Prom 26: Mozart’s Requiem - 7.08.19

[EnemyoftheStoat]

As a chorister I would guess it was the decision of the conductor - would choristers voluntarily drop their prop?

Yes. It’s becoming quite common for LvB9, Mahler 2 etc, and particularly for the choirs who do these pieces regularly. It could be done in more cases, but over-caution on the part of choir directors means it isn’t.

[cloughie]

Yes. It’s becoming quite common for LvB9, Mahler 2 etc, and particularly for the choirs who do these pieces regularly. It could be done in more cases, but over-caution on the part of choir directors means it isn’t.

Yes, but it is a big ask on memory for big works for amateur, ageing choristers! As a male voice choir member using copies in concert is not allowed and my memory for both words and music is challenged as is my pride in getting in right!

[Cockney Sparrow]

The Mozart / Sussmayr was the 2nd full work (with orchestra) I sang, and I could perhaps have a go at singing it from memory but then I've sang it several times over the years. But bring in some editorial little alterations in the (damnable) New Novello edition and I'm making a mistake.

I spent a fair while in a chorus/minor role capacity in opera groups (a step up above the trad Am_Operatic Soc_) but after illness and with increasingly stressful years at work before retirement, I left that behind as I could not memorise words and music reliably.

Now singing in a large chorus, I remove my sign-up if I am told I have to memorise more than a short passage for a forthcoming concert. So far, it has only happened once....and then, from the audience, I was able to see that the policy had been relaxed by concert day.

As to opera choruses - let the Proms use professional choristers and pay them - its their full time work. (I'm not going to go along to find out, but does the BBC Singers - another presence at the Proms - sing from memory very much?)

[ARBurton]

Watching this on TV now, I can`t help but wishing that Tom Service would SHUT UP!

[DracoM]

A sentiment you are perhaps not totally alone on thinking, I would hazard.

[Tony Halstead]

I quite agree
Has no one at the BBC the sense to realise the man is an unmitigated bore?"

[Bryn]

Watching this on TV now, I can`t help but wishing that Tom Service would SHUT UP!

I have been otherwise engaged. I will have to catch up on his, no doubt highly illuminating, insights into the work later.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There’s very little point in asking a choir to sing from memory. Does the audience really want to be impressed by a conductor’s gimmick, or would the audience prefer a performance sung accurately and confidently? I think I know the answer to that. I notice the orchestra had the music in front of them.

[Bryn]

There’s very little point in asking a choir to sing from memory. Does the audience really want to be impressed by a conductor’s gimmick, or would the audience prefer a performance sung accurately and confidently? I think I know the answer to that. I notice the orchestra had the music in front of them.

Not that fond of the rustle of mass page-turning, myself.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not that fond of the rustle of mass page-turning, myself.

It can be done silently with ease, but so few choirs teach this.

Mind you, I suppose that at this reckless pace, they’d be constantly be turning pages.

[Bryn]

Well, if it had to be what Mozart's least talented pupil did with/to his master's skeleton, this, to my ears, was far better then I was expecting. I find myself solidly in the jlw/Chris Capsell camp regarding this performance.

[seabright]

Watching this on TV now, I can`t help but wishing that Tom Service would SHUT UP!

Quite right too - and he's another of these presenters who can't keep their hands still while they speak. Up and down they constantly go, like a pair of piston engines, as they accompany his incoherent babble. Also, it's evidently been decided that the TV Proms have to be presented by a male and female pair, a decision doubtless brought about by the politically-correct equality-driven situation of the times. What I find extraordinary - and the female on display tonight provided an excellent example - is that her every utterance, no matter how banal, was accompanied by a ghastly smirk, stretching chimpanzee-like from ear to ear. In fact, practically all the women TV presenters these days have grotesque grins stretched across their features for minutes on end. Only a few minutes before, I'd seen a female weather presenter telling us how dreadful it was going to be outside, with hurricanes and rainstorms and so on, this information being delivered to the camera with a preposterous smile adorning her countenance. At least the male TV presenters mostly take their jobs seriously but is there no-one in the studio to tell these smirking women how ridiculous they look?!

[ardcarp]

Watching this on TV now, I can`t help but wishing that Tom Service would SHUT UP!

Yes. For God's sake, what is he ON?

I had very mixed feelings about the Mozart. I felt that she was trying to do with massive forces what a slightly eccentric HIPP director might have done. A slightly uncomfortable result?

[DracoM]

[oddoneout]

Well that was interesting. In some respects I preferred the TV version, but that may be due in part to knowing what to expect. The now not very good sound quality on my ancient set(never recovered from the digital switch) meant that I missed the very quiet passages and, oddly enough became aware of some slight intonation issues. However having seen the size of the choir(I had no idea from the original live broadcast that it was so large, it didn't sound like it) and the consequent distance between the singers/sections and knowing that certain passages have a tendency to 'slip' I could see how that might arise - and it wasn't really a problem in terms of enjoyment.
I don't agree that the singing from memory was a gimmick - I doubt the speed of some of the sections would have been successful with the inevitable brain lag that comes from reading before producing the note - and audiences generally prefer to see the singers' faces rather than the tops of their heads. The sound from singers facing forwards and thus projecting towards the audience is surely more satisfactory, and the singer's connection with the whole business of making music is subtly different.
Lots of smiling faces in the orchestra and enthusiastic (bow)clapping, always a good sign, and there was a delightful bit of very English-looking(well done old chap, shaking hands) congratulation between the bassoon and basset horn players.