Prom 30 (27.08.21) - Charlotte Bray, Walton & Arnold

**mrbouffant** · 27-08-21, 06:55

Looking forward to being in the hall for this one tonight. How will the Arnold be approached? Will we get the depths as well as the "Hollywood" elements? Reminder of Charles Hazelwood's "Revisitation" of this symphony: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01znfqt
I think the ordering has changed with the Foulds and Bray swapping places. Makes sense I suppose to open with something light and frothy.

**gradus** · 27-08-21, 08:31

Originally posted by mrbouffant View Post

Looking forward to being in the hall for this one tonight. How will the Arnold be approached? Will we get the depths as well as the "Hollywood" elements? Reminder of Charles Hazelwood's "Revisitation" of this symphony: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01znfqt
I think the ordering has changed with the Foulds and Bray swapping places. Makes sense I suppose to open with something light and frothy.

I've only ever heard the Naxos recording of the fifth so look forward to the high wide and handsome sound of the symphony in the RAH, the finale should be quite something.

**teamsaint** · 27-08-21, 10:46

Originally posted by mrbouffant View Post

Looking forward to being in the hall for this one tonight. How will the Arnold be approached? Will we get the depths as well as the "Hollywood" elements? Reminder of Charles Hazelwood's "Revisitation" of this symphony: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01znfqt
I think the ordering has changed with the Foulds and Bray swapping places. Makes sense I suppose to open with something light and frothy.

Well you won't have much trouble if you want to social distance. Ticket sales look awful. I was hoping to get there tonight, but don't think I will make it now :(

Hope you enjoy it. The two main works are deserving of a much bigger audience.

Hope you have a great evening.

**jayne lee wilson** · 27-08-21, 13:04

Composer's note for Icebergs...

Where Icebergs Dance Away – Charlotte Bray

http://charlottebray.co.uk/works/orchestra/where-icebergs-dance-away/

Zaria Forman images & installations...

zaria forman - Google Search

https://www.google.com/search?q=zaria+forman&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=AOaemvJLy95xrcsBGVZLWqfHBxE-1p7Ghg:1630069498043&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwja846LotHyAhWRUMAKHVtkAsQQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1252&bih=706

**edashtav** · 27-08-21, 16:35

Originally posted by gradus View Post

I've only ever heard the Naxos recording of the fifth so look forward to the high wide and handsome sound of the symphony in the RAH, the finale should be quite something.

I heard the 5th live in Birmingham a few months ago in a convincing performance by the CBSO veey well shaped by its assistant conductor, Michael Seal. Was my appetite for tonight’s Prom revival whetted? It certainly was!

**bluestateprommer** · 27-08-21, 18:38

Originally posted by teamsaint View Post

Well you won't have much trouble if you want to social distance. Ticket sales look awful. I was hoping to get there tonight, but don't think I will make it now :(

Hope you enjoy it. The two main works are deserving of a much bigger audience.

Fun, very fine start to this Prom with the John Foulds "comedy overture" just now. Per ts' comment, the swathes of empty seats are an unfortunately perfect rebuttal to the types who say "why don't you programme more music like Malcolm Arnold at The Proms, instead of all that awful modern dissonant rubbish?". If I were David Pickard (though he would never say the following, of course), I'd toss back at them:

"Here's your all-British programme. It's all very audience-friendly music. Will you fill the entire Albert Hall?"

Evidently not.

PS: Excellent reading of the Walton Viola Concerto by Timothy Ridout just now, with the socially distanced BBC SO and Oramo with TR all the way. Plus a knockout of an encore from TR with the solo viola movement by Paul Hindemith from his op. 25, no. 1. Given how short the program is, I'd guessed that there was plenty of room for at least a solo encore. It might be too much to ask for an orchestral encore as well, though

.

**Alison** · 27-08-21, 19:57

Really fine playing in the Arnold, clean and plenty of attack. Music sounds glorious in the acoustic.

So moving in (ii). Wow.

Lovely to hear fine ovation.

BSP, maybe you need to programme the music at the Proms to start a revival.

Let’s have an Arnold cycle over successive seasons!

**bluestateprommer** · 27-08-21, 20:42

Originally posted by Alison View Post

Really fine playing in the Arnold, clean and plenty of attack. Music sounds glorious in the acoustic.

So moving in (ii). Wow.

Lovely to hear fine ovation.

BSP, maybe you need to programme the music at the Proms to start a revival.

Let’s have an Arnold cycle over successive seasons!

Indeed, an absolutely fantastic reading of Arnold 5 from SO and the BBC SO. If I've heard a recording of MA 5, it's been so long that I can't remember exactly, althought bit of it did sound familiar. Essentially, I was hearing the work fresh.

