Prom 22: Rachmaninov, Shostakovich & Outi Tarkiainen - 4.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Sunday 4 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Sergey Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead
Outi Tarkiainen: Midnight Sun Variations: BBC commission: world première
Dmitry Shostakovich:Symphony No 11 in G minor ‘The Year 1905’

BBC Philharmonic
John Storgårds conductor

Death and darkness encounter light and new life in this Prom given by the BBC Philharmonic with its Chief Guest Conductor John Storgards. Two Russian classics brood on death and loss; Rachmaninov's atmospheric 'The Isle of the Dead' conjures an dark scene - a ghostly ferryman transport the souls of the dead to rest - while Shostakovich's bitterly passionate Eleventh Symphony takes inspiration from the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of 1905. But light and hope appear in the world premiere of Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations, a celebration of rebirth in the perpetual day of an Arctic summer.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

https://musicfinland.com/en/news/bbc-commissions-orchestral-work-from-outi-tarkiainen-for-the-proms

[bluestateprommer]

Fine, fine Rachmaninov start to this Prom just now, with John Storgards & the BBC Phil. Part of me wonders why the orchestra didn't choose JS as their next chief conductor, as I've pretty much liked everything I've heard from him on BBC R3, but I guess the BBC Phil had their reasons. Plus. I guess that being "chief guest conductor" lets him have all of the fun, and none of the responsibilities, of the top job.

PS: JS and the BBC Phil likewise did a good job with the premiere of Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations. Its sound world actually complements Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead quite well. On one hearing, I'm not sure how substantial that I found it, in terms of content vs. atmosphere, but I'll give it another go later.

Nice start to the interval discussion, with an opener on the Kalevala.

[edashtav]

Fine, fine Rachmaninov start to this Prom just now, with John Storgards & the BBC Phil. Part of me wonders why the orchestra didn't choose JS as their next chief conductor, as I've pretty much liked everything I've heard from him on BBC R3, but I guess the BBC Phil had their reasons. Plus. I guess that being "chief guest conductor" lets him have all of the fun, and none of the responsibilities, of the top job.

PS: JS and the BBC Phil likewise did a good job with the premiere of Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations. Its sound world actually complements Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead quite well. On one hearing, I'm not sure how substantial that I found it, in terms of content vs. atmosphere, but I'll give it another go later.

Nice start to the interval discussion, with an opener on the Kalevala.

Sensible comments, bsp. I find 'The Isle of the Dead' to be lacking in intensity and quality ideas. JS and the BBC PO did it proud.
You're right :Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations, made a good companion piece. The work sounded worthy rather than earth shattering.

I've always thought that DSCH's #11 symphony, despite its gloss of Soviet Poster paint, was a better symphony than DSCH's #12 and #13. Tonight's performance was committed, deeply-felt and excellent. Second-rate scores need such unreserved advocacy. My views are on the turn: I may listen again and admit #11 to the mighty handful of Shostakovich symphonies that I regard as masterful. The ending was ragged and that caused spluttering applause.

[kernelbogey]

TV presentation by a gabbling Tom Service and Jess Gillam was embarassing. She is out of her depth here, as in her interview with John Storgårds (comically undermined by a member of the orchestra just behind them struggling ineffectually with an enormous case). Service keen to impose his views on his interval interviewee. A set agenda of Proms branding permeated many of his comments.

Still, I managed to hear Outi Tarkiainen's piece twice - first on R3 and then in the delayed tv relay. I took to it, the transition from woodwind and percussion to strings was moving and reminiscent of Sibelius. Outi's connection to nature and her openness in the interviews about composing before and after giving birth to her first child gave the piece a philosophical relevance which seemed bound into it - ideas music.

[Bryn]

If, like me, you missed the live broadcast on Radio 3, be warned. You will have to wait, probably until tomorrow, for the end of the Shostakovich to appear with the rest of the concert on Sounds. The late-running meant that the automatically generated file is truncated. Until the editors get to work on it, the end will probably appear at the start of the file linked to for EML when it appears later tonight. The BBC FOUR transmission was running several minutes behind that of Radio 3. Its just possible that the file for the television version will be edited prior to its initial posting. Let's hope a binaural version was also recorded and will get posted.

[Pulcinella]

Where and why did a violinist go at the end of the first movement of the Shostakovich?
We didn't get to see him return.
Broken string? Comfort break?

Will certainly watch the symphony again.
Even at a pretty loud volume it was struggling to be heard against the phenomenal force of the rain we had continuously throughout: I don't think I've ever seen so much intense rainfall, and will be interested to find out how much it was.

[Bryn]

The BBC FOUR version has not been uploaded to the iPlayer yet. The over-run of the Prom may well also lead to the loss of the first couple or so items from TtN. Let's hope the start of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet get broadcast.

[jonfan]

TV presentation by a gabbling Tom Service and Jess Gillam was embarassing. She is out of her depth here, as in her interview with John Storgårds (comically undermined by a member of the orchestra just behind them struggling ineffectually with an enormous case). Service keen to impose his views on his interval interviewee. A set agenda of Proms branding permeated many of his comments.

I’m going to have to start a Tom Service defence society, something a few years back I would have thought most unlikely as I too thought he was extremely verbose. I’ve warmed to him a great deal and I think he gets over lots of information with great enthusiasm in a short space of time. The interviewee was the lady talking about Shostakovich 5 last week and she’s not one to have her views undermined in any way. The interview with JS by JG was just great showing his relationship with Tarkiainen going back to their youth, though you probably missed that if you were concentrating on the bassoon case. JG is not out of her depth and quite the opposite IMO. A breath of fresh young views.
There was very little time to edit the TV programme tonight as it was almost live but I think it showed the BBC Phil on top form in all departments, and looking very warm. Why do the men wear what is the most unsuitable concert gear, especially in a warm RAH?

