Prom 73 (11.09.20) Barbirolli, Tennstedt & Rozhdestvensky

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, D485
Halle Orchestra
Sir John Barbirolli, conductor

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’

Brighton Festival Chorus
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Jane Eaglen (soprano)
Kathleen Kuhlmann (mezzo-soprano)
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor)
John Tomlinson (bass)
Klaus Tennstedt (conductor)
Christopher Larkin (conductor)
(From BBC Proms 1991, 31 August)

Janacek: Taras Bulba
Bela Dekany (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor

BBC Proms: A fixture of almost every Proms season, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony received a celebrated performance at the 1991 festival by Klaus Tennstedt, at that time Conductor Laureate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tennstedt led the orchestra alongside choirs from London and Brighton in Beethoven’s great hymn to humanity, whose last movement features the composer’s profoundly optimistic vocal and choral setting of Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’.

Before we hear the Beethoven, Petroc Trelawny introduces a recording made at the BBC Proms on 9 August 1968, in which Sir John Barbirolli conducted the Halle Orchestra in Schubert's Fifth Symphony.
After the rousing performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, we've a chance to hear the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the BBC Proms in 1981 in a searing performance of Janacek's powerful and dramatic work, Taras Bulba.

[Petrushka]

It's always been a mystery to me why both BBC Legends and the LPO label ignored this performance of the Beethoven 9 as memory tells me it is better than those they issued. Nor has it ever been repeated as far as I know.

I was in attendance at this performance and have not heard it since so am tremendously looking forward to it.

Good to have belated representation from Barbirolli and Rozhdestvensky in this series of repeats but bizarre programming: who can take Janacek's Taras Bulba after being floored by a magnificent Beethoven 9?

[Ein Heldenleben]

The violin lines spun by Tennstedt and the LPO in that slow movement were absolutely extraordinary. The way he gets the band to hold a chord . He seems to have the command over agogics , rubato and dynamics a pianist would have . How does he do it ? What a performance ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The violin lines spun by Tennstedt and the LPO in that slow movement were absolutely extraordinary. The way he gets the band to hold a chord . He seems to have the command over agogics , rubato and dynamics a pianist would have . How does he do it ? What a performance ...

So true. It should really have been the work to end the “concert”.

[Ein Heldenleben]

So true. It should really have been the work to end the “concert”.

That performance has instantly etched itself in my mind . What a Master . Oh to have been there...

[bluestateprommer]

It's always been a mystery to me why both BBC Legends and the LPO label ignored this performance of the Beethoven 9 as memory tells me it is better than those they issued. Nor has it ever been repeated as far as I know.

I was in attendance at this performance and have not heard it since so am tremendously looking forward to it.

Good to have belated representation from Barbirolli and Rozhdestvensky in this series of repeats but bizarre programming: who can take Janacek's Taras Bulba after being floored by a magnificent Beethoven 9?

Well, I can , and I did. It actually worked out surprisingly well, perhaps a case of being able to compartmentalize the works or to pivot quickly. The whole sequence worked out fine.

It was very good to hear this 'old school' Beethoven 9, where the mental adjustment back to the old school of playing wasn't any sort of surprise or shock in the 1st, 2nd and 4th movements, since I pretty much knew that this was coming. The "shock" was the slow movement, even though I knew that it would be slower in that "old school" style, but it was a mental surprise to hear just how spacious indeed KT took it, a case of the HIPP movement subconsciously adjusting expectations over the past 20 years or so, it would seem.

[Bryn]

Well, I can , and I did. It actually worked out surprisingly well, perhaps a case of being able to compartmentalize the works or to pivot quickly. The whole sequence worked out fine.

It was very good to hear this 'old school' Beethoven 9, where the mental adjustment back to the old school of playing wasn't any sort of surprise or shock in the 1st, 3rd and 4th movements, since I pretty much knew that this was coming. The "shock" was the slow movement, even though I knew that it would be slower in that "old school" style, but it was a mental surprise to hear just how spacious indeed KT took it, a case of the HIPP movement subconsciously adjusting expectations over the past 20 years or so, it would seem.

For "1st, 3rd and 4th" read "1st, 2nd and 4th", eh: