Prom 41 (6.09.21) - BBC Concert Orchestra & James McVinnie

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 6 September 2021
Royal Albert Hall

Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus Op.61 for orchestra & taped bird song
Judith Weir: Still, Glowing
Philip Glass: Mad Rush
Arvo Pärt: Festina Lente for string orchestra and harp
Johann Johannsson: Good Night Day
Messiaen: La Joie de la grâce from Livre du Saint Sacrement
Johann Johannsson: A Sparrow Alighted on Our Shoulder
Samy Moussa: A Globe Itself Infolding

James McVinnie (organ)
BBC Concert Orchestra
Anna-Maria Helsing (conductor)

James McVinnie is a chameleon among organists who has held titles at Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, yet also worked with Philip Glass and The National’s Bryce Dessner. In a Prom that explores the organ in a contemporary light, he navigates the time-warping oscillations of Philip Glass’s Minimalist Mad Rush, before giving the UK premiere of Samy Moussa’s A Globe Itself Infolding with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor Anna-Maria Helsing.

[jayne lee wilson]

Another very intriguing sequence so typical of this year's Proms, with familiar beauties from Rautavaara and Pärt amid the much less heard and a première. With a colour-shifting-sound-shifting organist to spice things up.

I love a program like this. You can sit back and let it flow, or home in and engage.....

The final week is 2021 in microcosm - tonight the novelty and innovation, tomorrow the big blockbuster, then an concentration-challenging sequence of classic-epics with the Mahler 5, Matthew Passion and the Goldbergs back to back......

What a line-up!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I love a programme like this. You can sit back and let it flow, or home in and engage.....

Well... yes, but sure that applies to any concert programme. In the end, it all comes down to personal preferences - whether you prefer it as background music or serious listening.

[oddoneout]

Well... yes, but sure that applies to any concert programme. In the end, it all comes down to personal preferences - whether you prefer it as background music or serious listening.

Or even a mix of the two... Which is how I will be absorbing this one I think.

[ucanseetheend]

Remember buying the Rautavarra and Part on Naxos many years ago ..lost them now

[jayne lee wilson]

Well... yes, but sure that applies to any concert programme. In the end, it all comes down to personal preferences - whether you prefer it as background music or serious listening.

It never applies to Bruckner in this listening room.....

A varied, eclectic, or diffuse sequence of shorter works (8 tonight...) always feels like a different type of listening even before it begins...the mind switches to a different frame & finds it easier to switch away or back.......
I at least approach such a design very differently from a substantial symphonic program. Instinctively.... auto-focus really.
But something like three successive Brandenburgs would demand attention....

The Rautavaara is a good one to try on a Cat..... they're especially drawn to the Shore Lark....

[ucanseetheend]

And great to hear the BBC Concert play this style of music

[Ein Heldenleben]

That Judith Weir piece was way better than the Rautavaara …and I shall be amazed if it’s not way better than Mr Glass..
And yet for some reason they have global reputations and she doesn’t

[Alison]

That Judith Weir piece was way better than the Rautavaara …and I shall be amazed if it’s not way better than Mr Glass..
And yet for some reason they have global reputations and she doesn’t

I felt a bit disappointed coming back to
the Cantus after a long break from it. Maybe the paint-by-numbers feel of the performance didn’t help.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I felt a bit disappointed coming back to
the Cantus after a long break from it. Maybe the paint-by-numbers feel of the performance didn’t help.

I’ve heard the Glass before . Even if I hadn’t heard it before I would still have heard it before but I really have heard it before. Judith Weir - national treasure status imv.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I’m in dire need of either
1) the harmony changing more than once every three bars
2) some counterpoint

[jayne lee wilson]

I’m in dire need of either
1) the harmony changing more than once every three bars
2) some counterpoint

...but that would be another program.....still, the Messiaen should salve your souls' need...

Shame Georgia Mann has to announce/back-announce between works without much time to do it...the spell is somewhat broken......... would be better to let the sequence play continuously, or with just occasional reminders....most listeners will have the program or access to it....

[Ein Heldenleben]

...but that would be another program.....

Shame Georgia Mann has to announce/back-announce between works without much time to do it...the spell is somewhat broken......... would be better to let the sequence play continuously, or with just occasional reminders....most listeners will have the program or access to it....

The blurb quoted by EA doesn’t make clear the thematic thrust of the Programme?

[jayne lee wilson]

The blurb quoted by EA doesn’t make clear the thematic thrust of the Programme?

You don't need one... or you may create one as you listen......a sequence of contemplations and evocations....
The BBC Singers & Shiva Feshareki created their own worlds without applause or announcement....

[Alison]

I needed an interval.