Damn it. Dausgaard could have waited for the applause to end before he started.
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Yes like the DJ’s who used to talk over the front and end of all the tracks on the Radio 1 top 40 thus frustrating home tapers….Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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I like your comparison of Behzod with Solomon. I thought it took some time for the orchestra and Dausgaard to find a similar finesse. The best foils were in the wodwind section. The glittering encore Mercutio from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Ballet neatly picked up the baton from the Philharmonia’s performance a few nights ago.Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post
I didn’t enjoy La Valse as it was a tad four-square, and I didn’t feel the swirl.
I’m looking forward to part II.Comment
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I’ve been lucky enough to play this work a few times and a famous conductor reckoned that this was one of the hardest works to start. Perhaps Dausgaard just wanted to get it going asap!Originally posted by Bryn View Post
Imho, the first movement is terrific but then it becomes less interesting.Comment
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Agree on the excellence of Behzod A.'s performance of LvB 1 in this Prom, wonderfully fresh. Terrific support from TD and the BBC SSO as well. I had to cut out early for a work call (some colleagues have no understanding when they schedule conference calls ;) ), so need to catch up with the rest of the concert. Just heard BA's Prokofiev encore, which is a nice treat to hear the "Mercutio" movement in concert from the ballet, as that tends not to happen except in the context of the fragmented short version used in the "Death of Tybalt" at the end of Act II.Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View PostComment
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I used four square deliberately for neither the true spirit of the French Valse nor Viennese Waltz was present. But, I was inelegant and heavy-footed. Given that the triangle or its absence has dominated one thread this month, your ‘triangulation’ caught the zeitgeist, Bryn.Originally posted by Bryn View PostThree triangular, surely?
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It is a very individual work, but so are the 3 that followed it, in their own way. Fwiw, Nielsen 3 reminds me a bit of RVW 3.Originally posted by BBMmk2 View PostComment
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You are thinking of the slow movement's use of wordless voices, I would think. Actually the music's idiom at that point (and for much of the symphony) is pure middle-period Beethoven, which cannot really be said of Vaughan Williams's Pastoral!Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
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In this particular Prom, I'm with your assessment of TD and the BBC SSO in both Beethoven PC # 1 and Nielsen 3 (so managed to catch up with it quickly after all). The BBC SSO was in splendid form in the Nielsen, with luxury vocal casting from Elizabeth Watts and Benjamin Appl for the slow movement. Martin Handley mentioned the two singers being placed in the balcony of the RAH, to try to get that "far away" sound.Originally posted by gedsmk View Post
About the Nielsen symphonies and their relative lack of presence in the general orchestral repertoire compared to Sibelius, Sakari Oramo has an interesting theory, which I've heard him express verbally on R3, and which is present in this Bachtrack interview from a few years back:
Over the years, Dausgaard has come up with some interesting programs with the BBC SSO. It's just that the chemistry between the two didn't quite seem all there on more than one occasion. Regardless, it all finishes tomorrow, and Ryan Wigglesworth is in the wings."The reason why Nielsen hasn’t been quite as globally popular as Sibelius is maybe that for conductors, Nielsen poses the challenge of having to forget yourself, because his music is so strongly constructed that there’s very little room for a conductor’s ego. You need to give it energy and character, but then you have to stop there. You can’t start improvising or putting the musical parameters in a different order. And you can with Sibelius, whose music allows a very large scope of interpretation and still works."Comment
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I am not sure that Beethoven shifted keys from movement to movement as did Nielsen. Yes, it was the wordless voices in the slow movement that me think of RVWOriginally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostYou are thinking of the slow movement's use of wordless voices, I would think. Actually the music's idiom at that point (and for much of the symphony) is pure middle-period Beethoven, which cannot really be said of Vaughan Williams's Pastoral!Comment
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As you say Nielsen is usually thought of as employing “progressive tonality “ that is a progression of keys from movement to movement whereas Beethoven usually has a rooted tonal plan. Wilfrid Mellers thought the two had a great deal in common particularly in the way they develop themes . I think the Sinfonia Expansiva has a direct relationship with Vaughan Williams Pastoral. Both were probably a post world war 1 response to that conflict . The Andante Pastorale with its wordless voice is reminiscent of RVW but , having looked at the score it’s quite Eflat rooted. In other words full of E flat scales over an Eflat drone . I think RVW would have flung in a few Dflats to tonally confuse matters! Interesting that the piece has a touch of the Eroica codas in suddenly plunging into Dflat (though minor rather than major).Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
Apologies for these digressions. I thought it was an excellent performance.Comment
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