Prom 50 (25.08.20) Ligeti, Mahler, Schoenberg, Strauss

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In this concert from the Proms archives, British conductor Jonathan Nott conducted the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in a programme framed by a pair of works famously used on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey – Ligeti’s nebulous Atmosphères and Strauss’s visionary Also sprach Zarathustra. Leading German baritone Matthias Goerner sings Mahler’s harrowing set of meditations on infant mortality. Premiered at the 1912 Proms by Henry Wood, Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces contain the composer’s first painterly experiments in shaping melodies based on instrumental colours, as opposed to pitches.

Ligeti: Atmosphères
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Schoenberg: Five Orchestral Pieces
R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Matthias Goerne (baritone)
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Jonathan Nott (conductor)


(From the BBC Proms 2009, 4 September)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My initial reaction to the BBC blurb was "Also Sprach = 2001 yet again". But we do get the Ligeti as well, so my lips are sealed.

[bluestateprommer]

My initial reaction to the BBC blurb was "Also Sprach = 2001 yet again". But we do get the Ligeti as well, so my lips are sealed.

Well, what's of greater concern here perhaps is that Tom Service is the 2020 presenter, book-ending Martin Handley's original 2009 presentation from the R3 box. With TS, you get kind of what you expect, with him involuntarily stepping on the ends of one or two responses from Roberto González-Monjas (prinicpal second violinist of the 2009 edition of the GMJO) and Alexander Meraviglia-Crivelli (GMJO Secretary General). Martin Handley does indulge in a tiny bit of gushing commentary at the end of the Strauss, though quite not to KM, SM-P or TS excess.

But the important thing here is the music-making, and it sounded splendid to me (another 1st listen for me to this particular 'blast from the past' Prom), with the 2009 edition of the GMJO on top form all throughout. For the Mahler, I'll admit that I'm generally used to Kindertotenlieder sung by a mezzo, a situation that MH noted. But when Matthias Goerne is the baritone here, no worries about a baritone voice in these songs. Well worth a listen.

[DracoM]

Ligeti was very fine.