Prom 35: Enigma Variations - 13.08.19

[LMcD]

(A pedant writes ….) Martyn Brabbins. I share the admiration of others for this fine conductor.

[gedsmk]

I must Catch Up with this Prom- a trusted friend was in the RAH and loved Brabbins' real Enigma Variations.
Curiously, first time around, all I heard was the excellent Interval Talk.

Loved the Enigma in the hall, and listening again really shows the wonderfully character-full playing by instruments as well as ensemble. Such warmth and spice!

[edashtav]

Loved the Enigma in the hall, and listening again really shows the wonderfully character-full playing by instruments as well as ensemble. Such warmth and spice!

Catching up at long last. Yes, the real Enigma Variations were brilliantly played by the orchestra who were guided by Martyn Brabbins to create finely etched and characterised aural portraits of Elgar's friends. I have to say that listening earlier to the new Birthday Variations taught me anew how masterful was Elgar's structure for his Enigma and to marvel afresh at how vivid and varied his variations were. They may be a set of vignettes but each one builds on or contrasts with the previous and the whole is steeped in the unique compositorial voice that was Elgar's own. The parts are brilliant but their sum is supernal.

That could not be so with Pictured Within because each variation had a different voice and whilst each composer was given a role to play within a template, there was no Controller demanding consistency and rejecting redundancy. I felt that all of the composers were dealt a dud hand by the so-called theme by ANON.
(I've attended organ recitals in which noted extemporisers are given a theme and then extemporise preludes, fugues, etc on the subject. Sometimes, I have feared that the theme was created as a 'get out of this': unpromising, unmemorable material set almost to test to destruction the extemporiser's abilities.)
The Birthday 'theme' was halting, tricky and turned in on itself. Immediately I thought: this is a difficult problem, a teaser, a handicap rather than a springboard to invention. It tended to the lugubrious and that doleful note recurred often through a set of variations that rarely sparkled or belted "Happy Birthday". On the whole, I preferred those variations that were longer in which the composer had time to develop his/ her material, perhaps to ski off-piste. In a way, John Pickard had the easiest task: to produce a lengthy Finale: he had the time and the need to move from the grey world of the theme to a Soviet Composer's positive, all action, tub-thumping coda. Cheap and Cheerful as Chips. I liked Sally Beamish's tobogganing trombone sliding this and that way. Judy Weir's essay was elusive, substantial and satisfying. Gavin Bryars variation was attractive and simple. Did I hear a nod in Tchaikovsky's direction in David Sawyer's little piece? Harry Birtwistle played the Grumpy Grandfather : his piece was the essence of lugubrious. I thought Colin Mason painted a faraway Planet. My best mark for swaggering tunefulness went to Kalevi Aho whereas Anthony Payne's restrained, inward moment, drew quiet breath that cleared throats in readiness for the Finale.

The work held my attention but didn't produce anything memorable.

[Maclintick]

The Birthday 'theme' was halting, tricky and turned in on itself. Immediately I thought: this is a difficult problem, a teaser, a handicap rather than a springboard to invention. It tended to the lugubrious and that doleful note recurred often through a set of variations that rarely sparkled or belted "Happy Birthday".

"halting, tricky and turned in on itself" -- so rather like Elgar's original thematic conundrum, in fact, which tends to "the lugubrious" & "doleful" & is "halting" to the nth degree. Mere "Birthday Fireworks" would not have fulfilled this particular commission, I feel, in mirroring EE's original, though John Pickard & Wim Henderickx certainly provided orchestral pyrotechnics. Agree that Pickard had the easiest task, & Birtwistle the most difficult in escaping the enormous shadow of "Nimrod". I'd like to hear this again.

[edashtav]

I rather liked your latest contribution, Maclintick: I' d grown up with EE's theme and failed to analyse it. I now think that you've penetrated to the core of its being. I now know more, and I understand, once again why I contribute to this site but ,more importantly, learn from others on this site.
( In edit mode, I realise that when I first penned this contribution, I was 'high' on Duck à l'Orange washed down with Chilean Cabernet followed by Hungarian Pinot Noir]

Thank you.....

[Maclintick]

I rather liked your latest contribution, Maclintick: I' d grown up with EE's theme and failed to analyse it. I now 5hink that you've penetrated to the core of its being. I now know more, and i understand, once again why i contribute but! More importantly, learn from others on this site.

Thank you.....

