Prom 23 (20.08.21) - Rameau's operas/Mozart's Requiem

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Friday 20 August 2021
Royal Albert Hall

Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie – Bruit de tonnerre and Ritornello
Rameau: Dardanus – Tambourins I & II
Rameau: Castor et Pollux – ‘Tristes apprêts’
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphony No. 2 in D major
Rameau: Dardanus – ‘Lieux funestes’
Rameau: Platée – Orage
Rameau: Les Indes galantes - Suites d’orchestre: Entrée les Sauvages: III. Chaconne (à deux clavecins)
Mozart: Requiem (compl. Sussmayr)

Samantha Clarke, soprano
Claudia Huckle, contralto
Nick Pritchard, tenor
William Thomas, bass
National Youth Chamber Choir
Britten Sinfonia
David Bates, conductor

‘Didn’t I tell you that I composed the Requiem for myself?’ Mozart may (or may not) have spoken those words on his death bed, but his choral masterpiece, the Requiem, commissioned by a mysterious cloaked figure, certainly offers a transfiguring experience. Written in the last month of Mozart’s life, it contrasts the fear of death with radiant hope and balances dark drama with sublime simplicity. It’s sung tonight by a cast of rising-star soloists, joined by some of the UK’s most talented young voices, the National Youth Chamber Choir. As a prelude, the concert’s first half includes a short symphony by Mozart’s contemporary Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges – the first composer of African ancestry to make waves in Europe – and a selection of dances arias and storm-evocations drawn from operas by Jean-Philippe Rameau, the leading music-dramatist of this day.

[jayne lee wilson]

As a longtime Rameau addict (but one who finds whole operas just too much for the ears now, despite a shelf-full), this is rare and excellent programming (many concerts have been thought-through this season with meticulous care).... and a finely-balanced sequence....

I started collecting the Bruggen Suites long ago, taping off of R3 before I even had a CD player... great to see Tristes Apprêts in there, one of the most swoonsome arias ever...

It turns out that the Chevalier de Saint-Georges' "Symphony No.2 in D Major" is the (rebadged) overture in typical fast-slow-fast style to the opera L’AMANT ANONYME....
He was of course a star-virtuoso violinist at the time (composer of at least 14 concertos and symphonies concertante, from which Mozart learned much) and an accomplished conductor who commissioned and gave the premieres of Haydn's Paris Symphonies, and much else...

I adore Mozart of course...hardly a week goes by, etc.....but no-one needs me to enthuse about the legendary, richly-storied Requiem....!

[jayne lee wilson]

What a fabulous Prom this is…. I love the strikingly spacious setting for the small ensemble tonight on the live webstream, RAH-air-and-ambience vividly around them, distinct from the much more immediate presentation of the SCO or the Mancs Collective.

Performances - glorious.
I always prefer the colours and textures of baroque instruments in this rep, but the Britten Sinfonia are stylish, idiomatic, quick and agile. (Are they using period brasses tonight? Or just cleverly making them sound that way!).
Perhaps the good-work-in-the-style-of-the-period Chevalier suffered a little in juxtaposition with my beloved Rameau, but of course his best work is found in the concertante works. Exciting finale to "Symphony No.2" though!

The superb Chaconne from Indes Galantes was played at great speed, with magnificent flair and brilliance. Gleefully thrown off. Perfect end to Part One (which omitted the listed Entrée des Sauvages, for some reason…)

Like so many of the Radio Shows in this marvellous season, Petroc’s presentation is the very model of informative restraint, with an enthusiastic lift in his voice.

[bluestateprommer]

Good first half of "Mystery Prom #1" (not sure of the several minutes' delay at the start, and Petroc is clearly the soul of discretion when it comes to explaining), with Britten Sinfonia in fine form and the sound effects department getting a good work out. I confess that I didn't warm to Samantha Clarke's voice, but that's a matter of personal taste. Joseph de Boulogne's work has been making the rounds around classical music-world quite a bit in the past 18 months, it seems (e.g. one of the LPO's RFH light-show video concerts), and The Proms joins that roster, with a nice, spruce performance here. Very fine discussion now during the interval.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very good interval feature on the Mozart Requiem I thought .

[Ein Heldenleben]

Good first half of "Mystery Prom #1" (not sure of the several minutes' delay at the start, and Petroc is clearly the soul of discretion when it comes to explaining), with Britten Sinfonia in fine form and the sound effects department getting a good work out. I confess that I didn't warm to Samantha Clarke's voice, but that's a matter of personal taste. Joseph de Boulogne's work has been making the rounds around classical music-world quite a bit in the past 18 months, it seems (e.g. one of the LPO's RFH light-show video concerts), and The Proms joins that roster, with a nice, spruce performance here. Very fine discussion now during the interval.

Apologies- missed the last line . I have a self imposed ban on any more Mozart books but after this feature I am tempted.

[DracoM]

Interval discussion as the one thing worth tuning in for....

......sorry...but pretty bog standard Moz Req.

[bluestateprommer]

Fine, spic-and-span reading of the Mozart / Sussmayer Requiem in the 2nd half of this Prom, very much in the HIPP vein. Any personal reservations on Samantha Clarke from the 1st half went away with the 2nd half, as I thought that her voice suited Mozart / Sussmayer much, much better. The whole team of soloists was very good. The National Youth Chamber Choir were clearly enthused about singing this performance.

