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

[Braunschlag]

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

Agreed - yet more tedious organ transcriptions.

[jayne lee wilson]

Agreed - yet more tedious organ transcriptions.

The Glass and Messiaen were both written for Organ...not transcriptions.... very beautiful they sounded tonight.

[ucanseetheend]

Tough for the orchestra with no Interval . Why ever is there not ?

[Braunschlag]

Maybe, but they sounded like poor arrangements. I’m an ex- organist
and played plenty of Messiaen, it all sounds the same, an awful lot of effort for very little gain.

[Braunschlag]

Mad Rush" was written in 1979 and is based on an earlier organ piece;

So therefore an arrangement…,

[jayne lee wilson]

Maybe, but they sounded like poor arrangements. I’m an ex- organist
and played plenty of Messiaen, it all sounds the same, an awful lot of effort for very little gain.

There's no accounting for taste!

[jayne lee wilson]

Mad Rush" was written in 1979 and is based on an earlier organ piece;

So therefore an arrangement…,

Lets ask Philip.....

https://philipglass.com/glassnotes/93641/

[Braunschlag]

And?

[jayne lee wilson]

Anyway, what an utterly apt and brilliant finale to the evening Samy Moussa's Globe Itself Infolding turned out to be....the sheer simplicity of the main ideas only enhanced its impact in the Great Hall, played and relayed with great power and clarity, releasing all the nervous energies we'd been building up through the evening's more contemplative passages....

Come back tomorrow for the next enthralling episode of Organ Finale Fireworks!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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

I'm glad there are still people who can spell the word, and not confuse it with the algorithm.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I'm glad there are still people who can spell the word, and not confuse it with the algorithm. :pinkeye:

You mean they should get with the program?

[jayne lee wilson]

Anyway (Part Two)......

Impressed and thrilled by the Moussa premiere, I wasn't always so happy with the orchestral sound tonight. The Missy Mazzoli piece sound orchestrally confused in busier passages, and hall atmospherics were loud tonight as well, so I wonder about tech/rehearsal difficulties in the setup for such a program.
Musically I wasn't sure the sequence worked terribly well; some of pieces seemed almost too slight to meaningfully contribute. But I wish I’d heard them without interruption as per Prom 22.

****
The Marsh-Birds of Rautavaara seemed to come from carefully-placed sources across and just behind the orchestra in the first movement, the ShoreLark(s) from either side; spacious and evocative. But the Cranes’ dense cries seemed a little lost in the swirling instrumental mists…..

Lifelong Nature-lover who grew up near the Wirral Coast, I was among the rock pools at an early age, or venturing out to the distant low-tide edge; the gulls, terns and waders were familiar friends.
But I'm too far from the Sea to roam there easily now, so I was bound to respond to the birdcalls tonight, because I always do. I loved the Arcticus the moment I first heard it, and it often finds a tearful response. Pity about the poor Cranes though, migrating through the low cloud…

[edashtav]

What a bran-tub of a programme with too much dross and too few goodies.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What a bran-tub of a programme with too much dross and too few goodies.

That sums it up for me too, but clearly some liked it. It was a bit like a live In Tune mixtape.

[oddoneout]

That sums it up for me too, but clearly some liked it. It was a bit like a live In Tune mixtape.

I did think that the middle items could have benefited from being played as a set, and possibly some of the other pieces run on without applause/comment. I missed the first part of the concert, which is annoying as I had wanted to hear what the Cantus articus sounds like live rather than carefully recorded.
Overall it falls into the "I heard it " category - glad I made the effort but nothing to stick in the memory or prompt follow-up for me. That isn't particularly a negative, as ever with this season it's a case of pleased that the Proms are happening at all, and subjectively the concerts have been of more interest and variety so I have listened (and more importantly perhaps, chosen to listen) to most of them, in contrast to recent years.