Prom 16 (13.08.21) - Martyn Brabbins & the BBC Symphony Orchestra

[jayne lee wilson]

What an intriguing piece (from 1981, but receiving only its second performance tonight) by Payne, an extended, gorgeously scored meditation upon the Delian ethos; and a darker, mysterious paraphrase on the radiant, sometimes exultant, Summer Garden itself - beautiful, with more sombre surfaces, and as many shadowy secrets as evocative vistas emerging briefly into view, then fading slowly away.
I felt drawn in and didn't really want to leave so soon…

Payne said this was his acknowledgment of, and detachment from, his absorption of the Delius soundworld. So perhaps “Wake” could also be read as elegiac..

Do try to hear it again alongside, perhaps just after, the Delius work…a very rewarding listen indeed. Like walking through the same landscape in different weathers.

composer's note -

https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/8446/Springs-Shining-Wake--Anthony-Payne/

[jayne lee wilson]

"They who possess art and science have religion; they who do not possess them, need religion."
So Goethe said.....

Howsoever much art and science you possess in musical appreciation or anything else, and whatever your faith, the spiritual radiance of Brabbins and the BBCSO in their wonderful presentation of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony reminded us of why it has often been considered a quasi-religious work....

So I need some recovery time....and at least some of the Kitty-Committee are probably at the back door demanding sustenance....
So much to say......
More later perhaps.......or maybe I'll just fall asleep on the banks of the stream, wake up and dance in the rain, then offer prayers to Gaia and The Sun......

[edashtav]

What an intriguing piece (from 1981, but receiving only its second performance tonight) by Payne, an extended, gorgeously scored meditation upon the Delian ethos; and a darker, mysterious paraphrase on the radiant, sometimes exultant, Summer Garden itself - beautiful, with more sombre surfaces, and as many shadowy secrets as evocative vistas emerging briefly into view, then fading slowly away.
I felt drawn in and didn't really want to leave so soon…

Payne said this was his acknowledgment of, and detachment from, his absorption of the Delius soundworld. So perhaps “Wake” could also be read as elegiac..

Do try to hear it again alongside, perhaps just after, the Delius work…a very rewarding listen indeed. Like walking through the same landscape in different weathers.

composer's note -
https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/w...Anthony-Payne/

Thanks for publishing that link, Jayne: I had suspected that the work was written for Chamber Orchestra rather than the full band like the BBC SO. I felt underwhelmed by it this evening but would welcome hearing it in a small hall played by a crack Chamber Orchestra. It was subtle, private, fragile and elusive.

When Hans Richter brought Berlioz’s Nuits d’Été to the St James Hall, 140 years, he gave it a German name ‘Die Sommernäche”, had Gautier’s words translated into English, and distributed its six songs across a quartet of soloists who returned to sing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony in the second half! What sabotage but it all went down a treat!
Is it the first Orchestral Song Cycle?
Why is it so modestly scored?
Whatever, Berlioz sets Gautier’s at times morbid words with sensitivity for a small band and I thought it fitted into tonight’s programme very well. I recall wonderful performances by Bernadette Greevy and stupendous ones by Janet Baker. Sarah Connolly held sway excellently this evening and her diction and beauty of line impressed me greatly. Martin Brabbins clothed her lines supportively and the BBC SO played with great charm. Another fine performance.

I didn’t tune in for Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony because I don’t enjoy it but that’s my loss; the structure of tonight’s concert was wonderfully planned. Just compare it with Richter’s: the Berlioz, a performance of a new Piano Concerto by d’Albert and the Choral: how to reduce Berlioz’s piece to a mere Aperitif!

[jayne lee wilson]

You... you don't.....you - you...don't enjoy Beethoven's Pastoral?

(falls into dead faint clutching forehead....)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You... you don't.....you - you...don't enjoy Beethoven's Pastoral?

(falls into dead faint clutching forehead....)

We’re all different.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Love the work it or hate it last nights Pastoral was tremendous as a performance. It is just about my favourite symphony - I must have heard it literally hundreds of times and never tire of it.

[edashtav]

You... you don't.....you - you...don't enjoy Beethoven's Pastoral?

(falls into dead faint clutching forehead....)

Sorry, Jayne: don’t worry, I’m a Chemist and have Sal Volatile a.k.a Smelling Salts to hand.

Yes, I know Tom Service typified Nerds like me in 2014:

“This week, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, his Sixth. Well, it does what it says on the tin, doesn’t it? A sentimental romp through the Viennese countryside, a programmatic sideline to the central sweep of Beethoven’s development, a gentle counterpart to the fire and brimstone of the Fifth Symphony and the bacchanal of the Seventh.”

I see it down a slippery cul-de-sac towards ‘Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria’.

I’m not good with picturesque innocence and I was conditioned by my Dad’s 78 r.p.m collection. It contained only one Beethoven Symphony. Guess which!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Sorry, Jayne: don’t worry, I’m a Chemist and have Sal Volatile a.k.a Smelling Salts to hand.