Likewise, extremely wise to move the Charlotte Bray, a good piece, to open the second half, as its meditative mood and style fit much better with the Arnold, rather than juxtaposing the Foulds right before the Arnold. It'll be interesting to hear her larger composition that will incorporate this work down the line.

I'm not sure how well it would go there to have an American as BBC Proms Controller/Director, but if Sir Clive Gillinson can run Carnegie Hall :) . Actually, if it were even remotely possible and I were offered the top Proms job, I would seriously consider taking it ;) .

**mrbouffant** · 27-08-21, 21:05

Such a shame the hall was so sparsely attended this evening!

That aside, the Arnold to my ear was good in parts. There are at least five recordings in the catalogue and I haven't heard a finer rendering of the second movement anywhere as that I had the pleasure to witness tonight.

Such a shame the first movement was marred by a surprising number of slips in the brass.

I see we get the Arnold Ruth Gipps variations at the Last Night. As an Arnoldphile, my cup runneth over this season!

**Simon B** · 27-08-21, 21:10

The BBCSO do seem to specialise in concerts that only 7 people, an assistance dog, some passing insects and sometimes I go to. Which then surprisingly often turn out to be rather good. So, on form tonight then.

I've heard a few tunes in my time. There are quite a few as good as the knockout one in Arnold 5. Not so many are any better or more moving though. All IMV obviously. Tin ear. All that.

Nobody needs reminding what a b*st*rd life is right now, but those final minutes, where the big tune is reprised and smashed... Cliche and pastiche perhaps, but of the highest calibre.

It's not often you see a trombone section vigorously applauding a score when the conductor holds it aloft, but it seemed pretty clear what they think of it...

**edashtav** · 27-08-21, 21:14

Much as I like John Foulds’ Cabaret Overture it isn’t more than a theatrical Flourish, or Curtain- Raiser

As bsp noted, Timothy Ridout was wonderful in the Walton Viola Concerto and the support offered by Sakari Oramo and his BBC SO was terrific : Sakari is brilliant, not only at identfying the emotional core of a movement, but also its dynamic climax. All that I wanted to give Timothy’s performance 5 stars was a little more ‘Pat Kop’ wiry edginess in the central scherzo. His tone is so rounded and mellow. Great choice of encore but Hindemith’s marking should have caused an outbreak of ‘Pat Kop’ on fire. Paul: you’re an English Gentleman, be prepared, occasionally, to live on the edge of the wild side. However, have I heard a better, live account of Willie Walton’s finest concerto? No!

Dinner stopped me hearing Part IIlive. I was delighted to hear Buckingham and Stowe’s finest clarinettist and Malcolm Arnold Biographer, Paul Harris, in the Concert’s Interval.

**mrbouffant** · 27-08-21, 21:19

I do wonder if the same score had Shostakovitch written on it and a tortured backstory of subversion during Stalinist oppression then it would be played worldwide and be considered a masterwork.

Arnold didn't help himself with the stark functionality of his programme notes or his capacity for peeing off the great and good in British classical music circles. These things have possibly continue to function as a barrier to wider adoption here in the UK.

We can but hope as time passes and new generations consider his output afresh via a rich catalogue of recordings, attitudes change to program a broader range of his works and more frequently.

**Serial_Apologist** · 27-08-21, 21:28

They can keep the Foulds. Apart from that work, wonderful wonderful, wonderful concert. I'd forgotten how conservative the Walton VC is - it doesn't reqlly entertain tougher territory until the fugal section in the finale. Did people find Timothy Ridout's viola tone a bit coarse? It suited the Hindemith encore, but came over rather heavy - on my equipment, anyway. Speaking of which, the engineers seem generally to be doing a better job with sound balance given the renowned hall acoustic than I've ever heard in all my years of listening to Proms; could this be down to the smaller audiences presenting less of an absorbent?

I agree with others on the placement of the Charlotte Bray - not having heard her music previously, if this was typical of her work I like it very much. The Arnold 5 was also new to me; I'm so bowled over I have no words to say... just, excellent. Yes, let's have one of his symphonies per year at the Proms: the only other one I know is the Sixth. Handley's closing remark to the effect that MA was England's Shostakovitch has a lot of truth in the comparison... and I rather think their politics might not have been so far apart as he suggested?

**Barbirollians** · 27-08-21, 21:33

I have always rather struggled with Arnold especially his First Symphony which I really dislike . Must give this a listen.

Prom 30 (27.08.21) - Charlotte Bray, Walton & Arnold

Prom 30 (27.08.21) - Charlotte Bray, Walton & Arnold

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