Prom 28: Rachmaninov, Borodin & Huw Watkins - 8.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Thursday 8 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Toru Takemitsu: Twill by Twilight
Huw Watkins: The Moon - BBC commission: world première
Sergey Rachmaninov: The Bells
Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor – Polovtsian Dances

Natalya Romaniw soprano
Oleg Dolgov tenor
BBC National Chorus of Wales
Philharmonia Chorus
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Tadaaki Otaka conductor

Sleigh bells, wedding bells, warning bells and mourning bells all peal through Rachmaninov’s choral symphony The Bells – which sets a text by Edgar Allan Poe with broad brushstrokes and bright colours.

Borodin’s exotically seductive Polovtsian Dances also features, alongside a world premiere by Huw Watkins inspired by the 50th anniversary of the first manned mission to the Moon.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is this moon obsession beginning to wear a bit thin?

[bluestateprommer]

Caught out by the early start time (D'OH!), but I had an errand today anyway that probably would have kept me from tuning in on time anyway. Heard the last part of the Huw Watkins work, which sounded fairly audience-friendly (i.e. not overly "modern") in idiom. So I'll end up listening to this program in the "wrong order" down the line. Enjoyable interval discussion on the nature of "the Gothic" now (no Havergal Brian there, for HB fans).

The moon theme doesn't wear thin with me, since I'm taking it in small doses, but also because it was an amazing achievement, the more that I think about it.

[edashtav]

Caught out by the early start time (D'OH!), but I had an errand today anyway that probably would have kept me from tuning in on time anyway. Heard the last part of the Huw Watkins work, which sounded fairly audience-friendly (i.e. not overly "modern") in idiom. So I'll end up listening to this program in the "wrong order" down the line. Enjoyable interval discussion on the nature of "the Gothic" now (no Havergal Brian there, for HB fans).

The moon theme doesn't wear thin with me, since I'm taking it in small doses, but also because it was an amazing achievement, the more that I think about it.

I heard only the twilight ebbing away in the Takemitsu so I must hope that I catch up with its Twills and thrills.

I was in place in my comfy chair for Huw's new piece that was longer than I has anticipated. Bsp's conclusion is about right: Huw's music is not advancing in reach or originality. A time there was when I happily stood in the RAH, full to the brim with excitement at the prospect of hearing the premiere of his violin concerto. Now, I still switch on at home and hope against hope that The Moon will ignite my rocket motors. For all of its slickness, it did not. It felt to me somewhat mid-Atlantic, as if William Mathias had joined forces with Michael Torke. I found the chorus to be under-used and the organ part written to stir the slumbering audience into applause. Some extended orchestral passages noodled along, to use Maclintick's verb, without much direction or cutting edge. Huw Watkins is a highly accomplished musician who is stuck in a conservative rut. He's a popular teacher, executant and composer. Nothing he does is dross but I wish he would take more risks before it's too late and his voice is stilled by gongs.

[bluestateprommer]

Good, solid second half of this Prom, from all concerned, especially terrific sound with listening at home today rather than through headphones at work. I've never heard Tadaaki Otaka live, but from what I've heard of him on BBC MM CDs and past Proms, TO strikes me as a careful, thoughtful, well-prepared conductor who conducts honest, straightforward, and unidiosyncratic readings without calling attention to himself, but also without kicking the interpretations into the stratosphere. This Prom (or at least the 2nd half) well fits in with that sonic picture that I've had so far of him. TO doesn't muck about with the music, including the Borodin, which can too easily be a pops potboiler (especially on this side of the pond). To TO's credit, he never treated the Borodin that way.

Both choruses and the 3 soloists sounded very good in the Rachmaninov. It was drolly amusing to hear soprano Natalya Romaniw give a darkly snarky 'take' on the work by saying that it can be seen as all about the soprano, in that she's getting married in the 2nd movement, unfortunately snuffed out by fire in the 3rd movement, and being interred in the 4th movement with her husband in the procession behind her. It's half-in-jest, of course.

