Prom 22 (19.08.21) - The BBC Singers & Shiva Feshareki

[Serial_Apologist]

What a bran-tub of contemporary composers !
Frankly, I’m uneasy with the mix.

Me too. I would much have preferred to hear the works separately, with introductions and background, rather than this ahistorical forced togetherness. Some of the music was frankly awful - I can't say what because I didn't know what I was listening to at given points, so it's no use asking me to say in what ways. I just don't see the point of this whole endeavour.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Damn, I missed that! Thanks for the reminder.

Bit of a pot-pourri - though confirming my view that Freddie di Tomasso is destined for great things . His Flower song in the second half the more- than- acceptable -face of vibrato (to try and stay on thread );

[jayne lee wilson]

Me too. I would much have preferred to hear the works separately, with introductions and background, rather than this ahistorical forced togetherness. Some of the music was frankly awful - I can't say what because I didn't know what I was listening to at given points, so it's no use asking me to say in what ways. I just don't see the point of this whole endeavour.

But the whole point was to create a meaningful sequence, with each work related to those coming before and after, and across the complete concert. This was evident in the titles from the start (and texts, if you sought them out) and just had to be listened to continuously to work as they were intended, or work at all.

But in fact it wasn't strictly necessary to know what each piece was as it appeared - the musical effect would still have been a very compelling one; the relations clear in the sounds themselves. If you wanted to follow it though, as I did, it was easy to do so with the program before you.
Spoken intros and interstitial applause really would have been creatively ruinous... destroying the sequential flow and the spell it created, the evocative atmosphere...

For me it worked wonderfully well...and I bet I'm not alone...

****
Ancient-and-Modern Choral/Vocal sequences have become something of a (widely-varied) mini-genre recently....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/in-umbra-mortis-daniel-reuss-cappella-amsterdam/kyrquj9r8p9gb

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/after-silence-voces8/c4mlmsqa2mpzb

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/baltikum-marcus-creed-swr-vokalensemble/bczritlk9ejsb

...to name only three of the most exquisite..... a genre I've become very fond of, often as an ambience, a Household God of Sound......

[kernelbogey]

Me too. I would much have preferred to hear the works separately, with introductions and background, rather than this ahistorical forced togetherness.

When at university I made a tape (reel-to-reel!) mixing Thelonius Monk and early Baroque music - I think quite a lot of Gabrielli, but I can't now remember what else: that ahstorical mix worked well, and we listened to it a lot.

[edashtav]

Me too. I would much have preferred to hear the works separately, with introductions and background, rather than this ahistorical forced togetherness. Some of the music was frankly awful - I can't say what because I didn't know what I was listening to at given points, so it's no use asking me to say in what ways. I just don't see the point of this whole endeavour.

Yes, some of the newer music was of poor quality and whilst the BBC Singers sang well, some of the ‘eclectic’ pieces were outside of the range of styles with which they were comfortable. One solo passage had a stratospheric range that extended one singer’s vocal cords beyond their elastic limit. Neither he nor this audience member was happy with the result. A Curate’s Egg of an Evening.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes, some of the newer music was of poor quality and whilst the BBC Singers sang well, some of the ‘eclectic’ pieces were outside of the range of styles with which they were comfortable. One solo passage had a stratospheric range that extended one singer’s vocal cords beyond their elastic limit. Neither he nor this audience member was happy with the result. A Curate’s Egg of an Evening.

I'm no fan of the artificial "mix", but this one was different. I only switched on to give the BBC Singers "another chance". Once caught up in it, I couldn't switch off. It's almost as though I entered a parallel universe. (Then the thought of those harsh, shouty, slightly flat tenors brings me back to reality.) Still a wonderful experience.

[jayne lee wilson]

I'm no fan of the artificial "mix", but this one was different. I only switched on to give the BBC Singers "another chance". Once caught up in it, I couldn't switch off. It's almost as though I entered a parallel universe. (Then the thought of those harsh, shouty, slightly flat tenors brings me back to reality.) Still a wonderful experience.

Wonderful to hear, EA!

Pretty much my experience too.... of course one heard the occasional vocal strain, but this was often new and unfamiliar repertoire in an adventurous, demanding live program, so it passed like a distant rumble, under an ethereal sky of yellow thunder-light ....

Then came Aetherworld.... the electric storm was upon us!