Prom 51: Lalo, Brahms and Franck (25.08.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Thursday 25 August 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Édouard Lalo: Le roi d’Ys – overture
Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major
César Franck: Symphony in D minor

Daniel Lozakovich violin
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Fabien Gabel conductor

César Franck’s only symphony caused shockwaves when it was premiered in Paris in 1889 – with one critic insisting it wasn’t even a symphony at all! Grand, gothic, and blazing with melodies that won’t let you go, this mightiest of Belgian symphonies is a real passion for conductor Fabian Gabel, and in Franck’s 200th-anniversary year he pairs it with another red-blooded (but neglected) Belle Époque jewel – Lalo’s overture to Le roi d’Ys. The young Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich, meanwhile, has been called ‘an exceptional talent’, and Brahms’s big, songful concerto is perfectly suited to his radiant sound and effortlessly poetic way with Romantic music. ‘It’s transcendental,’ he says. ‘You have to live the piece rather than just play it.’

[jonfan]

Great to hear these rarely heard Lalo and Franck works. Orchestra on top form.

[Alison]

Great to hear these rarely heard Lalo and Franck works. Orchestra on top form.

Agreed. A really marvellous symphony in my view.

Couldn’t quite make up my mind on the soloist: smallish sound, inaccurate at times yet I came to admire his delicate individuality.

[Nick Armstrong]

A really marvellous symphony in my view.

Oh Alison, better not look at the Grumble thread then

I had to vent somewhere…

[edashtav]

Great to hear these rarely heard Lalo and Franck works. Orchestra on top form.

‘Rarely heard’ ?

Well, not so frequently performed as they were 100 years ago. The Lalo Overture is as full blooded as Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers and it’s a beloved test piece of the Brass Band fraternity.

[Pulcinella]

Oh Alison, better not look at the Grumble thread then

I had to vent somewhere…

I'm with Nick: I said to my partner in the interval that I couldn't remember how the Franck went, but that as soon as it started I would.

And I did, and I still do.
Wretched earworm.

[jonfan]

Franck uses the orchestra as though he’s pulling stops on an organ to get the colours he’s after. The subtle use of cornets in addition to trumpets an example.

[mrbouffant]

I was delighted to be in the hall for this concert. Back in 1990 I was desperate to hear the Franck live at Prom 2, after getting obsessed with the famous Monteux recording. Alas I was pressganged instead to attend a family event by my then-girlfriend. 32 years later I finally got the chance to hear it live. Divine stuff! The opening movement was Monteux-like but after that the performance went its own way. As an organist I marvelled at some of the inner details, especially in the woodwind, which seemed to be anticipating the Trois Chorals.

Was interesting to see a couple of hall staff appear after the first movement to clean what I assumed was a pile of vomit from the set of steps stage left. Added a frisson to the whole experience lol.

[Nick Armstrong]

‘Rarely heard’ ?

Yes, that made me start too. The Franck seems to a been a fixture in the repertoire for as long as I’ve been aware of music

Was interesting to see a couple of hall staff appear after the first movement to clean what I assumed was a pile of vomit from the set of steps stage left.

QED

[Bryn]

Yes, that made me start too. The Franck seems to a been a fixture in the repertoire for as long as I’ve been aware of music

Perhaps the "rarely heard" referred to a relative lack of audience members in attendance at such fixtures.

[Nick Armstrong]

Perhaps the "rarely heard" referred to a relative lack of audience members in attendance at such fixtures.

[Alison]

Oh Alison, better not look at the Grumble thread then

I had to vent somewhere…

I’m sorry about that! We’re normally of one mind!

[edashtav]

Perhaps the "rarely heard" referred to a relative lack of audience members in attendance at such fixtures.

This thread, and its grumble echo-chamber, support Paul Henry Lang’s summation of César Franck:
"at once the most overrated and most calumniated of composers of recent times."

[cloughie]

This thread, and its grumble echo-chamber, support Paul Henry Lang’s summation of César Franck:
"at once the most overrated and most calumniated of composers of recent times."

I guess that CF has been present in many a lifetime of recorded music collections but not been at the top of many’s listening lists!

[Serial_Apologist]

This thread, and its grumble echo-chamber, support Paul Henry Lang’s summation of César Franck:
"at once the most overrated and most calumniated of composers of recent times."

I have to say I like Franck's music in general - just not his symphony, which unusually for him contains a considerable amount of banality. Poulenc semi-satirised its broad first movement theme most amusingly in Les Biches, and Warlock in one of his "Cod Pieces". Rather as with Liszt his influence, mainly in the harmonic field but also in his cyclic forms, would be exerted on composers less innovative, perhaps, but more consistent than himself.