Prom 10 (7.08.21) - Nicola Benedetti and the NYOGB

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 7 August 2021 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Laura Jurd: Chant London première
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor
Jessie Montgomery: Banner UK première
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, 'Eroica'

Nicola Benedetti violin
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
Jonathon Heyward conductor

Rising star Jonathon Heyward conducts the talented teenagers of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in one of the all-time symphonic greats. Propelling the symphony into the Romantic age, Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ is a celebration of scope and drama, a musical depiction of heroism that surges with pioneering spirit. Nicola Benedetti is the soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with its song-like slow movement – a work whose sardonic wit is balanced by a new lyricism that would come to dominate the composer’s later works. The Prom also includes a new NYOGB commission by British composer, jazz trumpeter and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Laura Jurd.

[kernelbogey]

Wondering whether I want to listen to another performance of the incomparable Eroica conducted by someone unknown to me.... Possibly unadventurous of me, but I can't listen to it too frequently.

[Serial_Apologist]

Looking forward to Nicola's take on Prokofiev 2; biding my thoughts on Laura Jurd's entrée to the hallowed portals until we hear her contribution: Laura has a mixed reputation on the Jazz Bored, being as she is a bit "as-and-when".

[jayne lee wilson]

Wondering whether I want to listen to another performance of the incomparable Eroica conducted by someone unknown to me.... Possibly unadventurous of me, but I can't listen to it too frequently.

Conductor's site here....

https://jonathonheyward.com

I guess with a Youth Orchestra howsoever achieved (and presumably with annual personnel changes), it all depends on how far they can get inside the music with their conductor, to enable anything individually memorable to emerge from a familiar classical masterpiece...

I've sometimes felt in past Proms, that these concerts are more for the performers (& friends & families, if they have them) than the listeners....
I'll probably try Part One, and see how it goes....but I missed my Woodland Walk yesterday, (scrambling into position before that marvellous Pergolesi/Stravinsky, mug of soup in hand, just in time) and really need one today....!

Montgomery note....

https://content.thespco.org/music/concert-library/composition/banner-jessie-montgomery

Laura Jurd site...

https://www.laurajurd.com

[Joseph K]

Thoughts on the Jurd piece?

I thought it was ok actually. Some aspects reminded me quite a bit of Julian Anderson, the modal wind heterophonies. Some of the percussion writing was a bit clichéd. But otherwise rhythmically not uninteresting.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thoughts on the Jurd piece?

I thought it was ok actually. Some aspects reminded me quite a bit of Julian Anderson, the modal wind heterophonies. Some of the percussion writing was a bit clichéd. But otherwise rhythmically not uninteresting.

I didn’t care for it much tbh. The orchestra authorities have got a habit of commissioning pieces from younger composers (nothing wrong with that of course ) but sometimes I wish they would something that really shows off what they can do - by an expert orchestrator. I remember over the last few years a piece by Anna Meredith which had them clapping , a piece by Tansy Davis where half the choir sang Somer Is I-Comen In and now tonight we had them playing the Kazoos. It all strikes me like buying a Ferrari and then using it to do the shopping at Aldi. There’s nothing wrong with the pieces , they are very efficient ice- breakers but I would like them to hear them do something more substantial.

[Joseph K]

I didn’t care for it much tbh. The orchestra authorities have got a habit of commissioning pieces from younger composers (nothing wrong with that of course ) but sometimes I wish they would something that really shows off what they can do - by an expert orchestrator. I remember over the last few years a piece by Anna Meredith which had them clapping , a piece by Tansy Davis where half the choir sang Somer Is I-Comen In and now tonight we had them playing the Kazoos. It all strikes me like buying a Ferrari and then using it to do the shopping at Aldi. There’s nothing wrong with the pieces , they are very efficient ice- breakers but I would like them to hear them do something more substantial.

You're not wrong.

One of my thoughts were I could write a piece of a similar quality as this!

I guess it was ok for a young student of composition.

[Ein Heldenleben]

You're not wrong.

One of my thoughts were I could write a piece of a similar quality as this!

I guess it was ok for a young student of composition.

I don’t want to come across as an old fogey as I am really enjoying the Prom and Nicola Benedetti’s superb playing and the band’s.

Another case in point : The piece is in the second half Banner by Jessie Montgomery I’ve heard it before and I like it .But it’s for strings only and I think brass and winds should get a look in ! * It doesn’t push the boundaries much musically . if memory serves its very Brittenesque - some of the writing reminded me of A Time There Was. But leaving the brass in the bar - dangerous . Well it would be if they were old enough.

