Prom 38: Solomon’s Knot - 14.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

22:15 Wednesday 14 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 130 ‘Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir’, BWV 130
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 19 ‘Es erhub sich ein Streit’, BWV 19
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 149, ‘Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg’, BWV 149
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 50, ‘Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft’, BWV 50

Solomon’s Knot

Performing with small forces and without a conductor, Baroque-music collective Solomon’s Knot brings a contemporary clarity and freshness to all its performances.
The ensemble makes its Proms debut with an all-Bach Late Night Prom of cantatas composed for the Feast of St Michael – the saint who, appropriately, protects against the evils of darkness and night.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

https://www.solomonsknotcollective.com/who-are-we.html

[doversoul1]

10.15 pm tonight

[doversoul1]

As I only heard the beginning of the concert and on an unsuitable receiver, I am probably completely wrong but it sounded to me that the singers were trying to fill the hall rather than the souls of the audience. I shall definitely listen again and hope to prove I was wrong.

[Constantbee]

As I only heard the beginning of the concert and on an unsuitable receiver, I am probably completely wrong but it sounded to me that the singers were trying to fill the hall rather than the souls of the audience. I shall definitely listen again and hope to prove I was wrong.

You may be right. A lovely programme I got more out of when I found a couple of websites with side by side German/English versions of the texts. The balance between (and within) instrumentalists and singers could have been better imho.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Finally caught up with this Prom, which had been on my "unmissable" list.

Oh dear. Maybe my expectations were set too high - maybe I've been spoilt by the Live Netherland Bach Ensemble videos, but I found very little to admire in Solomon's Knot Prom. Some sour singing (the countertenor/alto/castrato in particular made some terrible noises). And if you're going to make so much out of the fact that you don't have a conductor, you need to get the ensemble to sound as if you don't need one. The trumpets sounded best when they were tuning up - really magnificent sonority, then some squawked pitches when it came to Bach's notes.

Good points? Well, balance between solo voices and instruments was good - and some decent bassoon playing - and ... err ... well, that's it. (Even Hannah French sounded on poor form, with more than a touch of Blue Peter auditionitis. And those unintended puns - "Solomon's Knot here at the Proms" - isn't he? Did he miss his bus?)

And the thing (for me, of course) is that, with the Berlioz earlier in the evening - this would have been an evening I might have been tempted to get accommodation and come down to London to attend - what a discouraging waste of my funds that would have been. The most disappointing Prom of the season do far by far.

[Nevilevelis]

The soprano, Clare Griffiths, was excellent. I'm afraid I turned off after the tenor aria...

[bluestateprommer]

As I only heard the beginning of the concert and on an unsuitable receiver, I am probably completely wrong but it sounded to me that the singers were trying to fill the hall rather than the souls of the audience. I shall definitely listen again and hope to prove I was wrong.

I'm not sure if the SK singers were deliberately trying to "fill the hall", but inferring from this Tweet and a comment by Hannah French that the singers were singing without scores, the singers may well have been truly front and center on the platform, facing the Arena. I didn't mind the rough energy in the instrumentalists' playing once I became more accustomed to it, but I'm totally with fhg about the one male alto in the recitatives. Singularly unpleasant to listen to, a voice that, sad to say, and, in the words of the early days of Saturday Night Live, was "not ready for prime time". To give a modicum of credit, I did like the singing of Kate Symonds-Joy, on the female alto side.