When I first saw the program, I thought it odd to end with the Borodin after the Rachmaninov, especially since the Rachmaninov is a work that one shouldn't put something after it, even if that makes for a 'Debbie Downer' close to the evening. Or maybe the idea was to send the audience out on a high rather than a low, or alternatively, the Borodin acts as kind of a built-in encore. In practice, I have to admit that the pick-me-up of the Borodin actually kind of worked out here.

Speaking of downer comments in various spots, Nicola Heywood Thomas and Adrian Partington pointed out that the BBC NCW did have quite a work out in their Proms these past two days, including:

* Mozart's Requiem
* Huw Watkins' new work
* Rachmaninov's The Bells
* Borodin's Polovtsian Dances

Pretty hefty load.

PS: May I humbly suggest moving the "BBC Welsh" thread out of the Proms Concerts sub-thread, over perhaps to the "Talking About Music" section? Or alternatively, the Proms 2019 general section.

[Historian]

Speaking of downer comments in various spots, Nicola Heywood Thomas and Adrian Partington pointed out that the BBC NCW did have quite a work out in their Proms these past two days, including:

* Mozart's Requiem
* Huw Watkins' new work
* Rachmaninov's The Bells
* Borodin's Polovtsian Dances

Pretty hefty load.

They did have the Philharmonia Chorus to help them out in the Rachmaninov and the Borodin. I wasn't convinced about putting the Polovtsian Dances last either but, it seemed to work on the night.

[bluestateprommer]

I heard only the twilight ebbing away in the Takemitsu so I must hope that I catch up with its Twills and thrills.

I was in place in my comfy chair for Huw's new piece that was longer than I has anticipated. Bsp's conclusion is about right: Huw's music is not advancing in reach or originality. A time there was when I happily stood in the RAH, full to the brim with excitement at the prospect of hearing the premiere of his violin concerto. Now, I still switch on at home and hope against hope that The Moon will ignite my rocket motors. For all of its slickness, it did not. It felt to me somewhat mid-Atlantic, as if William Mathias had joined forces with Michael Torke. I found the chorus to be under-used and the organ part written to stir the slumbering audience into applause. Some extended orchestral passages noodled along, to use Maclintick's verb, without much direction or cutting edge. Huw Watkins is a highly accomplished musician who is stuck in a conservative rut. He's a popular teacher, executant and composer. Nothing he does is dross but I wish he would take more risks before it's too late and his voice is stilled by gongs.

Having finally caught up with the 1st half of this BBC NOW Prom, I see what you meant about the whole of HW's The Moon. It was OK, and did feel 'safe', although I wouldn't have known to come up with your analogy of a William Mathias - Michael Torke mashup. Of course, not everything in art has to be innovative, but it helps if the work at least grabs the attention. Parts of it were good, but the whole didn't quite add up. HW at least wrote well for the chorus, never anything against the voice. I remember that his Violin Concerto made a strong positive impression at The Proms from some years back, and his Cello Concerto from more recently was a fine work as well.

The Takemitsu took me back several decades, to when I remember hearing other works of his like riverrun and his guitar concerto on old US orchestra radio broadcasts (those were the days).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Of course, not everything in art has to be innovative ...

I don't see the point of it if it doesn't. Art that merely goes innocuously through the motions, taking care not to "upset" anyone seems a waste of my time - I'm 60 next year, and whilst I hope and intend to have many more years left to me, there's no question that time is limited: and if a work isn't going to astonish me, get the adrenaline bobsleighing through my veins, firing my imagination, then I don't have time for it. There are books to read; gardens to weed; walks to walk; people to meet, talk to, laugh with; plays & films to watch; beers & whiskies to drink; food to cook & eat ....

Which is why I'm so disheartened every year by the "new" works by living composers presented in the Proms: so often they seem more concerned with quietly and modestly taking up time before the "real" Music starts: as well-behaved as a queue in a Post Office ... and as vital.