Prom 10: Music for Royal Occasions (22.07.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Prom 10: Music for Royal Occasions
19:30 Friday 22 July 2022 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Arthur Bliss: ‘Jubilant’ Fanfare
George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’
William Walton: Coronation March ‘Orb and Sceptre’
Edward Elgar: O hearken thou, op. 64
William Harris: The Windsor Dances (arr. Jonathan Manners)
King Henry VIII: Pastime with good company
Benjamin Britten: Courtly Dances from ‘Gloriana’
Hubert Parry: Coronation Anthem ‘I Was Glad’
John Ireland: Epic March
Judith Weir: I love all beauteous things
William Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth
George Frideric Handel: Water Music, Suite No. 1 – Overture; II: Adagio e staccato; Air; Alla Hornpipe
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Silence and Music
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Your Servant, Elizabeth (BBC commission: world première)
Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 in G major

Live at the BBC Proms: Barry Wordsworth conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers in music linked with royalty, featuring works by Bliss, Britten and Byrd, through Handel, to Vaughan Williams, Elgar and several Masters of the Queen's Music. There's a brand new piece written specially for this event by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Happy and glorious: the story of British music is inextricably linked with royalty, and down the centuries composers ranging from Handel and Elgar to Walton, Parry and Vaughan Williams have risen to royal occasions with music of breath-taking pageantry, beauty and power. In the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers present a celebration of music and royalty in all its splendour: from the music of the Tudor court to Britten’s Coronation opera Gloriana, by way of Handel’s majestic Coronation Anthems, choral music by the current Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir, and a specially commissioned new work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

BBC Singers
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor Barry Wordsworth

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elgar gets two slots, but I would've liked his Coronation Ode to be given an outing in this jubilee year.

[Andrew Slater]

I think the Stanford Coronation Gloria has been dropped from the programme.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think the Stanford Coronation Gloria has been dropped from the programme.

Thank you. Amended accordingly.

[Keraulophone]

Elgar gets two slots, but I would've liked his Coronation Ode to be given an outing in this jubilee year.

What a glorious work that is, memorably recorded in HMQ’s Silver Jubilee year with massive forces in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge including the brass of RMS Kneller Hall [RIP] conducted by Philip Ledger. A recording to listen to when the neighbours are out.
.

[bluestateprommer]

Hearing the first half of this Prom, I thought of EA's comment in the Prom 2 thread about a given opening weekend concert of rather "bitty" works. That description quite fits the selections here, IMHO, although this is understandable, to try to sample a multitude of composers rather than just 1-3 composers. I thought that I heard a misfire on the brass entry of the reprise of the opening of Orb & Sceptre. Otherwise, the title of the one work "Pastime in Good Company" is quite appropriate for the overall spirit of this Prom. Not a mind-blower or something to pin one to the back of one's seat, but it's all good.

PS: Elgar's Coronation Ode featured on The First Night ten years back.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Enjoying this but strewth the soprano vibrato in I Was Glad takes some getting used to….

[ardcarp]

rather "bitty" works

Concerts of short pieces (bitty, if you like) are often difficult to make hang together. One tactic would be to group the items together in threes, and encourage applause after each group instead of after each item. I'm afraid I was underwhelmed by part 1. Is Barry Wordsworth the right conductor?* For instance Parry's I was Glad was hurried and lacked any pomp and dignity: and then there were the BBC Singers doing it. I thought they had improved of late, but they sounded totally inappropriate in this Prom performance. Wouldn't it have been a good idea to get the Vivats sung by a youth choir, for verisimilitude? The rendition must have been the shortest ever. Superficial IMHO.

*Wouldn't Andrew Davies have been more at home with the repertoire?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Enjoying this but strewth the soprano vibrato in I Was Glad takes some getting used to….

Oh, have the BBC Singers slipped back into their bad old ways? A pity, as they've been much better in the last couple of years.

Edit: I've just checked it out and it sounds truly dreadful. It sounds like a football team of Ronaldos all doing their own thing.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Oh, have the BBC Singers slipped back into their bad old ways? A pity, as they've been much better in the last couple of years.

Yes and as Ardcarp says it sounds so strange when you are used to boy trebles. Trouble is they are setting the tenors and basses off as well….

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes and as Ardcarp says it sounds so strange when you are used to boy trebles. Trouble is they are setting the tenors and basses off as well….

If they'd chosen a decent amateur choir, it would have sounded much better. Some members of The BBCS are wonderful singers, but as a group, they just don't gel.

[Nick Armstrong]

Enjoying this but strewth the soprano vibrato in I Was Glad takes some getting used to….

I listened to the Britten… but the Parry went off after about 5 bars of the singing starting

I've just checked it out and it sounds truly dreadful.

Quite

[Serial_Apologist]

I listened to the Britten… but the Parry went off after about 5 bars of the singing starting



Quite

Personally, I wasn't glad at all!

[ardcarp]

In general (and putting the Parry to one side) I thought Barry Wordswaorth was pushing the tempo in almost everything, never letting one phrase finish before hurrying to the next. Did he have a bus to catch? Surely Royal Ceremonial music, instrumental as well as choral,
deserves a certain dignified poise? The only thing I can think of was that this being one of the Proms destined for TV (on Sunday) he had to get a move on to keep within the time frame of the forthcoming programme. If so, not a very musically ethical decision.

[oddoneout]

If they'd chosen a decent amateur choir, it would have sounded much better. Some members of The BBCS are wonderful singers, but as a group, they just don't gel.

I was disappointed... However, I sang along - loudly - to the Parry which helped to offset the BBCS by drowning them out. I couldn't get a decent signal either FM (hissy fit but better balance of orchestra and singers) or digital ( poor balance and oddly muffled/deadened orchestra) which didn't help.
The wobble and unpleasant tone was straight out of the bad old days, and I really don't know why they are still allowed to get away with it, since more often than not in concerts I've listened to over the past year or so they have been so much better - in some cases a real pleasure to hear. Certain conductors seem to get good things from them especially in terms of rectifying the top line issues, so it's not as if they can't do it - so why do they slip back into what we heard yesterday?
They probably sounded better to those in the hall , just as well if you've paid to be there, but that's not really good enough as far as I'm concerned.