Prom 8 (5.08.21) - Gražinytė-Tyla Conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

[Bryn]

I might change it to 2 - in fact I have done having checked the number and key against the Chandos recording

Still not in the Symphony No. 2 list linked to. though.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Still not in the Symphony No. 2 list linked to. though.

Ooh shall I have a go ? I think I’m on a wiki-roll….

[jayne lee wilson]

I found Part One rather heavy going..... militaristic side-drumming marches, alongside more lyrical or atmospheric episodes, whether English-Romantic or bittersweet....

First time for both here, and two substantial symphonies are never going to reveal their secrets on a single hearing. I wondered though, if there weren't a lack of contrast between them in a concert context, despite the stylistic divide. Perhaps MGT chose them for related reasons.....

Whilst hardly compelled, I found the continuous evolution through the 8 intricately tempo-indicated Gipps sections intriguing; might give the Chandos another go later.... ......but I guess I enjoyed that last Adès Waltzes movement best, with its post-Mahlerian-scherzo fade-out in wisps and whispers...

[Ein Heldenleben]

HAYDN: SYMPHONY 46

Yep that’s on the list - bit of a mare for horn players ? Maybe it doesn’t have any ?

[Bryn]

Watching the delayed BBC FOUR version of the Prom, now. Rather a lot of rather pained faces among the orchestra during this Adès thing.

[Alison]

Just joined BBC4 for second half. Mirga not really standing between music and listener. Delightful clean limbed playing. I think the orchestra has that much more character than, say, the BBC Philharmonic.
Maybe conducting does to come into it actually!

[gedsmk]

Watching the delayed BBC FOUR version of the Prom, now. Rather a lot of rather pained faces among the orchestra during this Adès thing.

Goodness me, I’d forgotten how selfish and stupid some people are that they must bellow “bravo” even before the serene final chord has died away.

[edashtav]

I found Part One rather heavy going..... militaristic side-drumming marches, alongside more lyrical or atmospheric episodes, whether English-Romantic or bittersweet....

First time for both here, and two substantial symphonies are never going to reveal their secrets on a single hearing. I wondered though, if there weren't a lack of contrast between them in a concert context, despite the stylistic divide. Perhaps MGT chose them for related reasons.....

Whilst hardly compelled, I found the continuous evolution through the 8 intricately tempo-indicated Gipps sections intriguing; might give the Chandos another go later.... ......but I guess I enjoyed that last Adès Waltzes movement best, with its post-Mahlerian-scherzo fade-out in wisps and whispers...

I agree re the first half. Ruth Gipps’ hectoring side-drums and her clipped, fat-free, rather grumpy music put me in mind of Havergal Brian.

The CBSO were in fine fettle and I thoroughly enjoyed their well-characterised performance of my Brahms symphony
I need to return to Adès mongrel symphony before commenting upon it.

[Bryn]

. . . I need to return to Adès mongrel symphony before commenting upon it.

You glutton for punishment.

[Westfield999]

Watched/listened on BBC4. The sound was SO bad I switched off half way through the Brahms, which is a shame because I thought there was a good performance happening. Is that box in the middle some sort of graphics equaliser? Or haven't the BBC got enough bandwidth to broadcast a quality sound on an HD channel with sound coming through a sound bar? I don't want to sound like a nerd, but it was a real disappointment

[jonfan]

I enjoyed all the symphonies tonight and the inspired programming from three centuries. Expressive solos from the wind but stand out for me was first horn Elspeth Dutch in the Gipps and Brahms. Any chance the Daily Express might sponsor the writing of a symphony again any time soon?

[edashtav]

You glutton for punishment.

My tombstone may read:

“He was addled by Adès”

[LMcD]

Hard to understand why it took 76 years for the Ruth Gipps to receive its first performance at the Proms.
I, too, was struck by the clean sound of the orchestra in the Brahms - I thought the 3rd movement in particular was beautifully played.

[jayne lee wilson]

The Brahms 3rd left an equivocal impression. The quality and character of this orchestra was clear, but the reading itself felt uncertain, a touch cautious, as if they had not played it together very often before.
Despite a good realisation of a Brahmsian orchestral sound, the inner parts and woodwind solos lacked some colour and presence; they were not completely inside the music, and some of MGT’s interpretive manoeuvres seemed over-obvious: the poco allegretto, so very slow and drawn out through some whisper-soft pianissimos. All a little too beautiful, perhaps; a little too discrete, symphonically speaking. Nor did the finale ever quite catch fire….so there was a general sense of a reading which hadn't quite matured; that lack of an eagle's-eye grasp of the whole subtle structure.

Not a terrible Brahms 3rd, far from it, but despite some admirable sonorities, a shade anonymous, something of a work-in-progress…(a telling comparison with the 4th from the BBCNOW and Ryan Bancroft a few days before - Bancroft knew exactly what he wanted, and realised his personal vision vividly with his faithful orchestral collaborators....)

The CBSO had sounded a deal livelier, more individual and more assured in the two far less familiar works matched together for the concert’s first half; but of course in Brahms, and especially given the fine, spacious and natural sound balancing on R3 AAC, there’s nowhere to hide.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I’m not sure scheduling three symphonies in a row really works - unless they are all of the very highest quality e.g. Mozart 38,39,40 or the Vaughan Williams 4,5,6 ( I think it was ) Prom some years back. Pitting two competent if ever so slightly uninspired works against one the giants of the repertoire is almost cruel . I heard most of the recent COTWs on Ruth Gipps and also Robert Simpson’s . I think his work is perhaps more deserving of an outing. Presumably the Ades is a reworking of material from the opera . I didn’t think the opera a success and I don’t think the material stood up as an orchestral experience. After those phenomenal early works he seems to have gone off the boil a bit. I’m not sure living in Los Angeles is a good choice creatively.