Prom 37: Haydn, Vaughan Williams, Kaija Saariaho and Beethoven (14.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

11:00 Sunday 14 August 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 6 in D major, ‘Le matin’
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Oboe Concerto
Kaia Saariaho: Vers toi qui es si loin (London première)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major


Nicholas Daniel, oboe
Maria Włoszczowska, violin
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Dinis Sousa, conductor

From sunrise to high noon: this matinee concert from the Tyneside-based Royal Northern Sinfonia under its Principal Conductor Dinis Sousa begins with the sun rising over Haydn’s joyous early symphony. It ends with Beethoven cutting loose in sheer, unbuckled glee, in the rollercoaster finale of his brightest symphony. In between, the skies just gets brighter and more beautiful, as oboist Nicholas Daniel takes the solo spot in Vaughan Williams’s playful, pastoral Oboe Concerto – another anniversary salute to this great British master. Then violinist Maria Maria Włoszczowska is the soloist in Kaija Saariaho’s ravishing Vers toi qui es si loin – a wordless love song, adapted from the acclaimed opera L’amour de loin by one of today’s true sonic magicians.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It ends with Beethoven cutting loose in sheer, unbuckled glee, in the rollercoaster finale of his brightest symphony. In between, the skies just gets brighter and more beautiful, as oboist Nicholas Daniel takes the solo spot in Vaughan Williams’s playful, pastoral Oboe Concerto...

So B4 is his brightest symphony? Really?

Grammar too.

[edashtav]

Kaija Saariaho

Vers toi qui es si loin (2018) is a transcription for violin and orchestra of the final aria of her first opera L’Amour de loin (2000). The medieval narrative is invoked only to the extent that the soloist's exquisite melody line, a glowing thread woven into a delicate, ethereal orchestral background, suggests the timelessness of the individual voice drawn into the mysterious fabric of the universe.

The aria lasts about 7 minutes and is available, I think, a transcription of its premiere :

https://youtu.be/taOn5AvMkjU

My instant reaction is that it’s lovely and beguiling.

What do you think?

[edashtav]

The morning start to this concert caught me on the hop.
However, I’ve caught up with the work that, potentially, held most interest for me:
Kaija Saariaho - Vers Toi Qui Es Si Loin a transcription for violin of a love song / aria a dead lover. It was played with great delicacy by Maria Włoszczowska, leader of the Northern Sinfonia. The music was sad: mournful, beguiling, and full of that unfathomable distant aura that the Albert Hall’s cavernous acoustic creates so well. Long pedal points supported lightly scored filigree lines tinted by light shakes and percussive rattles. A lovely piece that gave me great pleasure.

The work was linked without applause or break to the first, held chord of Beethoven’s 4th Symphony. At a pitch level the chaining worked well until the Beethoven turned dramatic and we were brutally awakened to a different, wide-awake world.
However, I have to say that the ‘twinning’ did help to give a context to those moments when Beetihiven’s energy slackens and he allows us to glimpse again the distant world of his introduction.

Sadly, the RAH audience decided that the duality ended with the final chord of Beethoven’s first movement and so they clapped breaking the connection.

[bluestateprommer]

Yet another late listening catch-up, where this Prom, unintentionally or not, is rather in the spirit and design of the Ulster Orchestra Prom that's understandably gotten a lot of raves (and the UO management is making the most of it in their recent PR releases on other news, but bsp digresses, as usual). This RNS Prom is perhaps not quite on the level of the UO's Prom, but it was still quite good. Dinis S. indulged his inner Harnoncourt with a few self-conscious pauses in Haydn 6 (repeated almost exactly when he took the 2nd half repeat in the finale), but otherwise, a fine reading. From a check of the Proms performance archive, the last Proms performance of Haydn 6 was in 1924 (!), so a welcome and long-overdue return. Right afterwards, Nicholas Daniel was splendid in RVW's Oboe Concerto, as you'd expect.

From hearing Kaija Saariaho's Vers toi qui es si loin ("Towards you who are so far", very loose translation), my first general reaction was that this might be the closest that KS will ever get to writing The Lark Ascending, in a manner of speaking. In terms of her writing works for violin and orchestra, I probably should revisit Graal-Theatre if and when I make time for it. Maria Włoszczowska did very well with it.

My personal bias on Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 is that it's my own personal favorite of the 9, so it's always nice to catch a live performance, or a live broadcast. Of course, the risk of that is that any hearing of it might not compare to the idealized reading in one's head. That aside, Dinis S. shows his training from the HIPP school and his mentorship by John Eliot Gardiner in his use of trimmed vibrato, brisk tempi (all repeats taken, AFAICT), and sudden timpani swells (which may be more of a Norrington-ism than a Gardiner-ism or a Harnoncourt-ism, perhaps). But overall, a fine reading, with the orchestra on solid form, as they were in their Prom from Sage Gateshead earlier in the season. This whole program was nicely assembled, IMHO, so fair credit to the Proms planners on this one.