Prom 31: Brahms, Bruckner & Strauss - 10.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 10 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Johannes Brahms: Variations on the St Anthony Chorale
Richard Strauss: Four Songs, Op. 27
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No 4 in E flat major ‘Romantic’ (1878–80 version, ed. Nowak)

Lise Davidsen soprano
Philharmonia Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salones conductor

Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform a programme of Austro-German orchestral classics with Bruckner’s ‘Romantic’ Symphony at its heart. Soprano Lise Davidsen joins them for a sequence of Strauss songs including the ecstatic ‘Morgen!’.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wonder whether some people will be expecting 4 different Strauss Songs on this particular evening?

[gedsmk]

I wonder whether some people will be expecting 4 different Strauss Songs on this particular evening?

Op.27, just released on Spotify. Really lovely performance. Looking forward to hearing the concert. Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay's solo in "Morgen!" is truly something special.

[jayne lee wilson]

Salonen always seems to get a wonderfully clear, dynamic well-projected sound for this orchestra at The Proms.

Remember last year's Mahler 10? Shame it was just the first movement...but it was stunning.
As was Adams' Naive & Sentimental Music, the year before ...(in Concert Sound, alas...)

(Doing OK, the Philharmonia, with Rouvali taking over in 2021... do wish he'd release more GSO Sibelius...)

[Petrushka]

Seems a bit odd to bring over Ms Davidsen for just 13 minutes of music. Perhaps something else in the second half could have utilised her abilities? Looking forward to this Prom all the same, though, as E-PS rarely brings anything less than an interesting programme.

[bluestateprommer]

Good, solid reading of the Brahms 'St. Anthony Chorale' Variations just now, with that slight tempo stretch at the final statement of the theme. This program is a fairly bread-and-butter program from E-PS, but that's OK.

Seems a bit odd to bring over Ms Davidsen for just 13 minutes of music. Perhaps something else in the second half could have utilised her abilities? Looking forward to this Prom all the same, though, as E-PS rarely brings anything less than an interesting programme.

Well, the timings of the R. Strauss op. 27 on her new recording with E-PS and the Philharmonia are closer to 15 minutes, but point taken. But since they have an album to promote, don't discount the possibility of an encore :) .

[jayne lee wilson]

Extraordinary events.....!
So the Bruckner had to start twice...

Now there's a heavy rock beat blowing in on the stiff breeze from a semi-distant marquee somewhere ...

This is not going well...!

Good rock-beat-defeating ending to the first movement... I'll whack up the volume here and try to keep going but...

[edashtav]

Extraordinary events.....!

Indeed, a Bruckner riot... whatever next!
Great fresh start and when the full ensemble came in... WOW!

I've enjoyed the attention to, and appreciation of, details in the first movement: relaxed and picturesque.

[Petrushka]

Indeed, a Bruckner riot... whatever next!

What on earth was it all about...? Completely destroyed my concentration which never really came back. Wish E-PS had left the stage and returned after a five minute pause to help everyone compose themselves.

[Darkbloom]

Can someone give a bit more detail about this? I'm intrigued. I'm not sure whether E-P S messed up the start (which wouldn't be the first time) or there was some offstage distraction?

[edashtav]

What on earth was it all about...? Completely destroyed my concentration which never really came back. Wish E-PS had left the stage and returned after a five minute pause to help everyone compose themselves.

I didn't feel either the orchestra or the conductor allowed the incident to undermine their lucid, human-scale interpretation of Bruckner's score which I thoroughly enjoyed. First-class music making.

[Petrushka]

Can someone give a bit more detail about this? I'm intrigued. I'm not sure whether E-P S messed up the start (which wouldn't be the first time) or there was some offstage distraction?

Ian Skelly said that it was due to a 'disturbance in the hall' but it was difficult to make out what it was other than it being noises off. Perhaps someone who was in the hall can elaborate?

[jonfan]

I didn't feel either the orchestra or the conductor allowed the incident to undermine their lucid, human-scale interpretation of Bruckner's score which I thoroughly enjoyed. First-class music making.

Yes a wonderful evening. I couldn’t see who caused the disturbance it being just outside the hall in a corridor. (Rumour it was a disturbed ill person.) The magical opening was played immaculately again by the first horn and we all soon got involved in an intense musical experience. As soon as the final chord had finished, and a silence observed by the audience in response to the E-P S holding his hand high, he went up to embrace the first horn and rightly so. Next up were the violas for their slow movement role. Great depth in the sound. The RAH must one of the best halls anywhere for Bruckner.
Lise Davidsen has commanding stage presence and a voice to go with it. She filled the hall no matter what dynamic and had the audience in the palm of her hand from the first bar. Morgen was a time holding moment.

[bluestateprommer]

Ian Skelly said that it was due to a 'disturbance in the hall' but it was difficult to make out what it was other than it being noises off. Perhaps someone who was in the hall can elaborate?

From listening on iPlayer, to recycle the snarky quip that I used in the NYOGB Prom where someone disrupted the Britten Violin Concerto, it was probably some guy off his meds, starting to sing out to himself. It was a distinctly male voice, in some sort of singy rhythm of speech. By inference, the RAH stewards clearly did a good job in escorting the disruptive miscreant out of the hall, to the approval of the audience as evidenced by their applause. (And no, per the one comment, E-PS did not muff the opening, not by a long shot.)

If you're a Bruckner fan (which I think you are, Petrushka, as opposed to me, who is most distinctly not a Bruckner fan, and even the advocacy of Stephen Johnson in the interval will never convince me to be one, as a matter strictly of personal preference - but I digress), then it's worth revisiting this performance. Ian Skelly mentioned hornist Diego Sanchez, who presumably delivered the opening 2x, after the disruption and then the re-start; sterling work from DS. True, this performance wasn't Haitink, but then no one but Haitink is Haitink, and this performance was good. Plus, Lise Davidsen was in fine form, including the encore (called it! ).

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 31/II. BRUCKNER 4 (Nowak 1878-80) PHILHARMONIA/SALONEN. BBC R3 Sounds Live.
Balance a shade hard & bright at first; climaxes opened more generously as the performance progressed.

(As aforementioned, Local distractions here were worse than those in the hall; I should try to listen again when the world is quiet, but for now some slightly rushed brief reflections…)

An urgent basic tempo coupled with a wide rubato, a tempo variabile which always tries to follow emotional narrative and structural direction…. Salonen’s conception of this Bruckner 4 is one I have a lot of sympathy with. I do prefer this approach now to the “solid-state” one-basic-tempo conception which many of us grew up with and at one time, would eagerly promote.

I felt it took a little while to settle, the orchestra a little hard and bright initially, but the allegro soon gathered pace and power; the coda to (i) was splendidly done. The andante was very beautifully intoned, strings wonderful; you could really lose yourself in its meadows, spires and spaces; a fairly straightforward scherzo (well, I think it was; local distractions were at their worst then)… was followed by the pinnacle of this performance, a very powerful, impulsive yet controlled and thought-through finale, wonderfully well-played, one which saw it as a complete, complex, highly original structure; one not easy to define by the usual formal models.

Perhaps Bruckner never quite defined it himself across several revisions (though he learnt its lessons in the finales of the 6th, 7th and 8th: the first two more concise, the last more epic). I would recommend a listen to the 1874 Original version of the finale which seems to me to have a better continuity and flow.