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 21/II. DSCH 11. BBCPHIL/STORGÄRDS

Storgärds certainly saved the fiercest energy and intensity for the final “Tocsin” of the DSCH 11, which was properly crushing, but earlier I missed some intensity, that sense of urgent story-telling which characterises the most compelling readings of the 11th. "January 9" was very powerful, but I still wanted a greater breadth and depth of tone, rather than the careful balance which Storgärds seemed to prioritise. A lack of tension in the "Palace Square" movement too. Perhaps I just (as usual) missed a Russian orchestral sound and approach - that awareness of history in the blood, the darker passion in the darker, deeper orchestral character, the shaping of the phrase.

(This may seem churlish to those in the hall, where I guess most DSCH 11s are going to be pretty overwhelming, if at all competently played…certainly true of my own two live encounters.)

No.11 is (like Symphonies 2,3 and 12) a species of agitprop, but of a high order, and musically superior to those; so I feel it can't be played abstractly - you need to feel that dramatic sense of “I need to tell you, you must hear this" in the musical narrative. For me that wasn't quite there tonight, though I couldn't fault the execution on any obvious technical level. (I have heard it more rivetingly done from here: a particular BBCSO performance with Bychkov comes to mind…)

***
(What a shame, even on the AAC live feed, to hear the level boosting at the beginning of the third movement; why there, when the opening movement was largely left alone? So unnecessary, very distracting and leading to some coarsening of the In Memoriam climax later, and forcing some volume adjustments up-and-down……doesn’t help one’s involvement in the HCH…).

[Bryn]

The BBC FOUR version has not been uploaded to the iPlayer yet. The over-run of the Prom may well also lead to the loss of the first couple or so items from TtN. Let's hope the start of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet get broadcast.

Looks like the Clarinet Quintet might be safe. Programmes are running approximately 11 minutes late and it's scheduled to start 11 minutes into TtN.

[bluestateprommer]

Sensible comments, bsp. I find 'The Isle of the Dead' to be lacking in intensity and quality ideas. JS and the BBC PO did it proud.
You're right :Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations, made a good companion piece. The work sounded worthy rather than earth shattering.

I've always thought that DSCH's #11 symphony, despite its gloss of Soviet Poster paint, was a better symphony than DSCH's #12 and #13. Tonight's performance was committed, deeply-felt and excellent. Second-rate scores need such unreserved advocacy. My views are on the turn: I may listen again and admit #11 to the mighty handful of Shostakovich symphonies that I regard as masterful. The ending was ragged and that caused spluttering applause.

Agree that JS and the BBC Phil did a terrific job with DSCH 11. Where we disagree is on the merits of the work itself, as I put myself in the opposite camp in terms of its merits. From hearing it live several times (and reinforced by this Prom via iPlayer), I've found DSCH 11 to be a symphony with relatively thin melodic material stretched out to extraordinary lengths, not sustainably. From those live performances, though, if only for the sheer visceral thrill of the 2nd movement, if one is going to hear the work at all, it should be live in the concert hall. Especially with the sheer volume that the work generates, I would think that the Gallery, or the center seats just below the Gallery, would be the best place to hear it in the RAH.

Regarding the ending, it's understandable if it was a bit ragged, as the musicians may have been tuckered out by the end. This makes me wonder about the delay that Sarah Walker mentioned to the start of the 2nd half, as I wonder now if it involved tech issues with the TV cameras. That's just a guess based on nothing, of course. It would have been nice if the crowd had held its applause and let the tocsin bells fully ring out before applauding, although that might have been asking a lot if many in the crowd were newbies. On one of the times that I've heard it live, the conductor did keep his arms aloft and prevented the audience from applauding before the bell chimes ran their course. That final echo on that one occasion lasted something like 40 seconds.

(As kind of a side experiment, I wonder if anyone has thought to screen Battleship Potemkin with DSCH 11 running as musical accompaniment. Haven't tried it myself, but it would be interesting, as DSCH 11 is a film score without a film, in its way.)

[edashtav]

It's always good to hear your perceptive comments, bsp.

[Boilk]

...I've found DSCH 11 to be a symphony with relatively thin melodic material stretched out to extraordinary lengths, not sustainably.

I feel the same way about various movements in several DSCH symphonies, including this one. Whilst listening to/watching the 11th this evening I was again reminded of why I generally favour Prokofiev symphonies/concertos when I found myself thinking: "no way would Prokofiev spin this idea out to such near-ridiculous lengths, he would have longsince moved on".

But the highlight of the concert (and season so far) for me was Outi Tarkiainen's Midnight Sun Variations. Very accomplished handling of orchestral colour and form. We are going to be hearing a lot more from her.

[Bryn]

I feel the same way about various movements in several DSCH symphonies, including this one. Whilst listening to/watching the 11th this evening I was again reminded of why I generally favour Prokofiev symphonies/concertos when I found myself thinking: "no way would Prokofiev spin this idea out to such near-ridiculous lengths, he would have longsince moved on".

As a facile youth, I viewed, for instance, the conclusion of the 10th with similar disdain. Later, I came to see it in a more Orwellian context. More as "a boot stamping on a human face, forever", as it were.

The BBC Four version is now available on the iPlayer, by the way. The Radio 3 Sounds offering still awaits editing, however. There is an overlap with the following Late Night Prom's posting, and an easy edit is possible.