Prom 17: Brahms’s A German Requiem (28.08.22)

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 28-07-22, 15:37

An open mind needed for this one, I think.

**Ein Heldenleben** · 28-07-22, 18:36

Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post

An open mind needed for this one, I think.

I’m trying Alpie and failing..

**oddoneout** · 28-07-22, 19:20

I'm not the intended audience for the first half so perhaps I shouldn't comment...I had the radio on from 7-40 and I can't say that I was listening with any great attention - more just to find out what it sounded like - and the overall impression, music-wise was of rather a lot of cut and paste bits of a certain person's musicals.
However the audience was very enthusiastic, partly I imagine the friends and family effect but also because the subject matter was of more interest and more familiar? As I say, I'm not the target audience.

**Ein Heldenleben** · 29-07-22, 08:55

Originally posted by oddoneout View Post

I'm not the intended audience for the first half so perhaps I shouldn't comment...I had the radio on from 7-40 and I can't say that I was listening with any great attention - more just to find out what it sounded like - and the overall impression, music-wise was of rather a lot of cut and paste bits of a certain person's musicals.
However the audience was very enthusiastic, partly I imagine the friends and family effect but also because the subject matter was of more interest and more familiar? As I say, I'm not the target audience.

Well it’s not aimed at someone who’s likes classical music enough to make 6,000 plus comments on the art form who is it aimed at? Comment away I say. The one thing I would hate as a composer is being ignored. If they’re throwing tomatoes at you at least you’re alive.
I sort of enjoyed it even though I burst out laughing a couple of times. A lot of the music underneath was , as you say , fairly harmonically conventional and nicely orchestrated. The frustrating thing was , in a work where the text is so important , that a lot of it wasn’t clear. It would have been good if the text had been on the R3 site. The composer’s extraordinary performance is obviously key to the success of this piece which reminded me a bit of Alan Clayton’s deranged cabaret Frankenstein- one of the musical highlights of lockdown. But as with the Clayton piece- and a lot of performance art - it’s so reliant on finding a performer who can undertake the role and carry it off. I wonder if anyone other than the composer has the time and dedication to do it ?

The German Requiem performance was really rather good but I had one eye on the T20…

**Lento** · 29-07-22, 11:21

Enjoyed the Requiem, but did it really need to be that slow? Gave up on the Walsh.

**Master Jacques** · 29-07-22, 11:46

Originally posted by Lento View Post

Gave up on the Walsh.

For somebody who is an adept self-publicist, Walshe's squib seems to have attracted surprisingly few reviews, either last night or after its Irish and Scottish premieres in 2018 and 2019. The general feeling in Glasgow was that she was "having a laugh", though given press indifference some of that seems to have rebounded upon herself. Quite how dressing up jejune political and sociological declamations in banal musical cliches interests anyone except the artist herself remains ... well, unclear. She will doubtless say that the whole shemozzle is a disruptive exercise in post-modern irony (and where's my cheque?)

**Ein Heldenleben** · 29-07-22, 11:54

Originally posted by Master Jacques View Post

For somebody who is an adept self-publicist, Walshe's squib seems to have attracted surprisingly few reviews, either last night or after its Irish and Scottish premieres in 2018 and 2019. The general feeling in Glasgow was that she was "having a laugh", though given press indifference some of that seems to have rebounded upon herself. Quite how dressing up jejune political and sociological declamations in banal musical cliches interests anyone except the artist herself remains ... well, unclear. She will doubtless say that the whole shemozzle is a disruptive exercise in post-modern irony (and where's my cheque?)

Don’t knock post -modern irony - I see she’s now a Professor of Composition at Oxford University. I can’t comment on the words as I couldn’t make enough of them out. I see she has created “a completely fictional history of avant-garde music and art in Ireland.” What’s that when it’s at home?

**Master Jacques** · 29-07-22, 12:18

Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post

Don’t knock post -modern irony - I see she’s now a Professor of Composition at Oxford University.