Yes, I know Tom Service typified Nerds like me in 2014:

“This week, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, his Sixth. Well, it does what it says on the tin, doesn’t it? A sentimental romp through the Viennese countryside, a programmatic sideline to the central sweep of Beethoven’s development, a gentle counterpart to the fire and brimstone of the Fifth Symphony and the bacchanal of the Seventh.”

I see it down a slippery cul-de-sac towards ‘Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria’.

I’m not good with picturesque innocence and I was conditioned by my Dad’s 78 r.p.m collection. It contained only one Beethoven Symphony. Guess which!

In fact the development section of the first movement for example is one of the most revolutionary in symphonic history - an exploration of tonality against a constant repeated rhythm. Years ahead of its time…
The storm section - you almost have to wait till Wagner for another piece of tone painting of that quality . The handling of the orchestra - just the writing for the celli / basses absolutely masterly.
The coda of the finale - wonderful dynamic and harmonic pacing culminating in a series of suspensions of , as Jayne says , almost religious intensity . (And I’m not religious )
The Pastoral - the touch of the master on every page!

[jayne lee wilson]

BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO.6. BBCSO/BRABBINS. R3WEBSTREAM LIVE.
(Excellent sound...almost goes without saying this year...a pleasure in itself...)

Tonally alluring from the very start, the BBCSO and Brabbins (such a creative performer who seems to breathe new life into all he does) were lively but not too brisk; bright and fresh with transparent contrapuntal detail, playing as if, as Brabbins said of his own experience with the work, they had not been through it too often; the performance had a glow of musical thanksgiving about it, sounding like a voyage of love and discovery. It complemented the Payne work perfectly.

(I love the proto-minimalist double-development in the 1st movement; I think it is my favourite passage in the whole piece, apart from the head-bowed beatifics of the final coda.
More of an anti-development really. Remarkable music. It always compels my attention, howsoever often I hear it).

What lovely clarinet details at the first movement’s close.

The brook was swift but serene; I really did want forget the world and to fall asleep on the bank as the birds were calling, but the merry dances soon woke me up, with the woodwinds so very free and individual, the band so cheerfully gruff and impressively weighty - rather Klempererian in the symphonic context - the storm was aptly terrific but still a classical painterly one….as it were, figurative - not too wildly impressionist. Sharply defined and accented, not a colour-wash.
The finale, which I always think of as an earlier Heilige Dangesang, was full of Summer’s Shining light, the playing unforgettably, devotedly radiant and for me, cathartic of many ills.
A present from orchestra to conductor; and from them all, From the Heart, to all of us.

****
Deep in the Night, I returned to Anthony Payne’s Spring’s Shining Wake. Very, very taken with this piece, which at times sounds like an Englishing of Takemitsu.
With its subdued colours, it seems to belong to a genre I like to call “haunted pastoral”, a music you may find in say, the slow movements of David Matthews’ Symphonies (which I’m currently revisiting… ).
Payne has made some grand orchestral statements such as Time's Arrow, but perhaps the essence of his creator spiritus lies in the ensemble works like The Stones and Lonely Places Sing, often (as in (as in Spring’s Shining Wake) with a darker, unworldly, slow-moving and contemplative character.

[edashtav]

In fact the development section of the first movement for example is one of the most revolutionary in symphonic history - an exploration of tonality against a constant repeated rhythm. Years ahead of its time…
The storm section - you almost have to wait till Wagner for another piece of tone painting of that quality . The handling of the orchestra - just the writing for the celli / basses absolutely masterly.
The coda of the finale - wonderful dynamic and harmonic pacing culminating in a series of suspensions of , as Jayne says , almost religious intensity . (And I’m not religious )
The Pastoral - the touch of the master on every page!

It’s also relaxed and may outstay its welcome.
I hope I have time left to repent fir my sins.

[PhilipT]

The handling of the orchestra - just the writing for the celli / basses absolutely masterly.

What I noticed most - for the first time, I think - was that the finger movements of the basses did not always mimic those of the celli, as you see so often. They had a line of their own.

Sorry if I offend anyone, but I found the Payne practically content-free.

[jayne lee wilson]

What I noticed most - for the first time, I think - was that the finger movements of the basses did not always mimic those of the celli, as you see so often. They had a line of their own.

Sorry if I offend anyone, but I found the Payne practically content-free.

Have you tried playing it after the Delius In a Summer Garden...?
Highly recommended - very rewarding as each speaks to the other....

[Serial_Apologist]

How long does one have to wait to hear Proms on the iplayer? I'd very much like to hear the Payne.

[Bryn]

How long does one have to wait to hear Proms on the iplayer? I'd very much like to hear the Payne.

They usually get the edit up within a very few hours of the television broadcast. It should certainly be there by the morning after.

[oddoneout]

Have you tried playing it after the Delius In a Summer Garden...?
Highly recommended - very rewarding as each speaks to the other....

Whispering sweet nothings? Wouldn't help me I'm afraid Jayne as I'm not a Delius fan! The Payne will go into the "I've heard it" box.