Prom 39 (4.09.21) - John Wilson Conducts the Sinfonia of London

[Alison]

“If Wilson has a fault it may be to equate charm with a kind of laziness”.

David Gutman, Classical Source, reviewing the Proms Korngold Symphony.

Must admit I don’t really understand this comment.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Is that a problem - there could still be a number of pages of puns to come........



Mrs CS strove mightily to influence parents to allow their children to carry on with string instrument rental and tuition at the end of the wider opportunities year (primary Year 4). Not sure how widespread it is but she found it very hard to get the parents from the Bangladeshi community to agree - although they were always polite, and many seemed as though they would like to agree. The mothers (largely it was mothers who would be sought out at children's collection time) would say they would have to ask their husband, and so it went on. It seemed the view the parents took, or received in their community, was that music was Haram - generally forbidden. One or two parents gave permission, but few children lasted the course. In general, children from the minority communities didn't get involved in after school activities and families tended not to come to school plays, music performances etc. This is all a general impression, I'm sure there is more that could be said - the end result, though, was as described.

I very much agree, music participation and instrumental skills need to be promoted to minority communities, to gain their acceptance and help them agree and support their children. Then we might see more minority group musicians coming through. Its rather simplistic, in the UK, to point to the profile of orchestral players. Is there data on the likely number of ethnic minority players with professional player skills as a proportion of that workforce? Data from double blind recruitment to orchestras might help.

Two further thoughts - organisations receiving arts council/government funds, also lottery funding will surely have to fulfil requirements on avoiding discrimination, with maintenance of records to inspect. Sinfonia of London probably doesn't set out to get bound up in the burden of such applications? Also, in looking at the issue of school education, the point needs to be made (as for education in general) that there are communities of the majority ethnicity who aren't aware of the benefits of instrumental playing, or do not approve or value it at all. Those communities are deprived of awareness, aspiration and financial resources with similar outcomes.

With music and instrumental tuition far from a curriculum requirement at primary level, headteachers with their jobs (hire/fire) on the line to achieve literacy and numeracy targets and now budgets burdened with the extra staff and equipment costs of the Pandemic, even an enlightened head will have made hard choices.

In fact, having worked hard to build up a thriving string playing school (which also helped children into their secondary years) a change of headteacher, and unconcerned governors, meant that music was sidelined - without being brave enough to state that the provision would be ending. After 18 months of campaigning every which way to maintain the music education ecology in the school, rather than preside over the intended and implemented decline into mediocrity (so it could eventually be abandoned) Mrs CS activated her well earned retirement. This shows the importance of inclusion of music and instrumental playing opportunities into the core curriculum. I suppose there are players who started playing instruments and engagement with playing at age 11, but surely many, many players made a start at a younger age?

Michael Gove is to thank for "giving the power to headteachers to decide what is taught in their schools" aside from the present core subjects. Not quite as disastrous or evident as Chris Grayling, but in his own way Gove left his own trail of negative outcomes.

A very interesting post which shows that an ounce of experience is worth several pounds of received opinion. The reasons why classical music is dominated by white middle class people might also be related to the real cost of getting a couple of children up to grade 8 in two instruments . They run to several thousand pounds . Yes there is free in school tuition but from what I’ve heard year on year this is being cut back.

[jayne lee wilson]

“If Wilson has a fault it may be to equate charm with a kind of laziness”.

David Gutman, Classical Source, reviewing the Proms Korngold Symphony.

Must admit I don’t really understand this comment.

As I said an odd and untypical review from DG...I think he meant that Wilson slows down but offers nothing more expressive as he does...ie. a lack of charm, expression of which is of course more about phrasing.

Sad too, that (and he's not alone in this) he dismisses the finale of the F Major Symphony. I find this a highly successful balance to the first three movements and quite splendid in its culmination. There's a parallel case with the Mahler 7th, that for years was dismissed as having a "rag-bag" of a finale but is now simply accepted, uproariously inventive finale included, for the amazingly original masterpiece it is.

It may simply be that critics and other listeners just don't know the Korngold Symphony well enough to take it into their hearts, to really feel and hear just how very aptly contrasted and tightly constructed the finale is - Korngold actually knew what he was doing!

Still, the Chandos/Wilson SACD (about which Richard Bratby was very enthusiastic, G.10/19) is absolutely stunning, sonically and musically. Wow!

[Barbirollians]

As I said an odd and untypical review from DG...I think he meant that Wilson slows down but offers nothing more expressive as he does...ie. a lack of charm, expression of which is of course more about phrasing.

Sad too, that (and he's not alone in this) he dismisses the finale of the F Major Symphony. I find this a highly successful balance to the first three movements and quite splendid in its culmination. There's a parallel case with the Mahler 7th, that for years was dismissed as having a "rag-bag" of a finale but is now simply accepted, uproariously inventive finale included, for the amazingly original masterpiece it is.

It may simply be that critics and other listeners just don't know the Korngold Symphony well enough to take it into their hearts, to really feel and hear just how very aptly contrasted and tightly constructed the finale is - Korngold actually knew what he was doing!

