Prom 67: Nicola Benedetti plays Wynton Marsalis (6.09.22)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Tuesday 6 September 2022 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Thomas Adès: Three-Piece Suite from ‘Powder Her Face’ (Suite No. 1)
Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto
Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story’

Nicola Benedetti violin
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård conductor

‘Nicola Benedetti – now, she really can play,’ says the American composer, trumpeter and all-round jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, and after Benedetti gave the world premiere of the concerto that he composed for her in 2015, The Guardian wrote of her ‘sparky performance’. Thomas Søndergård and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra gives its Proms premiere tonight: the big, generous heart of a concert with a spring in its step, that opens with Thomas Adès’s wonderfully sleazy Powder her Face suite and ends amid the headstrong urban energy of West Side Story. In between comes a blast of fresh sea air from Benjamin Britten.

[jonfan]

Attended in the hall and thoroughly enjoyed it. Stunning playing from the soloist and a challenging programme for the orchestra, especially the percussion department. The first movement of the Concerto was for a loud consistent cougher accompanied by a violin and orchestra.

[gedsmk]

Attended in the hall and thoroughly enjoyed it. Stunning playing from the soloist and a challenging programme for the orchestra, especially the percussion department. The first movement of the Concerto was for a loud consistent cougher accompanied by a violin and orchestra.

The coughing was worst I can ever remember. From somewhere in the circle. few people nearer me started sarcastic coughing to make a point.
The playing was good and the packed house was really enthused but I so wish they’d grabbed Shostakovich 10 as soon as the BPO dropped it. Have heard the Britten and the Bernstein played better by other orchestras and the RSNO has a fantastic way with Shostakovich.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The coughing was worst I can ever remember. From somewhere in the circle. few people nearer me started sarcastic coughing to make a point.
The playing was good and the packed house was really enthused but I so wish they’d grabbed Shostakovich 10 as soon as the BPO dropped it. Have heard the Britten and the Bernstein played better by other orchestras and the RSNO has a fantastic way with Shostakovich.

I couldn’t hear the cougher at home. For all the brilliance in NB’s magnificent playing she didn’t convince me that The violin concerto is anything more than a collection of moderately interesting nods to 150 years of American music.

[DracoM]

But quite a jolly piece?

[bluestateprommer]

But quite a jolly piece?

On the whole, yes. I'd not heard Wynton M.'s Violin Concerto in quite a while, so I'd forgotten its episodic and drawn-out qualities. But you point out an aspect of the work that I'd forgotten in the interim: namely, that it is indeed happy and highly good-natured, qualities that can't automatically be used to describe much contemporary music. The cougher passed me by, so I can't comment on that aspect of the proceedings.

I would agree that the Britten and Bernstein received OK readings, certainly not top of the world interpretations. But that sort of fits in with what I've experienced of Thomas Sondergard's concerts on R3, namely safe, solid, middle-of-the-road readings. (Maybe that was part of his appeal to the Minnesota Orchestra, now that he'll be their new music director.) Perhaps for that reason, the Powder Her Face suite just before the Marsalis came off rather better than I've ever experienced it, on radio (a few occasions) and the one live time that I've heard it.

There is, however, a subtle meta-joke in pairing Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes just before Lenny B.'s "Symphonic Dances" from West Side Story. Namely, Bernstein had the good sense not to include "A Boy Like That" among the numbers featured in the WSS "Symphonic Dances", because his plagiarism (unconscious or otherwise) of the "Storm" Interlude from Peter Grimes would have been blatantly revealed. After the Bernstein, I'm not sure that the encore was really necessary, but again to recycle an overused phrase from this summer, good clean fun to send the audience out happy.

[Ein Heldenleben]

On the whole, yes. I'd not heard Wynton M.'s Violin Concerto in quite a while, so I'd forgotten its episodic and drawn-out qualities. But you point out an aspect of the work that I'd forgotten in the interim: namely, that it is indeed happy and highly good-natured, qualities that can't automatically be used to describe much contemporary music. The cougher passed me by, so I can't comment on that aspect of the proceedings.

I would agree that the Britten and Bernstein received OK readings, certainly not top of the world interpretations. But that sort of fits in with what I've experienced of Thomas Sondergard's concerts on R3, namely safe, solid, middle-of-the-road readings. (Maybe that was part of his appeal to the Minnesota Orchestra, now that he'll be their new music director.) Perhaps for that reason, the Powder Her Face suite just before the Marsalis came off rather better than I've ever experienced it, on radio (a few occasions) and the one live time that I've heard it.

There is, however, a subtle meta-joke in pairing Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes just before Lenny B.'s "Symphonic Dances" from West Side Story. Namely, Bernstein had the good sense not to include "A Boy Like That" among the numbers featured in the WSS "Symphonic Dances", because his plagiarism (unconscious or otherwise) of the "Storm" Interlude from Peter Grimes would have been blatantly revealed. After the Bernstein, I'm not sure that the encore was really necessary, but again to recycle an overused phrase from this summer, good clean fun to send the audience out happy.

Do know I’ve never noticed that ? The 9 notes to “ A boy like that , who killed your brother “ are they note the note the same as the D minor motif of the storm interlude? They sound uncannily close.
You’ll no doubt be aware of the “There’s a place for us “ and a phrase from the slow movement of the Emperor “connection” ?
Good spot that Bluestateprommer…
I’m a bit of a collector of these . The most extraordinary was E Lucevan Le Stelle and Al Jolson’s Avalon - one that Puccini won a ruling over .

[bluestateprommer]

Do know I’ve never noticed that ? The 9 notes to “ A boy like that , who killed your brother “ are they note the note the same as the D minor motif of the storm interlude? They sound uncannily close.
You’ll no doubt be aware of the “There’s a place for us “ and a phrase from the slow movement of the Emperor “connection” ?
Good spot that Bluestateprommer…
I’m a bit of a collector of these . The most extraordinary was E Lucevan Le Stelle and Al Jolson’s Avalon - one that Puccini won a ruling over .

I'd first heard about that connection between Lenny B.'s "There's A Place For Us" and LvB 5 in a Proms discussion somewhere (or maybe it was on the Forum; can't exactly recall). But I hadn't made the connection until it was mentioned. Then suddenly, I went "oh, OK, got it". But then this sort of theme-lifting isn't all that uncommon:
* There's a lift from the 'Hallelujah' chorus of Messiah in the finale of Mahler 1.
* Mahler took "Mir ist so wunderbar" from LvB's Fidelio for the slow movement of his 4th.
* DSCH 5 lifts from Carmen, but also "Rejoice greatly" from Handel's Messiah as well.
I guess the lesson is that if one is a composer who wants to use someone else's theme, at least one should do something imaginative with it.

BTW, speaking of Thomas S., the Minnesota Orchestra has this video of a concert from last year available for a short spell (which I'd missed earlier, and which I need to catch up on, like with Osmo V.'s Mahler 8):

https://mnorch.vhx.tv/featured-category/videos/live-12-3-ingrid-fliter-plays-mozart