism. I loved the moment when the pencil, pitched into gloom, imagined that its life was over, only to discover another reality in a boy's trouser pocket. The piece was a charming confection and I was glad to have come across it in a sympathetic performance.

How often have I heard DSCH's First Symphony? Far too many times so I switched off.
Over to those more sympathetic to its juvenile japes and jazzy juke-box.

[Sir Velo]

Listening to Mariam Bastashvilli's persuasive advocacy of Clara Schumann's concerto, one could not help but be struck by the thought that the young Clara had been listening to rather more Chopin than her beloved Robert. The debt to Chopin was clear in almost every bar, but the work still had its own individual charm, particularly when played with such verve as it was here.

[kea]

Listening to Mariam Bastashvilli's persuasive advocacy of Clara Schumann's concerto, one could not help but be struck by the thought that the young Clara had been listening to rather more Chopin than her beloved Robert. The debt to Chopin was clear in almost every bar, but the work still had its own individual charm, particularly when played with such verve as it was here.

That is true of all Clara's work—her music sounds very little like Robert's and the primary influences always seem instead to be Chopin and to some extent Mendelssohn. This has disappointed many commentators and led to the dismissal of her music as unworthy but something like the Notturno from the Soirées musicales could be easily substituted for any of Chopin's 21 (or so) canonical nocturnes and produce an equally great, or even greater impression.

[bluestateprommer]

Fine, solid concert from the Ulster Orchestra, RP, and MB, a nice mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. RP's reading of Beethoven 1 was quite spic-and-span, an showed some traces of the HIPP movement, but not rigidly so, with the only mild indulgence being the slight stretch out of the final chords. I wasn't familiar with Clara S.'s Piano Concerto, and MB certainly did her best with it, even if her concerto didn't really do it for me until the finale. Snappy job with the encore as well.

I found the Fairytale Poem of Sofia Gubaidulina to be the major discovery and revelation of the concert, a work that somehow feels longer and denser than its relatively short running time would imply. I'd never heard it before in any form, and so discovered it totally freshly from this Prom. Clever idea also to pair it alongside DSCH 1 (if only because both works include piano in the instrumentation). RP's reading of DSCH 1 lacked a bit in fire and the devil-may-care aspects of this youthful firework, but perhaps after working through two unfamiliar scores, RP was pacing things until the relatively mad dash at the end. But modest reservations about the closer aside, this concert was definitely a smart program with which Rafael Payare bowed out from the Ulster Orchestra.