Ed, I can assure you that I've learned far more from you & others on this forum than you might have done from my own fitful contributions...

[bluestateprommer]

Finally caught up with the Martyn Brabbins Birthday Prom. To be honest, it wasn't the most scintillating listening experience of the summer so far. I'm with edashtav on the nature of the Pictured Within theme, which I heard as rather gnarled. One wonders if it might not have been easier simply to have written out Elgar's original theme in retrograde, or done an inversion in the manner of Rachmaninov and the 18th variation of the Paganini Rhapsody, to come up with a new idea. For me, at least, too many of the variations lacked variation of mood, except for when the relatively quicker variations kicked in. The idea for the work was a nice one, but the overall package just didn't do it for me.

The musical highlight for me was the RVW, where I wasn't aware of the version for 4 solo singers and chorus. The solo singers weren't the most characterful, but they are young, after all, and will keep growing with more experience. It was certainly a nice gesture of Brabbins to give those young soloists a break with this Proms engagement. The Brahms was OK.

I happily recommend the interval feature on Elgar's op. 36, with Ian Skelly skillfully steering the proceedings with Kate Kennedy and David Owen Norris. If nothing else, you get to hear the droll aural spectacle of hearing Kate Kennedy sing "Ein fest Burg ist unser Gott" in counterpoint with David Owen Norris intoning the "Nimrod" variation. They also discuss the kind of details in the score that make you realize why you're happy to revisit the work. As for this performance, the interpretation could have used a bit more fire, IMHO, as MB took a slightly stately pace in the opening that set the tone for the rest of the reading. The dog did bark vigorously, to be fair. (A lack of variety is a charge that one could never level against the Elgar.)

Once past hearing Kate Molleson's extraneous editorializing, the audience affection for MB in their applause after the Elgar was very palpable even through computer speakers. It's wonderful that MB got a lot of audience and musician love in the RAH that night, and belated Happy Birthday wishes to him also from this side of the pond.

[edashtav]

Bsp opined,"A lack of variety is a charge that one could never level against the Elgar."

I like that!

[DracoM]

I just do NOT get it about Elgar. For me, an instant turn off - at least the orchestral / choral pieces.
Can anyone explain why the composer exercises such a hold?

[gradus]

I can only describe not explain 'getting' Elgar by citing my dislike of him until I came across the Barbirolli Philharmonia recording of the first symphony. I didn't like that much either to start with but the scherzo and slow movement began my conversion. I still find the last movement episodic and I detect note-spinning that irritates me but the overall effect always wins me round.
Is there something about the man and the music that you dislike?

[DracoM]

Not the man - just the music. As if I am being dragged back to a past I never wanted to be in.

[vinteuil]

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Not the man - just the music. As if I am being dragged back to a past I never wanted to be in.

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... thank you for that : it exactly describes my negative reaction to Elgar.

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[cloughie]

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... thank you for that : it exactly describes my negative reaction to Elgar.

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This thread seems to be developing inti an AA for EE.

[ardcarp]

Saw the BBC4 programme last night.
Firstly, about Elgar. There used to be an anti-Elgar movement in the 60s and 70s which I never understood, especially the view that somehow his writing was 'stodgy'. Anyone with half a knowledge of instrumentation will realise that EE was a brilliant orchestrator. If his musical idiom was backward-looking, his knowledge and use of orchestral colour certainly wasn't

Moving on to VW's Serenade to Music, well maybe it's one of his sloppier pieces, though loved by many. Originally conceived for 8 solo voices, I hugely prefer it in that version. Specific soloists were named on the score (Isobel Baillie, Walter Widdup, etc) and such artists did not scream their whatsits off, Neither are such large orchestral forces strictly required.

[Pulcinella]

Saw the BBC4 programme last night.
Firstly, about Elgar. There used to be an anti-Elgar movement in the 60s and 70s which I never understood, especially the view that somehow his writing was 'stodgy'. Anyone with half a knowledge of instrumentation will realise that EE was a brilliant orchestrator. If his musical idiom was backward-looking, his knowledge and use of orchestral colour certainly wasn't

Moving on to VW's Serenade to Music, well maybe it's one of his sloppier pieces, though loved by many. Originally conceived for 8 solo voices, I hugely prefer it in that version. Specific soloists were named on the score (Isobel Baillie, Walter Widdup, etc) and such artists did not scream their whatsits off, Neither are such large orchestral forces strictly required.

16, surely?