Prom 32 (11.08.20) Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony NYGB/Petrenko

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Messiaen’s ecstatic, Eastern-influenced celebration of love is framed by a BBC commission from American talent Nico Muhly and British composer Anna Meredith’s acclaimed tour de force of clapping, stamping, singing and body percussion, first performed earlier the same year by NYO members.

Varèse’s Tuning Up is a tongue-in-cheek parody based on the familiar orchestral strains usually heard on stage only before the conductor arrives.


Edgard Varèse: Tuning Up
Nico Muhly: Gait (BBC commission: London premiere)
Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony
Anna Meredith: HandsFree

Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot)
Joanna MacGregor (piano)
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
Vassily Petrenko (conductor)

(From BBC Proms 2012, 4 August)

[bluestateprommer]

Missed this Prom the 1st time around 8 years back, for whatever reason (actually, come to think of it, I might have been on my annual Santa Fe music vacation then), so it was nice to give this a listen. Admittedly, Turangalîla is far from my favorite piece, so I don't ever really need to hear it again as such, but the NYOGB played it very well indeed. The Nico Muhly work was much too long for its material, as others noted in the original thread, but again, the kids did what they could with it. Tuning Up made for a fun opener, as it well should.

I also saw where people thought it odd to add another work after the endurance test that is Turangalîla. Another way to look at it, however, is to regard the Anna Meredith work as a "built-in encore". Certainly, it was "Clapping Music" on mega-steroids, but as a communal experience, there's something to be said for that. And, yes, Petroc did speak a few minutes too early after the first part of HandsFree, but he made the same mistake that several thousand people in the RAH made that night, thinking that the piece was finished. I would have made the same mistake, most likely. So the brickbats in the earlier thread tossed at him were more than a bit much.

Nice touch to get one of the NYOGB players from that 2012 Prom, now on staff with the NYOGB (if I have it correct), to reminisce, 8 years on, along with a current NYOGB musician.

[edashtav]

Missed this Prom the 1st time around 8 years back, for whatever reason (actually, come to think of it, I might have been on my annual Santa Fe music vacation then), so it was nice to give this a listen. Admittedly, Turangalîla is far from my favorite piece, so I don't ever really need to hear it again as such, but the NYOGB played it very well indeed. The Nico Muhly work was much too long for its material, as others noted in the original thread, but again, the kids did what they could with it. Tuning Up made for a fun opener, as it well should.

I also saw where people thought it odd to add another work after the endurance test that is Turangalîla. Another way to look at it, however, is to regard the Anna Meredith work as a "built-in encore". Certainly, it was "Clapping Music" on mega-steroids, but as a communal experience, there's something to be said for that. And, yes, Petroc did speak a few minutes too early after the first part of HandsFree, but he made the same mistake that several thousand people in the RAH made that night, thinking that the piece was finished. I would have made the same mistake, most likely. So the brickbats in the earlier thread tossed at him were more than a bit much.

Nice touch to get one of the NYOGB players from that 2012 Prom, now on staff with the NYOGB (if I have it correct), to reminisce, 8 years on, along with a current NYOGB musician.

Well done, bsp: your comments are very fair.

Last time around, I listened and commented on the first half, so this time I concentrated on the Messaien and Meredith. Yes, full marks to bsp for declaring the latter to be Clapping Music on mega-steroids. Too long by half for this listener and ... many in the RAH. I must admit to having been conned, I thought the intervention of Petroc and the live audience had been 'through composed' in a moment of unexpected genius by Anna Meredith.

The Messaien was great fun and I agree with young Byrn when he recorded first time around that he heard worse efforts from professional orchestras. It is a 'period piece' and it's time that the NYOGB found another hairy Mammoth for their youngsters to explore.

[Keraulophone]

I was in the second row of prommers at Simon Rattle’s CBSO Turangalîla Prom (year?), right in front of Tristan Murail on the ondes Martenot, an experience I’ll never forget. It seemed like the classical music world’s equivalent of the pyramid stage at Glastonbury.