Prom 31: Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Other Romantics (9.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Tuesday 9 August 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser – Overture & Venusberg Music
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs
Gustav Mahler: Blumine
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor

Louise Alder (soprano)
Ulster Orchestra
Daniele Rustioni (conductor)

There’s an ‘electric buzz in Belfast’, according to at least one critic, and the combined energy of the Ulster Orchestra and its dynamic Chief Conductor Daniele Rustioni illuminates everything they play together. Tonight, it’s all about Austro-German Romanticism at its most ardent: whether Schumann’s punchy but poetic Fourth Symphony, the dreams of a young Gustav Mahler, or Wagner’s thrillingly sensual opera of unleashed love, lust and creativity. Louise Alder is the soloist in Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and The Times called her ‘a terrific talent, combining a big, lustrous voice with flawless intonation and keen intelligence’. This young British star could have been born to sing Strauss’s lovely (and much-loved) final songs.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'll reserve judgement on the BBC blurb, but I'll definitely be tuning in for this concert.

[Prommer]

Yup! One to savour...

[Serial_Apologist]

I'll reserve judgement on the BBC blurb, but I'll definitely be tuning in for this concert.

"...and Other Romantics" - blumin' eck!

[Lordgeous]

Love the 4 last Songs but never heard a performance that I thought "the one". Schwarzkopf comes closest, partly through the wonderful orchestral accompaniment (suprising as its led by Szell). Many of my favourite singers disappoint. Is it that hard to "bring off"?

[bluestateprommer]

Fine start to this old-school Prom, with the programming very much in the "Classical for starters" vein. Kind of surprised that the BBC Proms on-line staff didn't think to classify this Prom under "Classical for starters". Interesting to hear from Louise Alder that this is about to be her first time singing the Vier letzte Lieder with full orchestra.

[Stanfordian]

Love the 4 last Songs but never heard a performance that I thought "the one". Schwarzkopf comes closest, partly through the wonderful orchestral accompaniment (suprising as its led by Szell). Many of my favourite singers disappoint. Is it that hard to "bring off"?

I'll surely enjoy the programme but I could give the Blumine a miss.

[bluestateprommer]

Love the 4 last Songs but never heard a performance that I thought "the one". Schwarzkopf comes closest, partly through the wonderful orchestral accompaniment (suprising as its led by Szell). Many of my favourite singers disappoint. Is it that hard to "bring off"?

Can't really speak to the difficulty of "bringing off" the Four Last Songs, but at least to my tin ear, Louise Alder did very well here. Her past experience singing the work with piano accompaniment obviously served her well, in terms of advance preparation.

[Prommer]

Fine start to this old-school Prom, with the programming very much in the "Classical for starters" vein. Kind of surprised that the BBC Proms on-line staff didn't think to classify this Prom under "Classical for starters". Interesting to hear from Louise Alder that this is about to be her first time singing the Vier letzte Lieder with full orchestra.

Classical for starters? Not really, just a iip-smacking programme!

[bluestateprommer]

Classical for starters? Not really, just a iip-smacking programme!

Well, it's perfectly possible to do both in a Proms concert :) , to program(me) repertoire and a concert that can appeal to both newbies and aficionados. This concert would seem to have threaded the needle nicely. DR's reading of Schumann 4 fits my idea of "old school", with a big, beefy sound from the Ulster Orchestra. Some nudges and pauses, as well as apparent foot-stamping and lung exhortations from the conductor. The audience sounded very appreciative, and one hopes that the hall was well filled (didn't think to check the RAH's page yesterday to eyeball the number of open seats for sale).

Placing "Blumine" between the Richard Strauss and the Robert Schumann proved an excellent idea, IMHO, to adjust the mood subtly for the rest of the concert, besides being of interest in of itself.

[richardfinegold]

Love the 4 last Songs but never heard a performance that I thought "the one". Schwarzkopf comes closest, partly through the wonderful orchestral accompaniment (suprising as its led by Szell). Many of my favourite singers disappoint. Is it that hard to "bring off"?

Felicity Lott with Neeme Jarvi and the RNSO

[Pulcinella]

Love the 4 last Songs but never heard a performance that I thought "the one". Schwarzkopf comes closest, partly through the wonderful orchestral accompaniment (suprising as its led by Szell). Many of my favourite singers disappoint. Is it that hard to "bring off"?

Is there a NOT missing here, Lordgeous (as well as an apostrophe ), or don't you rate Szell as a conductor?

[cloughie]

Felicity Lott with Neeme Jarvi and the RNSO

also Auger/Previn !

Not listened to all of the Louise Alder yet but good to hear 4LS at a Prom which is not murdered (oversung or with vibrato) as it so often has over the years - though I felt for A Schwanenwilms who a year or two ago was overwhelmed by the heat, as her lie recording withe the Halle and Elder on a BBC MM disc is excellent!

[Pulcinella]

Felicity Lott with Neeme Jarvi and the RNSO

A shout too for Lott/SNO/Järvi in the Drei Hymnen, op 71.

Also for the (underrated?) Harper/LSO/Hickox version of the Four Last Songs.

I'm afraid that last night didn't do it for me: didn't particularly like the voice, the balance, or some of the speeds.

[Keraulophone]

Lott/SNO/Järvi… also for the (underrated?) Harper/LSO/Hickox version of the Four Last Songs

Comparing recordings of the VLL made under ideal studio conditions with a live Proms broadcast from the RAH is comparing apples and pears. Indeed, concert performances can go pear-shaped, like the one I witnessed earlier this year in St John’s Hall, Penzance, in which the amateur orchestra was incapable of playing quietly enough to give the perfectly competent soprano a fighting chance of being heard. Despite these songs having received their first performance in the RAH in May 1950 (Flagstad/Philharmonia/Furtwängler), eight months after the composer’s death, they must be very hard to sing into such a vast space with few reflecting surfaces near the singer, who has to be able to crescendo over a large orchestra on several occasions. The BBC engineers have particularly tricky balance decisions to make here between soprano, orchestra and the acoustic feedback of the enormous hall, with the risk that everything could sound artificially close-miked, probably to the detriment of the singer. (BTW, I rate Louise Alder very highly in recital venues eg Wigmore Hall, QEH and the like.)
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