Prom 25: Tchaikovsky, Sibelius & Weinberg - 6.08.19

[Maclintick]

When I first heard the Weinberg concerto I was reminded of the first movement of the (gorgeous) Myaskovsky Cello Concerto - they both start with a lyrical cello line over a pulsating bass.

Don't know that. Thanks, johnb -- will investigate.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

More "slung mud" washed off - with apologies to all (but one) whose posts have been trimmed/removed. The focus can now return to the performance & broadcast - and I can catch up on an "unmissable" Prom that I've so far missed.

[doversoul1]

More "slung mud" washed off - with apologies to all (but one) whose posts have been trimmed/removed. The focus can now return to the performance & broadcast - and I can catch up on an "unmissable" Prom that I've so far missed.

Very many thanks for your hard work. The forum has had a few trolls in the past but this one was a bit of a shock to the system. I must say it has made me think about the nature/character of our forum in a new light. I hope you'll enjoy your deserved Proms catching up.

[edashtav]

When I first heard the Weinberg concerto I was reminded of the first movement of the (gorgeous) Myaskovsky Cello Concerto - they both start with a lyrical cello line over a pulsating bass.

Well-spotted, johnb ; there is a definite kinship although it was unlikely that Weinberg heard the earlier work live but he probably studied its score.

[jayne lee wilson]

TCHAIKOVSKY 6….BBCSO/STASEVSKA. R3 SOUNDS AAC 320.

Finally getting around to this, I’m afraid I can’t be too enthusiastic about it….

Notably quick first movement, initially light on its feet, then a punchy first climax - pushing on urgently through the love theme; this was intriguing. An impassioned even explosive development, but the ensemble was too often untidy. Winds seemed to lack confidence or projection in their solos (in other movements too). I can take a degree of this within the live volatility, but…

The con grazia was gracious and graceful - suave and seductive and danceable (or at least skateable)….with really lovely string playing. A highlight.
(Interesting to note Lebrecht's comment, that here, Stasevska was able to stand back, baton lowered, letting the orchestra play on...
I was going to take him to task for over-emphasising the appearance and dress of both Stasevska and Gabetta; in fact he already had the good grace to publish a rejoinder from "a musician", with his own robust response; credit to him for that at least.)

Again very quick, almost waspish in the march, but the ensemble distractingly shaky, even at the very end.
(The much commented-on interstitial cheering and applause sounded rather self-conscious to me; the partakers well aware of their role in the ritual; it died away pretty abruptly).

Finally there was real intensity and drama in the finale, the feel of a genuine, potentially far more cogent interpretation - and culmination; but even here, brasses didn’t always come through clearly in climaxes; I was left wanting more, and not in a good way.

Before the performance, Stasevska said she preferred to let the music speak for itself; I guess she meant in terms of the intensely Tragic narrative it follows; those biographical imperatives that seem anything but extra-musical.
But in fact, musically, it sounded individually shaped throughout - or at least an attempt at such.
Summarily though - I found it a potentially fresh, fascinating, ambitiously shaped reading, but one whose execution wasn’t fully realised on this occasion.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I mentioned on the "Last Concert" Thread that I'd been to a Orchestra of Opera North concert that she conducted in Huddersfield earlier this year (Lutoslawski Musique Funebre, Strauss 4 Last Songs, Bruckner #7) and I was so impressed that I immediately bought a ticket for the repeat in Leeds - I've never done that before in my life. (And the repeat confirmed the high opinion I'd formed of her Music-making.)

Well, if it had been this programme and performance I'd heard in Huddersfield, I wouldn've been impressed, but not moved to go to a repeat a couple of nights later. It was very good - the Karelia Suite is one of my favourite pieces, and it was splendidly done - some fine Timpani detail in the ever-genial All Marcia. The Weinberg 'cello Concerto was sufficiently enjoyable for me to want to return to - not a "profound" work, on first hearing, but fitting very well in the company of Schumann, Saint-Saens, Lalo, and the Rococo Variations.

The Tchaikovsky was interesting, and I concur for the most part with jlw's assessment - it had great momentum (with keen attention throughout to the marked Tempo relationships within and between the movements: Tchaikovsky gives the same metronome mark to the opening of the First and Last Movements: so we got the same tempo in this performance - and attention to to dynamics, the [I]sff[/I] marked in the last presentation [letter M in some scores] of the Second Group theme real stabs here, and the composer's markings that the brass and Timps should be kept at a lower dynamic level - ff against the string & wind fffs - scrupulously observed). The whole thing, wonderfully avoiding sentimentality, led to a powerfully sombre conclusion; spent and leaving no possibility for anything but silence therafter - necessitating a hasty dash to the off switch at the announcement that Sean Rafferty was about to speak!

But the First Movement - with some decidedly scrappy playing at times - didn't fuse the details very well for me; as if another rehearsal or two were needed to get the orchestra used to what their conductor wanted from them (and to enable her to communicate this to them). But this promises very well for the future collaboration of this team.

