Prom 18: Mahler & Britten - 1.08.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Thursday 1 August 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Benjamin Britten: Piano Concerto (revised version, 1945)
Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde


Leif Ove Andsnes piano
Claudia Mahnke mezzo-soprano
Stuart Skelton tenor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner conductor

Claudia Mahnke and Stuart Skelton are the soloists in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde - a powerful, personal statement of loss, orchestrated with infinite variety and skill.

It’s paired with another mould-breaking work Britten’s Piano Concerto. Premiered at the Proms in 1938 with the 24-year-old composer as soloist, the work is as much a celebration of orchestral texture as pianistic bravura, bursting with youthful energy and invention. Norwegian pianist and Proms regular Leif Ove Andsnes is the soloist.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Did Britten do many revisions of his works? I know he revised Paul Bunyan late in his life.

[LMcD]

Did Britten do many revisions of his works? I know he revised Paul Bunyan late in his life.

Billy Budd
Sinfonietta
Tit for Tat
String Quartet in D Major
That seems to be about it.

[kernelbogey]

Advice please (Cross-posted)

I am meeting my brother at the RAH on Thursday for the Britten/Mahler.

He has restricted movement because of arthritis, and is worried about how he gets to Victoria station after the concert.

Any tips please about getting a taxi from the hall?

Our provisional plan is to go have dinner after the prom. Any tips, equally, about a mid-price restaurant which is a short walk from the hall? He can manage 200-300 yards' walking on a good day!

[makropulos]

Billy Budd
Sinfonietta
Tit for Tat
String Quartet in D Major
That seems to be about it.

There's more. Among other things:
There's the completely rewritten finale of the Sinfonia da Requiem (revised before the premiere, but after submitting the work to the Japanese authorities - if I remember rightly Rattle conducted one performance of the original version).
The pre-publication vocal score of Turn of the Screw (copied by Imogen Holst and used for rehearsals) has some significant changes to Act II, though these were sorted out by the time of the premiere.
Winter Words was subjected to revision: two songs were cut before publication (they are printed as an appendix in the 1994 edition). Likewise, a song was cut from the Serenade.

As for works revised after the first performance, the Violin Concerto was revised three times, in 1950, 1954 and 1965. Gloriana was revised in 1966. MSND was revised in July-August 1960, a few weeks after the premiere.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but there are certainly others.

[LMcD]

There's more. Among other things:
There's the completely rewritten finale of the Sinfonia da Requiem (revised before the premiere, but after submitting the work to the Japanese authorities - if I remember rightly Rattle conducted one performance of the original version).
The pre-publication vocal score of Turn of the Screw (copied by Imogen Holst and used for rehearsals) has some significant changes to Act II, though these were sorted out by the time of the premiere.
Winter Words was subjected to revision: two songs were cut before publication (they are printed as an appendix in the 1994 edition). Likewise, a song was cut from the Serenade.

As for works revised after the first performance, the Violin Concerto was revised three times, in 1950, 1954 and 1965. Gloriana was revised in 1966. MSND was revised in July-August 1960, a few weeks after the premiere.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but there are certainly others.

Thank you.
Interesting that Gloriana was revised quite a long time after the initial hostile reaction. I believe the Japanese authorities thought the Sinfonia was insufficiently celebratory (by which they may have meant lacking in militaristic fervour).

[kernelbogey]

I am looking forward to this, which may be the only Prom I get to this year. As posted elsewhere, I'm going with my brother, who introduced me to classical music 60+ years ago. We have never been to a Prom together. He's always had a soft spot for Das Lied. I think it will be a memorable evening for many reasons.

[Master Jacques]

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but there are certainly others.

Yes indeed: listening recently to the first night recording of A Midsummer Night's Dream I was struck by the changes he'd made before the work reached its full orchestral and recorded version.

There are also two, distinctly different published versions of The Rape of Lucretia with some major changes. You can hear some of the material later cut or changed in the original cast studio recording, as well as early broadcasts.

If his health had been better, he'd have had another go at Peter Grimes as well, towards the end of his life: apparently there were aspects of it which no longer satisfied him.

Given Makropulos's list, it almost seems there are fewer unrevised than revised works in the Britten canon!

[Master Jacques]

I believe the Japanese authorities thought the Sinfonia was insufficiently celebratory (by which they may have meant lacking in militaristic fervour).

I don't think that was the reason: they were insulted that a work celebrating 2600 years of Japanese statehood should use Latin titles from the Christian liturgy, deeming it entirely inappropriate for a Shinto/Buddhist society which (at that time) still considered Christianity an alien threat.

In truth, it can't be said that the Sinfonia lacks military fervour in places, though there certainly were commentators at the time (as there were after its New York Philharmonic premiere under Barbirolli) who found the work "gloomy" - a familiar word used by people, at all times and in all places, who don't understand any art music to which they can't tap their toe.

[LMcD]

I don't think that was the reason: they were insulted that a work celebrating 2600 years of Japanese statehood should use Latin titles from the Christian liturgy, deeming it entirely inappropriate for a Shinto/Buddhist society which (at that time) still considered Christianity an alien threat.

In truth, it can't be said that the Sinfonia lacks military fervour in places, though there certainly were commentators at the time (as there were after its New York Philharmonic premiere under Barbirolli) who found the work "gloomy" - a familiar word used by people, at all times and in all places, who don't understand any art music to which they can't tap their toe.

According to Humphrey Carpenter, Britten told Ralph Hawkes: "....the publicity of having work rejected by the Japanese Consulate for being Christian is a wow".

[jayne lee wilson]

Wonderful - well, exceptional Britten Piano Concerto - brimful of wit, pathos and playfulness….the obbligato for mobile tactfully allowed for in the impromptu….
Scarce a detail missed or underplayed, such an involving sense of collaborative and keenly co-ordinated pleasure in the performers themselves...

A terrific piece, especial favourite of mine, brilliantly thrown off - sheer joy! I was virtually dancing round the room…..

(And what a very enthusiastic whiplash-artist...…)

[DracoM]

Totally agree - Britten was absolutely tops!

[edashtav]

I have never loved this concerto, finding it too full of undigested influences and brittle. I have found it to be unsettled, and its incoherence unsettling. It was brutal programming to couple it with mature Mahler, a master at the sardonic use of the banal. In that context, Britten's efforts seem juvenile. The piece contains too much Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Mahler. I've enjoyed listening to a excerpt from a private recording of the work's premiere under Sir Henry Wood, just a couple of minutes from the original third movement, with portamenti aplenty emphasising the music's kinship with the Austrian master.

That said, I thought tonight's soloist, Leif Ove Andsnes, played with insight, clarity and charm and the orchestra accompaniment was alert and animated.

[LMcD]

Any views on last night's 'Das Lied von der Erde', which I'm thinking of watching on BBC4 tonight?

[jayne lee wilson]

Any views on last night's 'Das Lied von der Erde', which I'm thinking of watching on BBC4 tonight?

Coming soon, this afternoon..!....watch this space...(It was wonderful BTW!)...