Prom 6: The Rite of Spring - 22.07.19

[kernelbogey]

I'm glad that others, as well as me, found that this Rite failed to engage. I have in the past always found that it comes up fresh every time, contemporary - despite being more than 100 years old. So a disappointment last night.

[Tony Halstead]

I wonder if they’d played it many times together before tonight’s performance, considering the Atlantic separates them. A stunning young persons’ performance of the Rite was the NYO of GB a few years ago which clearly benefitted by having several public performances before their Prom.

hmmm....conducted by who?

[jonfan]

hmmm....conducted by who?

Thomas Ades I think.

[Nevilevelis]

There are so many nutters around in this country right now it could have been about any number of things.

Quite! I think Sarah Connolly said recently on Twitter that some nutters protested against Handel's Messiah at a local festival! WTF!? I'm not suggesting that was what was going on here, and we may never know, unless an eyewitness comes forward.

[Stanfordian]

I think that's a little unfair....As I said above, I already heard the last part twice, and it is a supreme, intense, wonderful performance in fine sound.....
Maybe listen again, if your time allows.....?

It really is one of those that sounds better the more you hear of it (but I thought this from the first tutti really...)...

(Please, people, don't be too hard on the guy who cried out.... with the original moaning sounds, it reminded me of some cerebral palsy sufferers I've encountered, including one or two in concert halls. It did not sound completely wilful. Go easy now.)

(BTW - Those woods & fields were lovely in the dusk....!)

Of all the soloists I have heard over the years I have probably heard Ehnes the most (about 7 or 8 times) and he has generally been the dullest. I tend to avoid him now.

I've been attending concerts for fifty years and reporting from concerts for over 15 years and the violin performances that have stuck in the mind have been from Henning Kraggerud, Nikolaj Znaider, Lisa Batiashvili and Pinchas Zukerman. Of course much is down to my own personal taste.

[Bryn]

Thomas Ades I think.

That 2017, not "a few years ago".

[Mal]

Is that a result of it now being so much a part of many concert programmes and no longer the thrilling revolution it once was?

Depends on the performance. I've listened to Stravinsky/Columbia several times and it never fails to thrill!

[Flay]

Forgive my slight diversion, but the first version that I ever heard of the Rite was Bernstein's - played repeatedly as a young teenager.

If you look at him on YouTube , at about 11mins 55 secs in the Ritual of the Rival Tribes, between sections 58 and 59 on the score he makes an emphatic rallentando like a mini-climax for the horns (da da da daaaaa). Nobody else seems to do this (for example 17mins 50 on Bryn's video above, 10.55 for Adès), and in last night's performance.

Looking at the score, until that point the bars are 2/4, 3/4, 4/4. But for this phrase it is 3/2, a time signature rarely used in the score.

So is Bernstein correct and are the others wrong? I do hope so, because that's how it's imprinted in my brain.

[Flay]

And 18mins 40 into his youth orchestra rehearsal here:

https://youtu.be/5Kyso5VmZ6g

[Bryn]

And 18mins 40 into his youth orchestra rehearsal here:

https://youtu.be/5Kyso5VmZ6g

10' 42" in the composer's own 1961 recording:

Many conductors show little regard for what Stravinsky actually wrote, in terms of where and when to make tempo changes, and that very much includes Boulez. It's an old bugbear of mine.

[Barbirollians]

To my ears Ehnes has a lot in common with Joshua Bell . Technically immaculate emotionally cold.

[jayne lee wilson]

To my ears Ehnes has a lot in common with Joshua Bell . Technically immaculate emotionally cold.

But did you hear this Britten? It was very, very involving... I've heard most of it twice, and would be happy to do so again...

[pastoralguy]

To my ears Ehnes has a lot in common with Joshua Bell . Technically immaculate emotionally cold.

Oh no, imho! Ehnes is quite superb!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh no, imho! Ehnes is quite superb!

[hmvman]

But did you hear this Britten? It was very, very involving... I've heard most of it twice, and would be happy to do so again...

Agree wholeheartedly with you, Jayne. Maybe a coolness of tone is just right for this work.

Lovely, detailed sound quality too - I listened on headphones.