Ha! Sure this doesn't apply to her, but in 2017 there were at least three Professors of Music in high-profile UK university posts who couldn't read music. Strange, but true. One of them was Simon Frith, holder of the Tovey (!) Chair at Edinburgh, now retired and an OBE.

**kernelbogey** · 29-07-22, 12:48

Originally posted by Master Jacques View Post

Ha! Sure this doesn't apply to her, but in 2017 there were at least three Professors of Music in high-profile UK university posts who couldn't read music.

Does Liz Truss know about this?

**oddoneout** · 29-07-22, 14:40

Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post

Don’t knock post -modern irony - I see she’s now a Professor of Composition at Oxford University. I can’t comment on the words as I couldn’t make enough of them out. I see she has created “a completely fictional history of avant-garde music and art in Ireland.” What’s that when it’s at home?

She didn't like the real version so invented one for herself? That's better I suppose than just making it up as a way of avoiding doing the legwork for a real history*. Shakespeare and PM come to mind.

* Although it isn't I would have thought a dauntingly large body of work?

**bluestateprommer** · 14-10-22, 17:48

Originally posted by Master Jacques View Post

For somebody who is an adept self-publicist, Walshe's squib seems to have attracted surprisingly few reviews, either last night or after its Irish and Scottish premieres in 2018 and 2019.....

Well, here are some reviews of this Prom:
1. The Grauniad, Andrew Clements: https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ennifer-walshe
2. The Arts Desk, Boyd Tonkin: https://theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...-and-enjoyably
3. Opera Today, Mark Berry: https://operatoday.com/2022/07/prom-...investigation/
4. Bachtrack, Leighton Jones: https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-17...uiem-july-2022

This strikes me as about par for the course, for reviews of a given Prom.

I had no idea what to expect with Jennifer Walshe's work, as I didn't even know her name before. In the event, the music itself is fairly 'conservative', with various stylistic references to Beethoven and Haydn, among others, among the textural mash-up. While it is easy to mock the sentiments of her texts, better those sentiments than the "eat the planet, who cares?" mindset all too common on this side of the pond. The tenuous connection does seem to be reactions to death in various ways, especially in the final section of JW's work that cites Ray Kurzweil and the idea of trying to preserve or revive trace of someone after their passing.

Plus, there's nothing inherently wrong with self-publicity, as you can't expect anyone else to do that for you. If JW doesn't promote her own work, who will? (As well, would the reaction to this work have been different if the composer's name were Mauricio Kagel?)

I didn't have issues with Ilan Volkov's interpretation of Ein deutsches Requiem, as it struck me as quite warmly paced and flowing, very fine indeed. Speaking of Ilan V., it seems to me that the idea of pairing the Walshe and the Brahms must have originated with Ilan V. rather than David Pickard, as this type of programming has Ilan V.'s stamp all over it. He obviously sees some connection to merit putting the works together on one concert. He then leaves it to us to figure it out :) .

**Master Jacques** · 20-10-22, 15:01

Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post

Does Liz Truss know about this?

Ha! Such is her popularity in Scotland, our ex-PM is probably applying for the Tovey Chair, even as we speak.
Back to the Walshe squib....

Originally posted by Bluestateprommer

Well, here are some reviews of this Prom:
1. The Grauniad, Andrew Clements: https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ennifer-walshe
2. The Arts Desk, Boyd Tonkin: https://theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...-and-enjoyably
3. Opera Today, Mark Berry: https://operatoday.com/2022/07/prom-...investigation/
4. Bachtrack, Leighton Jones: https://bachtrack.com/review-prom-17...uiem-july-2022
This strikes me as about par for the course, for reviews of a given Prom.

Thank you for researching this one. A single national daily might have been less prestige than Walshe and the promoters hoped for, frankly, given the huge forces and expenditure involved in her jeu d'esprit. Perhaps the rest were merely avoiding the Brahms, but who knows?