Prom 27: NYOGB plays Elfman, Gershwin and Ravel (6.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Saturday 6 August 2022 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Danny Elfman: Wunderkammer (London première)
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (orch. Grofé)
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé


Simone Dinnerstein piano
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
Andrew Gourlay conductor

‘I think and feel in sounds,’ said Maurice Ravel. So, when he wrote his ballet Daphnis and Chloe, he created a sumptuous musical panorama in which you can hear every drop of dew, every flurry of birdsong and every ray of glittering light. Sounds thrilling? Now hear it performed by the ‘world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers’ – playing with an energy and joy that make even the Royal Albert Hall feel a bit on the small side. The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain’s annual Prom is always a highlight of the season, and tonight its 150-plus players are working on a cinematic scale: Simone Dinnerstein performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and there’s a spectacular, specially commissioned opener from Hollywood legend Danny Elfman.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

150 players or does that include the chorus?

[alywin]

I'd have thought just the players. Ask me again after tomorrow.

[Belgrove]

I'd have thought just the players. Ask me again after tomorrow.

A weird hybrid in the end. Sadly, it didn’t work. Sometimes the wordless chorus was there, mostly it was not.

[Pulcinella]

A weird hybrid in the end. Sadly, it didn’t work. Sometimes the wordless chorus was there, mostly it was not.

I missed the comment about the 'missing' chorus just before Daphnis started.
Were the bits we DID hear sung by orchestral players, as I think happened in the first half?

Agreed: a concert that didn't really work for me, either. But I hope that the young players all got something good out of it.

[Belgrove]

…
Were the bits we DID hear sung by orchestral players, as I think happened in the first half?

That’s correct. The orchestral playing was very fine.

[DracoM]

V.fine perf of Ravel

[gedsmk]

V.fine perf of Ravel

The flute section were the standout musicians in what was a very well played performance of the Ravel. It would have been better, given the absence of an actual choir, to do without the choral part. The Gershwin was rather uninteresting, the Elfman nothing special, the encore piece felt to me like an act of musical anarchy against Gershwin.

[smittims]

I was glad the NYO Prom was televised this year. It used to be an annual event but recently it's been dropped sometimes. I think they deserve the publicity this brings them as they are a national asset. I well recall their superb Shostakovitch 15th symphony in the 1970s when the work was very new ; if not the UK premiere it was close. The performance was quite as good as the world premiere conducted by the composer's son.

[kernelbogey]

I was glad the NYO Prom was televised this year. It used to be an annual event but recently it's been dropped sometimes. I think they deserve the publicity this brings them as they are a national asset. I well recall their superb Shostakovitch 15th symphony in the 1970s when the work was very new ; if not the UK premiere it was close. The performance was quite as good as the world premiere conducted by the composer's son.

I recall a brilliant performance of Turangalila (can't remember who was conducting - Mark Elder?): possibly this is 1980s....

The orchestral playing (6.8.22) was indeed brilliant: but it seems so difficult for European (i.e. non-American) players to get that jazz *swing* into their playing. (Not so much a criticism of NYO as a comment in general.)

[Alison]

I’ve never heard of the pianist and wasn’t that impressed.

[LHC]

I’ve never heard of the pianist and wasn’t that impressed.

As I recall, she released a self-financed recording of the Goldberg Variations a few years ago that was greeted by sections of the US press as the greatest thing since sliced bread (or since Glenn Gould at least), and which was recommended by such as Oprah Winfrey. She was then signed by Sony, and her concert career was launched on the back of her first recording.

The response from European reviewers and record buyers was somewhat less enthusiastic (perhaps being less persuaded by the 'American girl made good' story that accompanied the recording). I did hear the recording at the time, which I thought was tasteful but not particularly exciting or interesting.

I've not seen her since, but like you, wasn't particularly impressed by her performance here.

[gradus]

I enjoyed the orchestra's singing understandably absent from the more strenuous choral/orchestral passages and I thought they played with great feeling for the music. What a memorable experience for these young musicians.

[smittims]

Yes, this could be a whole new thread; how non-Viennese players can't quite get the lilt of a Strauss waltz, how non-Czechs can't quite get the lilt of a furiant (e.g. the third movement of Dvorak's 6th and 7th symphonies). I has to be bred in the bone. As for Jazz, I used to say Jazz is not so much 'a genre of music' as 'the music played by Jazz-man'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes, this could be a whole new thread; how non-Viennese players can't quite get the lilt of a Strauss waltz...

This does seem to be an issue. Under Karajan, the Vienna Philharmonic even gave Tchaikovsky waltzes a Viennese lilt!