Prom 43 (20.08.20) Sibelius/Tippett/Beethoven

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

BBC Proms: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is surely the apogee of the pastoral. Here it is prefaced by Sibelius’s late tone-poem, which he premiered in the USA, and Michael Tippett’s shimmering evocation of a Senegalese lakeside view. The last orchestral piece Tippett wrote, The Rose Lake was commissioned jointly by the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the composer’s 90th birthday.

As with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Tippett's piece is concerned with expressions of feeling rather than description. The late Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra give free reign to that feeling in this thrilling concert from the 2001 Proms.


Sibelius: The Oceanides, Op. 73
Tippett: The Rose Lake
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, ‘Pastoral’

London Symphony Orchestra
Colin Davis (conductor)

(From the BBC Proms 2001, 13 September)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Good to hear a "live" concert by Sir Colin once again.

[Petrushka]

I had the good fortune to be present at this concert and, indeed, found myself in St Paul's Cathedral the following morning for the Memorial Service for the victims of the 9/11 attacks just three days earlier. Unforgettable times and an unforgettable Prom, a typical Colin Davis sort of programme that I'll be glad to hear once more.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I had the good fortune to be present at this concert and, indeed, found myself in St Paul's Cathedral the following morning for the Memorial Service for the victims of the 9/11 attacks just three days earlier. Unforgettable times and an unforgettable Prom, a typical Colin Davis sort of programme that I'll be glad to hear once more.

You were so lucky to be there! That Pastoral was quite magnificent-with the final movt so radiant. Very interesting interview with the leader of the LSO second violins about Sir Colin also..

[bluestateprommer]

Very interesting interview with the leader of the LSO second violins about Sir Colin also..

Indeed, yes, and how well David Alberman characterized Sir Colin D.'s choice of few words, but the appropriate words, to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks that week. The horrific implication of DA's mention of the horn player with a brother who worked in the Twin Towers was that the hornist's brother died in the attacks. It was very poignant and touching to hear Sir Colin's voice at the very opening of the concert (with this concert another first-time listen for me, FWIW). One wonders if those words and the long tribute silence at the start somehow added to the weight of the sound and performance, and the emotion, of The Oceanides at the start.

This seems to be quite the year for Tippett's The Rose Lake on BBC R3, as I think that Sir Andrew Davis led a semi-recent and re-broadcast concert with the BBC SO that included it. Of course, Sir Colin and the LSO are the dedicatees of The Rose Lake, so they 'own' it in the way that the Concertgebouw Orchestra 'owns' Mahler or the Philadelphia Orchestra 'owns' Rachmaninoff. As expected (without having looked up the reviews in advance, for once), LvB 6 was an "old school", non-HIPPster performance, but that's all right. A very few tiny and fractional flubs, but very trivial in the grand scheme of things.

(It's also possible to see the choice of this Prom, besides the obvious ticking off of the Beethoven 6 box, as not just a lament for and tribute to the USA at the time, but as a lament for what the USA has since become, especially nearly 4 years back. But that's getting way off topic.)