Still, the Chandos/Wilson SACD (about which Richard Bratby was very enthusiastic, G.10/19) is absolutely stunning, sonically and musically. Wow!

I have the Previn which I recall got a good press in the 1990s.

[mikealdren]

A very interesting post which shows that an ounce of experience is worth several pounds of received opinion. The reasons why classical music is dominated by white middle class people might also be related to the real cost of getting a couple of children up to grade 8 in two instruments . They run to several thousand pounds . Yes there is free in school tuition but from what I’ve heard year on year this is being cut back.

A matter very close to my heart. Mrs A is also an instrumental teacher (as are several other relatives).

A couple of years ago, I took part in the 50th anniversary of the Teesside Youth Orchestra (now the Tees Valley Youth Orchestra). I was enormously impressed by the current orchestra and discussed it with the conductor who told me that, yes they are good but it is now about the only youth orchestra left between Scotland and Leicester and its catchment area is far wider than the Tees Valley. Furthermore, a large portion of the members now come from private education. When I played in the orchestra we were all state school pupils and, with no means testing, we came from a wide variety of backgrounds although nobody was from a wealthy background, it was Teesside after all. We had no pupils from ethnic minorities either in those days, there simply weren't any in most schools. I had a great catch up with one of my contemporaries, who commented how sad it was that, with his background and such limited free music education, he would stand no chance of the career as an orchestral musician nowadays that he and other friends had enjoyed.

[jayne lee wilson]

I have the Previn which I recall got a good press in the 1990s.

"[Wilson's is].....one of the most athletic performances of this symphony on record, closer in spirit to Kempe than Previn, though considerably faster than either (even without Kempe's cuts.)"

RB says Wilson creates a sound that evokes the great USA Orchestras of the 50s, Chicago or Philadelphia, but that the Chandos sound has "a much mellower general ambience". And that "every phrase counts" in this recording, even at the scherzo's "dizzying speeds"....

[mikealdren]

Any view on the Welser-Möst CD version, it's the only version I know and I do like the piece.

[Dave Payn]

“If Wilson has a fault it may be to equate charm with a kind of laziness”.
David Gutman, Classical Source, reviewing the Proms Korngold Symphony.

Must admit I don’t really understand this comment.

Reading the review, I felt that comment was a post-script to his opinions about the Ravel, rather than the Korngold. Either way, I feel that the one word that simply doesn't apply to Wilson's approach to anything, is lazy - whatever one's opinions of the end results.

[Alison]

Reading the review, I felt that comment was a post-script to his opinions about the Ravel, rather than the Korngold. Either way, I feel that the one word that simply doesn't apply to Wilson's approach to anything, is lazy - whatever one's opinions of the end results.

Yes you may well be right about the Ravel. Completely agree with your main point, especially having just watched on TV. Extremely impressive direction and rare to see so many players looking at the conductor so often.

[ardcarp]

“If Wilson has a fault it may be to equate charm with a kind of laziness”.

David Gutman, Classical Source, reviewing the Proms Korngold Symphony.

Must admit I don’t really understand this comment.

I don't either. In fact it's absolute drivel. I was completely blown away by the sheer virtuosity needed to realise Korngold's score. And John Wilson was
amazing in his ablity to elicit such accuracy and commitment from the players. He is the sort of conductor I really admire (and envy) in his ability to have everyone at the tip of his baton. The fact that he doesn't indulge in exaggerated emotional gestures to get his results is surely the very opposite of 'laziness'.

For me the Berg songs were the highlight of this Prom. I was transfixed throughout (a) by the singer and (b) by Berg's harmonic language...impossible to pin down any tonal centres, but a glorious face of expressionism.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was transfixed throughout… by the singer

So was I, just now Being notoriously difficult about voices, it’s always wonderful to be surprised by one that sounds ‘just right’… Francesca Chiejina’s is just that, and how! What a glorious performance of glorious music!

[Lordgeous]

Totally agree about the singer, the music, the orchestra and John Wilson in the above comments. What a breath of fresh air he was when he first appeared at the Proms with 'The John Wilson Orchestra'. And apart from musical considerations think of the amount of work he has given to London musicians. He deserves noithing but praise. So talented.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Michael Gove is to thank for "giving the power to headteachers to decide what is taught in their schools" aside from the present core subjects. Not quite as disastrous or evident as Chris Grayling, but in his own way Gove left his own trail of negative outcomes.

Gove was the worst Education Secretary of all time, having done more damage to state education than anyone, before or since.

[mikealdren]

Gove was the worst Education Secretary of all time, having done more damage to state education than anyone, before or since.

You're right, he wasn't great but he has stiff competition for the 'worst of all time'.

[LHC]

You're right, he wasn't great but he has stiff competition for the 'worst of all time'.

Gavin Williamson has certainly been doing his best to take this particular award, and he is fast approaching Failing Grayling levels of extreme incompetence.