Prom 25: Shostakovich’s Last Symphony and a Concerto for Theremin (4.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Thursday 4 August 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Kale Aho: Eight Seasons (Concerto for Theremin and Chamber Orchestra) (London première)
Kaija Saariaho: Vista
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major

Carolina Eyck (theremin)
BBC Philharmonic
John Storgards (conductor)

Imagine pulling music out of thin air. Two living Finnish masters do just that today: Kaija Saariaho felt that ‘new music was flowing into my mind’ as she drove by night along the coast of California. Kalevi Aho, meanwhile, turned to the eight seasons of Lapland’s Sámi culture in his extraordinary concerto for the theremin. ‘The soloist is like a magician, a weaver of spells,’ he says – ‘producing music without touching the instrument at all.’ Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 inhabits a much darker world, but there’ll be mystery too, as well as humour, when John Storgårds conducts the enigmatic final symphony of one of the 20th century’s supreme musical chroniclers.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does anyone remember whether there was an early broadcast of the world premiere of Shostakovich 15? I was a student at the time, and I exercised a bit of obnoxious oneupmanship in an essay by referring to it in an assignment, a few days after hearing it on the radio. By the time of the western premiere, I'd already graduated, so I'm a little puzzled by the chronology.

[Petrushka]

Does anyone remember whether there was an early broadcast of the world premiere of Shostakovich 15? I was a student at the time, and I exercised a bit of obnoxious oneupmanship in an essay by referring to it in an assignment, a few days after hearing it on the radio. By the time of the western premiere, I'd already graduated, so I'm a little puzzled by the chronology.

The first performance of the Shostakovich Symphony No 15 was in Moscow on January 8 1972 with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich. A Soviet Radio recording of that performance was broadcast on Radio 3 on April 16 1972. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5e51b238...d4a2a74e023603

The UK premiere was on November 20 1972 with Maxim conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra and broadcast live on R3. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0...ilharmonia#top

I vividly remember listening to the UK premiere broadcast but, although I feel I must have done, I can't recall hearing the Moscow broadcast.

Would be interested if anyone has a recording of either of these.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The first performance of the Shostakovich Symphony No 15 was in Moscow on January 8 1972 with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maxim Shostakovich. A Soviet Radio recording of that performance was broadcast on Radio 3 on April 16 1972. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5e51b238...d4a2a74e023603

The UK premiere was on November 20 1972 with Maxim conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra and broadcast live on R3. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0...ilharmonia#top

I vividly remember listening to the UK premiere broadcast but, although I feel I must have done, I can't recall hearing the Moscow broadcast.

Would be interested if anyone has a recording of either of these.

Thank you for all of that. It explains how I was able to refer to it before the UK premiere.

[RichardB]

Kalevi Aho, surely.

[Nick Armstrong]

I hope the outbreak of bells towards the end of the DSCH slow movement wasn’t accelerated-onset tinnitus on my part…

If not, whatever happened? An urtext version of the symphony with obbligato tubular bells? An astonishingly loud mobile ringtone?

[DracoM]

Finnish music really captured me.

[King_Ouf_I]

I hope the outbreak of bells towards the end of the DSCH slow movement wasn’t accelerated-onset tinnitus on my part…

If not, whatever happened? An urtext version of the symphony with obbligato tubular bells? An astonishingly loud mobile ringtone?

It seemed from my seat to be coming from outside the hall, but inside the building.

[Pulcinella]

Five stars from The Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-philharmonic-john-storgards-review-the-theremin-isnt-just-weird-its-wonderful-at-this-prom-78mg8tg0p?shareToken=824f910e7db48c25793f7bc85e0e81b1

[Ein Heldenleben]

Five stars from The Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...3f7bc85e0e81b1

This doesn’t surprise me -the Shostakovich was exceptional .

[HighlandDougie]

It seemed from my seat to be coming from outside the hall, but inside the building.

Weird - listening to a recording - in excellent quality - it sounded like a rather horribly electronic clock chime (was it 9pm?). Among the best DSCH 15 performances I've heard - orchestra in stellar form.

[bluestateprommer]

More late-listening catch up just under the wire here. I vaguely recall hearing the earlier BBC Philharmonic relay of Kalevi Aho's Eight Seasons, with the same artists featured here. Its gently ear-tickling qualities revealed, or maybe re-revealed, themselves on this fresh listen, although it wasn't the clearest to me when each "season" ended. There is a recording on BIS, which I only just realized, so I can use those timings as guidelines if/when I should give it one more listen, granted that I have one last unlistened Prom to get to and at least one other re-listen in the very short time remaining on BBC Sounds. Given that KA wrote the work for Carolina Eyck, no surprise that she does excellent work here, along with her droll "demo" encore.

The placement of the Kaija Saariaho work at the start of the 2nd half reinforced the lopsided feel of this concert, although I guess that the orchestration of KS's Vista would have involved much less personnel comings and goings right before DSCH 15, rather than if the KS had been placed at the start. All that aside, John Storgards did provide a terrific interpretation of DSCH 15, with the BBC Philharmonic on solid form, as others have noted here. Hearing the "rogue chimes" was indeed odd, especially given how clear they were. I can't remember: were they on the hour, or close to it? That might have something to do with it (maybe a stray clock in the Elgar Room, or something like that).

Part of me now wonders, with Omer Meir Wellber apparently out of the picture with the BBC Philharmonic, if maybe the BBC Phil might appoint JS as its next chief conductor, as kind of a promotion from his current post as chief guest conductor. To be honest, I thought that the orchestra should have appointed JS earlier, to succeed Juanjo Mena, unless at the time, the BBC Phil thought that they needed to find a fresh face rather than an old hand as the orchestra's next chief conductor. There is the "disadvantage" of his age, in that JS is in his late 50's now. However, maybe the apparent flameout of OMW indicates that sometimes, an old hand is the better choice, especially if the old hand is of the caliber of John Storgards, and also as he seems to be fulfilling the role of the BBC Phil's de facto chief conductor now anyway.

[bluestateprommer]

Part of me now wonders, with Omer Meir Wellber apparently out of the picture with the BBC Philharmonic, if maybe the BBC Phil might appoint JS as its next chief conductor, as kind of a promotion from his current post as chief guest conductor. To be honest, I thought that the orchestra should have appointed JS earlier, to succeed Juanjo Mena, unless at the time, the BBC Phil thought that they needed to find a fresh face rather than an old hand as the orchestra's next chief conductor. There is the "disadvantage" of his age, in that JS is in his late 50's now. However, maybe the apparent flameout of OMW indicates that sometimes, an old hand is the better choice, especially if the old hand is of the caliber of John Storgards, and also as he seems to be fulfilling the role of the BBC Phil's de facto chief conductor now anyway.

Well, for once, I called it :) , and it looks as though they got it right this time. John Storgards is now officially chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic:

https://www.kdschmid.de/en/news/detail/news/john-storgaards-wird-zum-chief-conductor-des-bbc-philharmonic-ernannt/

His title on the ensemble's "About the Orchestra" page shows his title as chief conductor, so the appointment looks to be immediate and not down the line:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1jdlh7B05gZQ5Kqk93xl90/about-the-orchestra

I also saw the page on this recent studio concert by JS and the BBC Phil, of DSCH vocal music (with Jess Dandy) and Weinberg 12:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/exmp8g

Any idea if it will be broadcast at some point? This would be great to listen to on BBC Sounds.