Proms on Afternoon Concert 1 (20.07.20): BBC NOW - Prokofiev/Qigang Chen/Rachmaninov

[bluestateprommer]

"A new series of great Proms concerts from recent years by BBC orchestras and choirs, launched by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra.

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 in D major (Classical Symphony)
Qigang Chen: Iris Dévoilée (London premiere)
with Meng Meng, Anu Komsi and Piia Komsi (sopranos), Jia Li (pipa), Jing Chang (zheng) and Nan Wang (erhu)
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2 in E minor
BBC NOW
Conductor: Xian Zhang

George Benjamin: Ringed by the Flat Horizon
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by the composer

Throughout the 2020 Proms season Afternoon Concert celebrates top music-making at Summer Festivals, with four weeks of concerts from 2019 summer festivals across Europe and four weeks of great Proms performances from recent years by the BBC Orchestras and Choirs. This week features all six BBC-associated orchestras including the Ulster Orchestra, plus the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus; the BBC National Chorus of Wales will feature in two weeks' time. The series will also celebrate the 60th birthdays in 2020 of two great British composers, George Benjamin and Mark-Anthony Turnage, and highlight some of the best Proms premieres from James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie in 1990 to the present day.

To launch the series today Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang makes her Proms debut in a hyper-Romantic 2015 concert featuring two Russian blockbusters and a gorgeous recent work by her compatriot Qigang Chen. Plus George Benjamin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the piece whose 1980 Proms premiere catapulted him to fame, and film favourites from a 2011 Prom by the BBC Concert Orchestra and their then Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart - who feature throughout this week."

R3 programme link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000l1m8

From BBC Proms 2015, Prom 15, 29 July 2015

Past R3 Forum thread: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...nov-(29-07-15)

[bluestateprommer]

These Afternoon Concert revisits to old Proms don't seem to get a whole lot of attention or love here, although admittedly some of the choices are perhaps not I would have offered, for one. That aside, I revisited this 2015 Prom at home, through computer speakers at home now rather than work headphones at the time. My impressions of both the Prokofiev opener and the Rachmaninov closer haven't changed appreciably from then, except perhaps for realizing that maybe most of the nips and tucks that XZ had alluded to back then must have been in the finale of Rach 2. What I also caught much more this time was the echoes in the Qigang Chen work of Messiaen's Turangalila, in sound world, in less OTT manner compared to the original. That's actually meant as a compliment.

It's also clever to include here George Benjamin's Ringed by the Flat Horizon from his 2008 Prom, since GB was also a composition pupil of Messiaen. Nice touch also to have Sir GB on the air for Fiona T. to interview.