Prom 31 (28.08.21) - Bartók Roots

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 28 August 2021
Royal Albert Hall

Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
Béla Bartók: Suite No. 2

Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin
Folktone
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard conductor

In a memorable Prom in 2019, violinist Pekka Kuusisto took Sibelius’s Violin Concerto back to its roots in Finnish folk music. Now the dazzling, fearless Patricia Kopatchinskaja takes up the challenge, tracing the same evolution from traditional Hungarian songs and dances to Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard explore the rough-hewn rhythms and the lyrical melodies that unite Bartók’s Violin Concerto with the Magyar music that so fascinated the composer.

[Barbirollians]

Unless Pat Kop is planning a hatful of encores this looks like very short measure for a Prom.

[edashtav]

Unless Pat Kop is planning a hatful of encores this looks like very short measure for a Prom.

I don’t expect it to be one of the shorter Proms in this season: the two main works last 70 minutes, add 20 minutes for talk and folk pieces plus 30 minutes for an interval and you have an evening lasting 120 minutes.

[bluestateprommer]

Unless Pat Kop is planning a hatful of encores this looks like very short measure for a Prom.

If past BBC SSO concerts with the "deconstruction" aspect are any indication, then, if anything, the reverse will happen. That is to say: Pat Kop and Folktone will provide some selections of Hungarian folk music that somehow connect to Bartok VC2, as kind of pre-performance lecture-demonstration. (She still might toss in an encore as well.) Plus, this isn't any shorter on running time than the BBC SO / Oramo Prom yesterday, at least IMHO.

Also, Ilan Volkov is pinch-hitting for Thomas Dausgaard on the podium for this Prom, presumably because of travel restrictions that are keeping TD out. Since IV already conducted the BBC SSO earlier this week, it makes sense to engage him for one more Prom here, with TD off the roster.

[Alison]

Ms Molleson threatens to be unbearable tonight.

[jayne lee wilson]

Joined late after the match, trying to work out what's going on.....I guess bsp has it right.....

Never understand complaints about concert duration... quality not quantity, right?
No problem for me with Kate Molleson either, just great for me....but I always liked enthusiasm from the presenters, going back decades.... helps me feel more a part of it in the HCH......

OH! .... OK..... we just segued into the concerto..... or did we.....?

This so stunningly wild and free as to be beyond critique or compare.......
Was there something in the intro about the orchestral parts being recomposed? Memory out of its wits here....

There's a Robin joining in now..up among the mushrooms...?...oh wait a minute, that's in the garden.... but it is a perfect spiritual and sonic match......

[Bryn]

If past BBC SSO concerts with the "deconstruction" aspect are any indication, then, if anything, the reverse will happen. That is to say: Pat Kop and Folktone will provide some selections of Hungarian folk music that somehow connect to Bartok VC2, as kind of pre-performance lecture-demonstration. (She still might toss in an encore as well.) Plus, this isn't any shorter on running time than the BBC SO / Oramo Prom yesterday, at least IMHO.

Also, Ilan Volkov is pinch-hitting for Thomas Dausgaard on the podium for this Prom, presumably because of travel restrictions that are keeping TD out. Since IV already conducted the BBC SSO earlier this week, it makes sense to engage him for one more Prom here, with TD off the roster.

Decent chap is Ilan. A couple of days ago he offered up, via FB, his spare tickets, (two for each of the Proms he conducts this Prom season), to anyone who cared to respond.

[Bryn]

Hmm, much as I admire her playing, I could do without Pat Kop's foot-stomping percussion accompaniment to the Bartok. Aha, she's tuned up for those quarter-tones.

[jayne lee wilson]

Is that someone booing? Just can't take it can they? Fainthearts. But in a way the best of all honours....

If only we heard more live concertos played like this, so you really wouldn't know what to expect each time, at all.... soloists could truly become Mozart's representatives on Earth....

Should performances like this ever be recorded, or repeated? Seems contra-spiritualis-natura....
But - oh yes - I'll be taking the Bartok-Kop-Trip again in the owl hours....

[Bryn]

Wow, foot-stomping notwithstanding, that was an electric performance from all concerned. Even better than Pat Kop's commercial recording of the work. Such fine encores, too. Kicking myself for not finding some way to attend in the Arena.

[Alison]

In fairness no verbal diarrhoea from Katey. Effusiveness proportional to the occasion and standard of music making.

[Bryn]

In fairness no verbal diarrhoea from Katey. Effusiveness proportional to the occasion and standard of music making.

[Alison]

The BBC Scottish is truly the Bartok ensemble par excellence.

[Bryn]

This is not going to be such a short-measure prom in any way whatsoever. Just a little sorry that Ilan did not get his violin out to play with Pat Kop. Still, who knows, it's not over yet.

[Bryn]

Good to hear the tribute to Graham Taylor.