From a familiar position in the side stalls I noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the timbre/volume etc of the timps... They sounded like what they were - German style timps being (well) played in fairly typical German style - and with prominence appropriate for Sibelius.
Most years there will be a debate similar to the above. The explanation (purely IMO of course) often relates to the profound impact that orchestra layout on the RAH stage has. I can think of no other hall where it makes such a difference, particularly to low pitched instruments. The effect can be similarly profound on both the in-hall sound and on the relay, albeit in different ways. This often explains apparent night-to-night variations in the perceived sound quality of the relays.
The BRSO wind section was hunting as a pack, all clumped together, horns on the "wrong" side - with the timps directly behind them. Thus the mics for pretty much all the wind instruments would have been full of timp sound - no way of getting one without the other. This is a very different situation to that presented by the way a British orchestra typically sets up there...
Meanwhile, my reactions chime with the view that several have expressed - the concert got better as it went on. I'm surprised to discover that YNS has recorded Sibelius 1 (or anything). I assumed that what we heard was the result of a conductor stepping in to cover a program not of his making and thus including a work that's not really his bag. It sounded a bit like Sibelius arr Rachmaninov and on limited rehearsal to boot... Not a piece to start a concert with anyway - maybe it would have cohered more in the hands of Jansons.
Everyone seemed much more at home in the Prokofiev (Gil Shaham as good a last minute stand in as you're likely to hear). The Strauss was beautifully played although rather more swagger and oomph from the horns wouldn't have hurt, and there's no concealing the way that the Rosenkavalier "suite" was so obviously cobbled together in haste albeit from the very finest components.
Most years there will be a debate similar to the above. The explanation (purely IMO of course) often relates to the profound impact that orchestra layout on the RAH stage has. I can think of no other hall where it makes such a difference, particularly to low pitched instruments. The effect can be similarly profound on both the in-hall sound and on the relay, albeit in different ways. This often explains apparent night-to-night variations in the perceived sound quality of the relays.
The BRSO wind section was hunting as a pack, all clumped together, horns on the "wrong" side - with the timps directly behind them. Thus the mics for pretty much all the wind instruments would have been full of timp sound - no way of getting one without the other. This is a very different situation to that presented by the way a British orchestra typically sets up there...
Meanwhile, my reactions chime with the view that several have expressed - the concert got better as it went on. I'm surprised to discover that YNS has recorded Sibelius 1 (or anything). I assumed that what we heard was the result of a conductor stepping in to cover a program not of his making and thus including a work that's not really his bag. It sounded a bit like Sibelius arr Rachmaninov and on limited rehearsal to boot... Not a piece to start a concert with anyway - maybe it would have cohered more in the hands of Jansons.
Everyone seemed much more at home in the Prokofiev (Gil Shaham as good a last minute stand in as you're likely to hear). The Strauss was beautifully played although rather more swagger and oomph from the horns wouldn't have hurt, and there's no concealing the way that the Rosenkavalier "suite" was so obviously cobbled together in haste albeit from the very finest components.
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