The only blemish came from the several instances of premature applause after several movements, where I lost count after about 3. After the one "Amen" close about halfway through, the smattering of applause there was actually kind of understandable. However, it palled by the nth interruption. However again, I do have to remind myself that maybe for quite a few in the audience, this might have been their first-ever Mozart / Sussmayer Requiem, or maybe even their first Prom. And there are much more important things to get worked up about now, to be sure. In the end, it's a small price to pay for a live audience at the RAH, who did sound genuinely enthusiastic in their applause at the end.

It was interesting to hear Petroc remark that the audience looked the largest that he'd seen so far for this summer's Proms, which includes the First Night, where he was in the presenter's box then.

[edashtav]

I tuned in for the second part and the Mozart Requiem. The Britten Sinfonia enlivened the work with their lively playing including some marvellous work by the horns*.The quartet of soloists were very various in their tonal qualities, making blend rather difficult, I felt. I admired the singing of the bass, William Clarke, most, but I was disappointed by the contributions of soprano, Samantha Clarke and tenor, Nick Pritchard. The National Youth Chamber Choir gained in unity and attack as the work progressed. The choir’s enthusiasm and joy was infectious.

Not a great performance but it was good to hear the old, standard Sussmayr edition given a thorough dusting down by a HIPP hoover. David Bates had some good, fresh interpretative ideas which, had greater rehearsal time been available, might have produced a fine performance. Overall, I came away with the thought: ‘work in progress’.

* see posts that follow.

[jonfan]

Just catching up and enjoying after reading the enthusiastic postings above. Great moments featuring the bassoon in the first half.
I presume Ed your reference to ‘horns’ means ‘basset horns’.

[edashtav]

Just catching up and enjoying after reading the enthusiastic postings above. Great moments featuring the bassoon in the first half.
I presume Ed your reference to ‘horns’ means ‘basset horns’.

I’m on the horns of a dilemma, Jon.!
No, I didn’t mean the basset hounds but I heard something gruffly coarse, natural and undomesticated. As you clearly know, and I didn’t, there are no natural horns used in Mozart’s Requiem. Them damn gruffaloes (pl.?) must have been horse trumpets!

[jayne lee wilson]

MOZART K626. NY CHAMBER CHOIR/BRITTEN SINFONIA/BATES. R3AAC Live.

The Mozart Requiem went very well, the orchestra again light, quick, but very flexible and powerful into climaxes; the National Youth Chamber Choir of 30+ were articulate and very dynamic; on the live web stream (and Sounds again later) the balance of soloists, orchestra and choir against each other was very spacious with good depth and excellent clarity, and the HIPPS-inflected brasses were a relishably idiomatic touch. I thought the soloists were tonally well-matched, and sang well, the bass the pick of them.

If at times a little loose-limbed, there was a sense of freshness and discovery about this performance; if this did not disguise the unfinished impression the work often leaves, (which some more cogent and intense readings (eg Currentzis) can almost overcome), this youthfulness-unto-death offered an appealingly paradoxical compulsion.
The performance grew in stature as it progressed, with expressively contrasted dynamic and tonal character from the Offertorium to the Agnus Dei, after a touchingly tender, very soft and quietly devastating lacrimosa; crescendoing its intensities through the final Lux Aeterna and Requiem Aeternam.(**)

***
On a second visit, intending merely to dip in, I found the lightness, transparency and quickened rhythmic life drew me on to the end (despite some occasional loss of tautness or focus), and surely the best test of any performance is how you feel about it second time around.

Some may have found it simply not intense or tragic enough, but the sound of relatively modest forces performing with a wide dynamic range in a large acoustical space is an effect I’ve always loved; there was an exquisite classical uplift to this reading, in this venue.

(**)
(But my favourite Lux Aeterna will always be Ligeti on the Moon…)

[Constantbee]

Half way through the Proms season and on the home stretch now. It's been a great season, I can't fault the programming. To have a mystery tour of a prom like this popping up out of nowhere is quite a treat. Can barely string a sentence together in appreciation, I'm afraid, as I'm working all the hours god sends just to stand still, so I'm grateful to all our eloquent fellow forumites who manage to provide such wonderful personalised reviews

Did think New Generation Artist William Thomas' voice shone in the Mozart. Terrific bass voice for one so young - 23. Very much look forward to hearing more from him.

[edashtav]

Half way through the Proms season and on the home stretch now. It's been a great season, I can't fault the programming. To have a mystery tour of a prom like this popping up out of nowhere is quite a treat. Can barely string a sentence together in appreciation, I'm afraid, as I'm working all the hours god sends just to stand still, so I'm grateful to all our eloquent fellow forumites who manage to provide such wonderful personalised reviews

Did think New Generation Artist William Thomas' voice shone in the Mozart. Terrific bass voice for one so young - 23. Very much look forward to hearing more from him.

I agree with you re William Thomas’ marvellous voice. He had a commanding presence last evening.

[jayne lee wilson]

I agree with you re William Thomas’ marvellous voice. He had a commanding presence last evening.

Ed...."two bassett horns, two bassett hounds..." do you know the poem? Couldn't find it via google just now & I've forgotten which poet...I bet Padraig would know...