Prom 39: Elgar, Errollyn Wallen, Mendelssohn & Mussorgsky - 15.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Thursday 15 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Felix Mendelssohn: Overture ‘The Hebrides’ (’Fingal’s Cave’)
Edward Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op 37
Errollyn Wallen: This Frame Is Part of the Painting - BBC commission: world première
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Maurice Ravel)

Catriona Morison mezzo-soprano
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Elim Chan conductor


Winner of Cardiff Singer of the World 2017, Catriona Morison makes her Proms debut in Elgar’s sumptuous Sea Pictures, a vivid musical portrait of the sea in its many moods.
Also hanging in this musical gallery are Mussorgsky’s colourful Pictures at an Exhibition, Mendelssohn’s much-loved overture The Hebrides and the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s homage to artist Howard Hodgkin, This Frame Is Part of the Painting.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm assuming the theme of this concert is "pictures" and that the usual suspects will be hyping this up in their trailers.

[Pulcinella]

Well, here are a few pictures of Fingal's Cave, to get the ball rolling.
The captions seem to have a problem with the apostrophe, though!

http://www.staffatours.com/gallery/fingals-cave/

[CallMePaul]

Why do we have to hear yet again Ravel's act of vandalism on Musorgsky? The piano version is far superior to any orchestration and needs no elaboration. If an orchestral version has to be played, why not a more Russian version such as that by Leo Funtek (which is nearly contemporary with the piano original), Tushmalev or the much more recent one by Ashkenazy?

[Serial_Apologist]

Why do we have to hear yet again Ravel's act of vandalism on Musorgsky? The piano version is far superior to any orchestration and needs no elaboration. If an orchestral version has to be played, why not a more Russian version such as that by Leo Funtek (which is nearly contemporary with the piano original), Tushmalev or the much more recent one by Ashkenazy?

I appear to be the only one on this forum who actually likes the Ravel orchestration. But the recording I have is an LP transcription of the original recording by Koussevitsky, when Ravel was in the studio.

[jayne lee wilson]

I appear to be the only one on this forum who actually likes the Ravel orchestration. But the recording I have is an LP transcription of the original recording by Koussevitsky, when Ravel was in the studio.

Hey, don't worry, I'm a great fan too! But too much of one back in the day...began with Reiner, last acquisition the splendid Kuchar on Naxos... so the music itself became a shade overplayed chez moi...
But I've never understood the hostility to it on here, no....

Which seems all aggro and no detail.... what on Earth is supposed to be wrong with Mussorgsky/Ravel?

Any arrangement becomes a separate work of course, a law unto itself, with its own existence out there in the musical world.... it meets with love, hate or indifference.... but in the case of Mussorgsky/Ravel..... it has become something of a classical icon, an All Persons Guide to the Orchestra, a serious listener's entry point, or a classical pop; at times it can seem to disappear behind the veils of its own mass popularity and familiarity...

[BBMmk2]

I like the Ravel too, SA. So there’s at least three, including yourself! Don’t fret!

[Tony Halstead]

I like the Ravel too, SA. So there’s at least three, including yourself! Don’t fret!

I too like the Ravel version!

[Serial_Apologist]

At last - I am part of a community of more than one!

[Stanfordian]

I like the Ravel too, SA. So there’s at least three, including yourself! Don’t fret!

The Ravel orchestration is a marvellous achievement.

For the Proms why not try Sir Henry Wood's orchestration of the Mussorgsky 'Pictures at an exhibition'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I appear to be the only one on this forum who actually likes the Ravel orchestration.

Not at all. I heard the Orchestra of Opera North play it in Scarborough last month. It's superb, and probably the best. I've heard several others, but for me, nothing else come close.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The piano version is far superior to any orchestration and needs no elaboration.

I wonder whether anyone would bother to play it, were there not the Ravel orchestration to inspire us. I'm practising it myself at the moment, so it's worked for at least one person.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder whether anyone would bother to play it, were there not the Ravel orchestration to inspire us.

You've suggested this before - how can we possibly know? I would think that there'd probably be about as many as there are pianists who play the Hammerklavier - with or without Weingartner.

[Serial_Apologist]

You've suggested this before - how can we possibly know? I would think that there'd probably be about as many as there are pianists who play the Hammerklavier - with or without Weingartner.

Offer me a glass or three of that, and I'd have a go!

[bluestateprommer]

It's always a personal heart-warmer to hear Felix M.'s Fingal's Cave Overture, as it was here with Elim Chan and the BBC NOW. She did go for quite the sea-storm tempo conclusion in the final section, before the coda.

PS: Catriona Morison did very well just now with Elgar's Sea Pictures, in her first time ever at the RAH in any capacity (student, audience member, etc.), per Nicola Heywood Thomas just now. The 'happy clappers' unfortunately interrupted the mood between each song, not many, but enough. (FYI, all but one of the BBC NOW Proms have had the happy clapper contingent out in force.) Solid support from EC and the BBC NOW as well.