Prom 52 (27.08.20) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Petrenko

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

‘A composer’s music should express his love affairs, his religion, the books that have influenced him, the pictures he loves.’ So said Rachmaninov, whose Third Symphony does just that through irrepressible yearning and longing. It forms the culmination of this performance from the 2016 Proms archive, in which the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and its Russian Chief Conductor performed Shostakovich’s disquieting First Cello Concerto, joined by cellist Alexey Stadler. The concert opens with Liverpool-born Emily Howard’s Torus, inspired by the doughnut-shaped form of ‘the whole with a hole’.


Emily Howard: Torus (Concerto for Orchestra) (world premiere)
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3

Alexey Stadler (cello)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

(From the BBC Proms 2016, 8 September)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This concert appears to be another change of mind from the original schedule, which listed the Manchester Camarata/Boyd.

[cloughie]

This concert appears to be another change of mind from the original schedule, which listed the Manchester Camarata/Boyd.

They probably lost the tapes! RLPO Petrenko always a good listen!

[bluestateprommer]

This concert appears to be another change of mind from the original schedule, which listed the Manchester Camarata/Boyd.

Actually, I understand that August 27 will feature 2 Proms, with the RLPO as the 1st offering at 7:30 PM, and the Manchester Camerata/Douglas Boyd Prom as the "Late Night Prom" at 11 PM. (It's that way in the Forum Calendar .)

[bluestateprommer]

Gave this 2016 Prom relay a fresh listen, 4 years after being in the RAH in person for it, and I think that I might even have listened to this broadcast on iPlayer after I got back to the States. With Emily Howard's Torus, to be honest, 4 years ago, it didn't improve with age. However, it was nice to appreciate all over again Alexey Stadler's rescue act with DSCH's Cello Concerto No. 1, where my musical impressions from 4 years ago still stand.

It was also fascinating to re-learn just how down-to-the-wire the situation was. Some of those details came from Thelma Handy, RLPO leader, who was Andrew McGregor's live 'interval' guest for this broadcast. For example, she mentioned that while the musicians were traveling down from Liverpool to London that morning, none of the musicians knew about Truls Mork's cancellation, and only found out after they got to the RAH that TM was MIA, and they did not have word of a replacement soloist. The back-up plan in case of no replacement soloist was Elgar's In The South, whose orchestral parts happened to be on hand with the RLPO in the 'luggage'. Of course, in the nick of time, AS made it to the RAH, and all went well.

BTW, if you haven't heard this rebroadcast, including AM's talk with TH, mild spoiler alert on the joys of live radio: at one point, TH was off the line due to technical difficulties, and just as he was asking her about how the RLPO musicians were doing and coping during lockdown without work. Contact was restored, and AM made a plug for upcoming RLPO re-vamped concerts. Official notice on it here.

(Also, modest date slip from AM at the start, when he gave "August 8, 2016" as the date for this Prom. It was actually August 25. He was the pre-concert talk moderator at Imperial College Union that day; so, anyway....)

[DracoM]

Cracker. Edge, romance, searching detail.....VG perf.