Prom 19: Strauss, Schumann & MacMillan - 2.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Friday 2 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor
Sir James MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie

Alexander Melnikov piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor

‘I always wanted a great bravura piece by him,’ wrote Clara Schumann of her husband. Her hope was answered in Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto a work whose broad, symphonic scope explores and tests the relationship between soloist and orchestra.

Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov joins the BBC Scottish SO and its Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard for a programme that also includes the sweeping drama of Strauss’s tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra, with its memorable opening sunrise (heard on the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the violence and compassion of Sir James MacMillan’s early masterpiece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, inspired by the execution of a 17th-century ‘witch’ and premiered at the Proms in 1990.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So - they're only playing Also Sprach Zarathustra, because someone other than Strauss used the first couple of minutes of the work in a film, and then the BBC copied the idea for the moon landings.

Any excuse, I suppose. That said, it is a truly incredible introduction.

[cloughie]

So - they're only playing Also Sprach Zarathustra, because someone other than Strauss used the first couple of minutes of the work in a film, and then the BBC copied the idea for the moon landings.

Any excuse, I suppose. That said, it is a truly incredible introduction.

...and a fair bet that 98% of the population don’t know the dum - dum dum dum dum dum dum that follows!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is that the "only" reason they're playing the Strauss? (Isn't it more a case of the beeb blurb writer doing their usual stuff of trying to "enthuse" the potential listener? Mr Dausgaard - whom I presume is responsible for the programming - should no more be tarred with the brush of being responsible for the advertising fluff than anyone who quotes from it.)

[richardfinegold]

There seems to be a lot of R Strauss in the Proms this year. Having just played through the Kempe/Dresden recordings for the first time in years, there is nothing wrong with that in my mind. I would love to hear Dausgaard in Also Sprach, as I found his Mahler 10 so illuminating

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is that the "only" reason they're playing the Strauss? (Isn't it more a case of the beeb blurb writer doing their usual stuff of trying to "enthuse" the potential listener? Mr Dausgaard - whom I presume is responsible for the programming - should no more be tarred with the brush of being responsible for the advertising fluff than anyone who quotes from it.)

No of course it isn't the only reason. but as you (almost) suggest, the spam writer probably has to slant it that way.

[Master Jacques]

Is Mr Dausgaard - whom I presume is responsible for the programming - should no more be tarred with the brush of being responsible for the advertising fluff than anyone who quotes from it.)

Mr Dausgaard is no more responsible for the programming than for the marketing fluff: he'll be playing what he's been told to play (though I'm sure he'll have been "consulted" as to its acceptability).

Anyone else think it odd - and suggestive of suits's taste - that Stravinsky's Apollo isn't making a Proms appearance this of all years?

[cloughie]

Mr Dausgaard is no more responsible for the programming than for the marketing fluff: he'll be playing what he's been told to play (though I'm sure he'll have been "consulted" as to its acceptability).

Anyone else think it odd - and suggestive of suits's taste - that Stravinsky's Apollo isn't making a Proms appearance this of all years?

It’s obvious really, Apollo 19 was cancelled!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Mr Dausgaard is no more responsible for the programming than for the marketing fluff: he'll be playing what he's been told to play (though I'm sure he'll have been "consulted" as to its acceptability).

And how do you know this, MJ?

[jayne lee wilson]

Mr Dausgaard is no more responsible for the programming than for the marketing fluff: he'll be playing what he's been told to play (though I'm sure he'll have been "consulted" as to its acceptability).

Anyone else think it odd - and suggestive of suits's taste - that Stravinsky's Apollo isn't making a Proms appearance this of all years?

Do you have any proof of that? When Kirill Petrenko gave his first concerts after the Berlin Phil appointment, someone here suggested that he'd "been told what to play" .... it was easy to prove via the DCH website interview with him, that this certainly wasn't the case.

A great admirer of Dausgaard with many of his recordings, I can't believe he'd put up with being ordered around...especially as he recorded one of the finest, freshest HIPPS-moderne Schumann Cycles of recent years with his Swedish CO, and Melnikov is (or should be) famous for his fortepiano recording of such with Heras-Casado & the Freiburgers. So there's a good, well-planned match.
Interviews with TD (e.g. on the Bruckner 9 completion he did with this band) reveal a very strong-minded, vital intelligence. But aren't all concert programmes a result of negotiation, to some extent?

A bold move to put the Strauss first, which is fascinating beyond the showpiece intro...itself offset by that mysterious, uncertain ending... I'm not a huge RS fan nowadays, but always find this one intriguing.... I hear a layer of ambiguity (from its textual inspiration to some degree), even self-doubt in there which isn't often typical of the composer....

[BBMmk2]

I’m sure these orchestras that come to the Proms play what they already planned months beforehand.

[jayne lee wilson]

Another intriguing mix of a program here.... be nice if Melnikov plays a fortepiano with an orchestra of about 30, mikes in close, but hey, I try to live in the real world...

[jonfan]

Is that the "only" reason they're playing the Strauss? (Isn't it more a case of the beeb blurb writer doing their usual stuff of trying to "enthuse" the potential listener? Mr Dausgaard - whom I presume is responsible for the programming - should no more be tarred with the brush of being responsible for the advertising fluff than anyone who quotes from it.)

I see nothing wrong in trying to enthuse potential listeners. I’m sure the opening of Also Sprach used in the film got many people interested in the rest of the piece and in more RS, it did for me anyway. Perhaps tonight people will tune in for the Strauss and get hooked on MacMillan. Use of classical music in the cinema and TV can awaken interest to look further, eg. William Tell, Mahler 5.

[jayne lee wilson]

I see nothing wrong in trying to enthuse potential listeners. I’m sure the opening of Also Sprach used in the film got many people interested in the rest of the piece and in more RS, it did for me anyway. Perhaps tonight people will tune in for the Strauss and get hooked on MacMillan. Use of classical music in the cinema and TV can awaken interest to look further, eg. William Tell, Mahler 5.

Absolutely - true for me too....after we saw the film together (the first I ever saw on a huge wraparound), Dad got the soundtrack album, which led among other things to the discovery of.....
Ligeti.
What a difference that made when I began listening to Radio 3 and ransacking the local Record Library later....!
(PS I thought Blue Danube was OK as well... then I noticed that both this and the Also Sprach were composed by people called "Strauss..." & one thing led to another...)

[Bryn]

Absolutely - true for me too....after we saw the film together (the first I ever saw on a huge wraparound), Dad got the soundtrack album, which led among other things to the discovery of.....
Ligeti.
What a difference that made when I began listening to Radio 3 and ransacking the local Record Library later....!
(PS I thought Blue Danube was OK as well... then I noticed that both this and the Also Sprach were composed by people called "Strauss..." & one thing led to another...)

And what about that guy who wrote the music for the Onedin Line.