Prom 6: The Rite of Spring - 22.07.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 22 July 2019
Royal Albert Hall

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Metacosmos (UK première)
Benjamin Britten: Violin Concerto
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

James Ehnes (violin)
Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music and the Julliard School
Edward Gardner conductor

Earthy, pagan dances meet the Music of the Spheres in this concert of 20th- and 21st-century orchestral works. Stravinsky’s infamous ballet score The Rite of Spring pulses with rhythmic energy and urgency, while Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s luminous and intricately textured Metacosmos travels deep into space. At the centre of the programme is Britten’s elegiac Violin Concerto, written on the cusp of the Second World War. Violinist James Ehnes joins Edward Gardner and musicians from both London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Metacosmos is available on Youtube

[Darkbloom]

The opening piece sounds like Birtwistle-lite crossed with the Vangelis Blade Runner score.

[bluestateprommer]

AT's Metacosmos just finished. Bits of it sounded like Ligeti (as used in 2001: A Space Odyssey). I suppose that it's cut from the same cloth as the Zosha di Castri opener from the First Night, except that AT's is the more unified work in mood, IMHO. The RAH and Juilliard musicians did very, very well.

Gramophone write-up on AT here, for those interested:

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/contemporary-composer-anna-thorvaldsd%C3%B3ttir

[jayne lee wilson]

Spectral meets Spiritual in Minimalist space...... slowly shifting colour and texture, like mingling clouds of interstellar gases, in a beautiful opener by Thorvaldsdottir....

I love things which float and hover, slowly rise and fall....Metacosmos put me in mind of the more elemental creations of Anders Hillborg, like King Tide or Eleven Gates....

[Darkbloom]

What on earth was that yelling about?

[teamsaint]

What on earth was that yelling about?

Probably somebody driven to distraction by this performance .

[Ein Heldenleben]

I heard it as well after initially thinking it was out in the street..

[bluestateprommer]

What on earth was that yelling about?

No idea; presumably some guy off his meds, to be mildly sarcastic about it. It says something, though, that AFAICT, that vocal disruption didn't faze Ehnes, the orchestra, or Gardner. They kept calm and carried on. I've had the luck to hear Ehnes live several times, and he's always been great, so no surprise that he was fantastic here, as was the orchestra and Gardner. It was actually to hear this concerto after hearing BB's (and W.H. Auden's) Our Hunting Fathers from KC, Mark Padmore and the BBC SO on iPlayer just about 2 hours ago.

Hopefully that disrupter was escorted from the RAH post-haste. It actually kind of puts the "happy clappers" in perspective.

PS: Highly appropriate JSB encore from Ehnes, to calm the mood. All the more impressive that he is joining the young'uns in the 1st violins for Весна священная.)

PPS: Petroc is quite busy today, having done Breakfast this AM, then Cadogan Hall, and the Proms pre-concert presentation. Presumably he's in the hall currently as an audience member. Talk about dedication.

[Flay]

What on earth was that yelling about?

A great cry of lamentation perhaps? (To quote Skellers).

Shame, I was engrossed in the work's sadness, presumably for the forthcoming war.

[Darkbloom]

Whatever was the reason for the disruption, you have to give full credit to the stewards, the culprit sounded like he was promptly gaffed and slung out on to the street.

[Bryn]

Whatever was the reason for the disruption, you have to give full credit to the stewards, the culprit sounded like he was promptly gaffed and slung out on to the street.

Damn it! I was out collecting the final Living Stereo Box from the local Amazon Locker (exactly the same price as Presto Classical promotion - I had already ordered it from amazon.co.uk before I noticed it in the Presto list).

[jayne lee wilson]

Orchestral and soloistic beauty, flair and power in a fine rendition of the Britten Violin Concerto.
With such quality on offer it is a shame that they're playing that old thing again(**) in Part Two.... so I'm off to those bohemian woods and fields again while daylight allows....
(AAC webcast sound fine, good, natural soloist/orchestral balance).

...but something drew me back... - I just encored the whole cadenza and finale...such imaginative solo playing, Gardner a perfect accompanist, the "dancing" variation, so wonderfully contrasted among the anguish and yearning for release...

....Ehnes maintaining concentration and tonal focus through those strange sounds from the inner spaces of the RAH - a human wailing, a distortedly musical imitation of the solo line, then cries of defiance fading into the distance....
It became a part of the event - a response to the work and of the work. The long drawn out coda was breathtakingly played and breathlessly attended.

Stunning, compelling performance of a great violin concerto, so intensely referential of the Sinfonia da Requiem. Several seconds of reverential silence at the close, and no wonder.
Now I can go for my rural promenade...

(** ...In the Proms context of course. No disrespect to Stravinsky's masterpiece...)

[kernelbogey]

20:25 Interval Proms Plus Talk: In the first of a series of talks focusing on Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood, musicologist and broadcaster Hannah French explores his relationship with the Royal Academy of Music, in discussion with Professor Tim Jones from the Academy, and presenter Petroc Trelawny.

Hannah French is gabbling away, quite unlike other times I've heard her on radio 3 - so I assume anxiety - but it reminds me how these multi-person chats are so much less satisfying than the old Proms Interval Talks. Even with the volume turned right down I find her voice exhausting.

[Petrushka]

What on earth was that yelling about?

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