Prom 14: Kazuki Yamada conducts the CBSO (25.07.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Monday 25 July 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila – overture
Ethel Smyth: Concerto for Violin and Horn
Sergey Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor



Elena Urioste (violin)
Ben Goldscheider (horn)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Kazuki Yamada

When it comes to conductors, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has a reputation for picking winners, and its new partnership with its Japanese-born Chief Conductor Designate Kazuki Yamada is already generating some serious electricity. ‘Yamada certainly doesn’t hold back,’ says The Guardian. Expect him to wear his heart very much on his sleeve in Rachmaninov’s huge, Romantic epic of a Second Symphony – and to bring all his sincerity and verve to the neglected (but equally impassioned) Concerto for Violin and Horn by BBC Proms-featured composer Ethel Smyth. Soloists Elena Urioste and Ben Goldscheider are a byword for communicative, imaginative playing: a night of big emotions and even bigger tunes, with Glinka’s firecracker overture to light the fuse.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Good to have more of Ethel Smyth, following on from The Wreckers on the previous day.

[jonfan]

The stand out item on the programme was the Smyth Concerto for Violin and Horn. It is a wonderful piece full of interest and boundary-pushing techniques for the horn player. The last movement cadenza is full of quirky bits for the soloists. Smyth is an original voice, silent for too long.
A moving Rachmaninov conducted with romantic expression, felt also in the Elgar encore taken at a very slow pace. I enjoyed the concert and best wishes to the CBSO for the future with KY!!

[Pulcinella]

The Smyth concerto (same violinist) features on a BBC MM CD, Volume 26 Number 2.
A 2015 Cardiff performance.

[cloughie]

The stand out item on the programme was the Smyth Concerto for Violin and Horn. It is a wonderful piece full of interest and boundary-pushing techniques for the horn player. The last movement cadenza is full of quirky bits for the soloists. Smyth is an original voice, silent for too long.
A moving Rachmaninov conducted with romantic expression, felt also in the Elgar encore taken at a very slow pace. I enjoyed the concert and best wishes to the CBSO for the future with KY!!

I agree with you about the Chanson de Nuit - played with real feeling - I caught that and the end of the Rach 2 on my way home from choir, and have duly downloaded the concert on Sounds for a further listen!

[Andrew]

Yes, this was a great Prom! The opening piece, Glinka's overture to Rusian & Lyudmila was SUPERB

[bluestateprommer]

Good to have more of Ethel Smyth, following on from The Wreckers on the previous day.

Indeed, a fine performance of Dame Ethel's "double concerto" from this Prom, from Elena U., Ben G., and friends. I'd not heard this work before, either the commercial Chandos recording or the BBC Music Magazine CD mentioned earlier. To be honest, the work didn't knock me out or insinuate itself in my head, on just the one hearing. Maybe I'll give it another listen later, given that this is already a late catch-up listen, from being about 3 weeks behind on missed Proms.

Cracking start with Glinka's classic overture to R&L, a piece that pretty much never fails. In Rachmaninov 2, Yamada-san lingered over the slow movement perhaps a bit too affectionately and spaciously, which led to one obvious horn clam. From his recorded conversation with Andrew McGregor, Yamada clearly loves the work, and again, with the lingering and stretching out, it showed. But the vibe seems good for his and the CBSO's future together. His comments prior to the Glinka to AMcG about his first time as a Prommer when he was a student were charming.