* correction the version I heard was for string orchestra. There is also a version with string quartet and a selection of brass and wind, percussion players which I guess we are hearing tonight !

[jayne lee wilson]

The NYO could do with commissioning a series of Concertos for Orchestra, from composers, young and promising, or older and more achieved....
I liked the Jurd as a concert overture, but felt that its rapid give and take and colour-shifting would work better in a much smaller, drier space....

That daily cat-managing problem dragged me away from the Prokofiev...so I took off for a quick dash to the woods and back after that, pinned down by the weather all day. Its good to have someone to blame isn't it?

Up for part two though.....its precisely because I don't know what's coming that makes something like an Eroica interesting...as long as they can get "beyond the notes"....

[jayne lee wilson]

Great fun, Banner, even if its Amercian derivations are obvious......and I didn't expect a Wind Machine....!

[jayne lee wilson]

My word, how wonderful was that?!
"Beyond the notes" did I say? That stunning Beethoven Eroica went way beyond my expectations......!

More soon.....need some recovery time.....
NYO/HEYWARD:

[jayne lee wilson]

Beethoven 3/NYO/Jonathon Heyward. R3sounds AAC320kbps Live (revisited later).

The first movement was lean, clean and very quick, with light, minimal-vibrato strings, great unanimity and sharp attack, impressive dynamic extremes from threshold-of-audibility to a terrific development-section climax and coda. Heyward (who has quite a future before him, I’m quite sure) kept an eagle’s-eye on the structure, placed the climaxes and led away from them unerringly. A performance in a single breath.
The funeral march, wonderfully played and shaped through its two developments, showed that those vibrato-lite strings could be very eloquent too, with finely graded phrase and colour as the theme breaks up towards the end; very powerful climaxes here again, and some eloquent wind playing projecting well out into the hall.
(Engineering was excellent, following those so-soft vanishing-point string pps into the deep, hushed spaces unflinchingly; climaxes were tremendous: clean, sharp and open, with a great impact in my room).

A nice lift and schwung into the scherzo, light on its feet but punchy (climaxes carefully judged, less overwhelming than the first two movements); then the finale just took off at great pace to reach a thrilling conclusion. Perhaps some slight signs of fatigue in quieter passages through the finale, woodwind details a shade less focussed - no wonder, attaining the pinnacle of a performance like this. But you could sense Heyward taking control again, urging his players to gather, keep their grip, their drive and dynamism: the performance made, here, in the moment.

If I’d switched on in medias res, innocent-eared, during the first two movements, I’d have taken this for some crack, experienced, largish Chamber Orchestra, with a HIPPs-aware dynamo on the podium, who had told their players, "Beethoven Live, Beethoven Lives! Lets just go for it!"
This 60-strong NYO really were that good tonight.

[oddoneout]

Perhaps I was just too tired but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy that Eroica at all, too mannered. I switched off just after the final movement started and went early to bed instead.
So, two ends of the spectrum of opinion, I wonder how others found it.

[kernelbogey]

I was disappointed* - but should signal that I was listening via a poor sound source (don't ask), so perhaps my perceptions were clouded by that. There was for me a lack of energy in the first two movements. It seemed to take off with the third movement, but again in iv I believe I heard some ensemble difficulties, though the latter half of this movement had great schwung, to use Jayne's word. The horns were terrific, and there were some lovely woodwind solos.

Andrew mentioned in his post-performance remarks that the band was only 60 strong (as opposed to the 160ish of the time of his own membershp) and I wondered whether this smaller ensemble struggled with the necessity to observe social distancing - or had the other works stolen the best of rehearsal time?

*Edit: I was disappointed in the Eroica: I did not hear the first half.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Can I put in a word for the Prokofiev ? I think Nicola Benedetti played it quite superbly. I think she is just getting better and better . She is also with the leadership she has shown during lockdown turning into a figure of national stature if that doesn’t sound too pompous which she clearly isn’t.
The commentator said it was reduced forces for last night because of social distancing - there are now two distinct orchestras with the second performing this week ( in Lancaster?) . That must require a great deal of organising so , despite my minor reservations over some of the commissions , the management deserve many thanks and congrats for keeping the show in the road .
I’ll listen to the Eroica on the telly tonight .