Prom 63: Marius Neset and the London Sinfonietta (3.09.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

22:15 Saturday 3 September 2022
Royal Albert Hall

Marius Neset: Geyser (BBC commission: world première)

Marius Neset saxophones
Ivo Neame piano
Jim Hart vibraphone/marimba/percussion
Conor Chaplin double bass
Anton Eger drums
London Sinfonietta
Geoffrey Paterson conductor

Geyser: forces from the core of the Earth heat water to boiling point, and then blast it high into the Northern sky in an unstoppable eruption of steam, spray and sound. Born in Bergen, Norway, saxophonist and composer Marius Neset knows all about the power of nature. And with influences as varied as Frank Zappa, Pat Metheny, Gustav Mahler and Olivier Messiaen, he knows all about the energy that results when elemental creative forces collide, too. In his Proms debut, a young virtuoso who’s been praised for his ‘voracious reinvention of jazz’ runs his own quintet, full-speed, into London’s crack new-music ensemble the London Sinfonietta.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought the BBC blurbist was getting carried away with factual inaccuracies yet again, but I checked to avoid embarrassment. I knew there were spectacular geysers in Iceland, but I didn't think there were any in Norway, but now I understand there's a sea geyser on the Atlantic coast, so I eat humble pie as I type.

[bluestateprommer]

Listened on BBC Sounds through the limits of my laptop alone, w/o external speakers (i.e. less than 'ffrr'), being away from home at the moment on a mini "workcation". That trivia aside, this was my introduction to Marius Neset, so I had no preconceptions of what to expect, besides going in expecting free-form jazz. I didn't find anything particular geologically overwhelming about Geyser (no Jon Leifs, this), but the work, structured in several sections (including a "slow movement"), had enough contrast between them so that it didn't completely fall into self-indulgence or navel-gazing. (Of course, when Tom Service is the presenter....well, let's leave it at that, but he didn't have too much time to splutter verbally before the proceedings began.)

BTW, Geoffrey Paterson wrote this up for the Grauniad about preparing the work for this late-night Prom:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/01/conductor-geoffrey-paterson-on-working-with-jazz-virtuoso-marius-neset

Thought I'd read somewhere in one of the comments sections that the RAH was only 1/4 full or so for this one. This actually is better than the Late Night Prom after SSR's Berlin Phil Mahler 7 back in 2016, where that Elliott Carter / Pierre Boulez late-nighter was maybe 5% full, or some similar amazingly sparse percentage.

GP seems to have moved up nicely in the conducting world, racking up 51 appearances with the London Sinfonietta, per another writeup that he got to do, this time for The Arts Desk:

https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/first-person-geoffrey-paterson-conducting-london-sinfonietta-and-working-marius

The London Sinfonietta seems to have set aside for the duration the idea of having a principal conductor, for some years now. But if the band changes their mind, they seem to have a domestic candidate in the wings.

[Serial_Apologist]

Some great soloing, especially from Mr Neset, confirming what should be his reputation, but for me the work's disparate styles and structure failed in any way to cohere, and could have been "about" anything".