And I whole-heartily echo the praises voiced on this Thread for Petroc's presentation - plenty of time after the ends of works for the radio audience to collect their own thoughts, no leaping in to shout his approval as the audience started to applaud, decent, measured introductions to the works. (And a very interesting interval presentation: it was in the standards of Proms presentation from the '70s & '80s - I can't think of higher praise!)

[cloughie]

Well, if it had been this programme and performance I'd heard in Huddersfield, I wouldn've been impressed, but not moved to go to a repeat a couple of nights later. It was very good - the Karelia Suite is one of my favourite pieces, and it was splendidly done - some fine Timpani detail in the ever-genial All Marcia. The Weinberg 'cello Concerto was sufficiently enjoyable for me to want to return to - not a "profound" work, on first hearing, but fitting very well in the company of Schumann, Saint-Saens, Lalo, and the Rococo Variations.

The Tchaikovsky was interesting, and I concur for the most part with jlw's assessment - it had great momentum (with keen attention throughout to the marked Tempo relationships within and between the movements: Tchaikovsky gives the same metronome mark to the opening of the First and Last Movements: so we got the same tempo in this performance - and attention to to dynamics, the [I]sff[/I] marked in the last presentation [letter M in some scores] of the Second Group theme real stabs here, and the composer's markings that the brass and Timps should be kept at a lower dynamic level - ff against the string & wind fffs - scrupulously observed). The whole thing, wonderfully avoiding sentimentality, led to a powerfully sombre conclusion; spent and leaving no possibility for anything but silence therafter - necessitating a hasty dash to the off switch at the announcement that Sean Rafferty was about to speak!

But the First Movement - with some decidedly scrappy playing at times - didn't fuse the details very well for me; as if another rehearsal or two were needed to get the orchestra used to what their conductor wanted from them (and to enable her to communicate this to them). But this promises very well for the future collaboration of this team.

And I whole-heartily echo the praises voiced on this Thread for Petroc's presentation - plenty of time after the ends of works for the radio audience to collect their own thoughts, no leaping in to shout his approval as the audience started to applaud, decent, measured introductions to the works. (And a very interesting interval presentation: it was in the standards of Proms presentation from the '70s & '80s - I can't think of higher praise!)

Petroc is in fact a presenter in the traditional style, informative and unobtrusive.

[bluestateprommer]

No time to post after the concert, I'm afraid, & necessarily brief this morning. RAH 100% full & extremely enthusiastic -- I don't think I've ever attended a live "Pathétique" where the audience has failed to explode at the end of the march, & similarly with Dalia & BBCSO's roof-raising performance last night. Tchaik on the swift side, to be sure, but not dissimilar to Mravinsky at around 43' -- it tends to be certain self-regarding Western stick-wavers who drag out the last movement interminably....

Weinberg new to me -- this concerto noodles along very pleasantly in a tonal idiom which brought to mind, at various junctures, a folkier Hindemith or Nielsen, & even Falla, but I could discern little influence of Weinberg's friend Shostakovich (Ed & others may provide enlightenment here). Beautifully played by Sol Gabetta, though not without a tendency to rush her fences at times. Dalia was alert & kept things moving. The Karelia suite built impressively to a rousing Alla Marcia, & the cor anglais player got a bow for her solo at the end of the Ballade.

Jansons clocks in at 43:15 on his Chandos recording, and Mravinsky's Leningrad DG recordings clock in at 42:00 or 43:52, depending on which version you look at. Dalia S.'s overall timings, minus the post-3rd movement applause and the other inter-movement pauses, comes in at just over 41:30, definitely on the swift side. There was certainly nervous energy in her reading, probably some nerves in her public debut with the BBC SO in her new post in the biggest setting imaginable. But on the whole, she did all right. Maybe her idea was to take out any sentimentality or lingering (i.e. no Lenny B. 58-minute Pathetique for her).

Since I missed the Weinberg, I thought the best thing was simply to hear the whole concert again, but this time at home through computer speakers. My earlier quick thoughts on the Sibelius remain. She and Sol G. did very well indeed with the Weinberg Cello Concerto, even if the work is pretty consistent with much else that I've heard of Weinberg's works, interesting passages interwoven with less compelling material, so that things don't always add up. But full marks to Sol G., Dalia S. and the BBC SO for their full commitment to it.

The one blot on Petroc's presentation was a slight factual gaffe at the end, when he mentioned the prior BBC SO principal guest conductor, David Robertson, as having finished his time in the post back in 2006. Not so, as Robertson was principal guest conductor from 2005 to 2012. My limited understanding of the history of the BBC SO is that the principal guest conductor post there was something of a poisoned chalice over the years, for whatever reason, that conductors who held that post tended not to go on to anything big for a while, or to bigger things with the BBC SO. Belohlavek broke that "curse", to be sure, when he became chief conductor in 2006 following his 5-year stint with them as principal guest. Will be interesting to see how Dalia S. fares, and particularly in her 2 concerts with the BBC SO this season that Petroc properly mentioned:

Oct. 26: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e8p84f

April 17, 2020: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/evv2rz