I once had a whim and I had to obey it
Aug. 3rd, 2023 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBoth Tuesday's and Wednesday's Proms were popular programmes of interest, and in the end I decided to go to both, skipping the late-night Prom in between.
Prom 22 on Tuesday was the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Bancroft, with an all-Russian programme. During World War I, German music was frowned upon in Britain, to no useful effect; in World War II, German music continued to be played, and Beethoven in particular was used for propaganda. In the current circumstances it seems reasonable therefore to play good Russian music that isn't endorsing the current Russian aggression; given typical relations between Russian or Soviet composers and the authorities of the time, that doesn't rule very much out. In the first half Isata Kanneh-Mason was the soloist in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. I'd had a conversation with someone in the last concert I went to, debating the merits of different places in the Arena, and whether the front was in fact not all that good for a piano concerto. On the left, you can see the pianist's fingers on the keyboard, which attracts some; in the centre, you get the sound (and sometimes the vision) reflected directly off the piano lid. Kanneh-Mason's playing was at once softer and less percussive than earlier concerts this season; more lyrical and intimate, perhaps, and also clearer, it worked well at the front of the Arena, but I wonder whether it will have reached the perimeter of the Hall satisfactorily. If Mahler 9 "will always be modern music", I think this concerto will always be fresh music.
With only a pause for rearranging the stage, the concert had no interval. The second work in the concert was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, which was performed energetically all round. It was interesting to see tunes bouncing around the different string instruments in particular; Bancroft did spring into action with some conductor-dancing (maybe he'd been doing this earlier, but my view was obscured by the piano), despite acquiring on one of his shoes a stray piece of electrical tape that had come unstuck somewhere on the floor. Perhaps the shorter format of the concert was driven by the logistics of the late-night concert to come; the benefit for me was a return home at a civilised hour.
Wednesday didn't begin too well, as the train manager announced expected delays in the Ealing area, but it turned out that I still had about my usual place in the queue, so in fact the delay saved me some queueing in the rain. This time the performers were the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Karabits. They began with the UK premiere of Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 "A Musical Gift to Kyiv" by Ivan Karabits, the conductor's late father. Written around 1980, this was a colourful work, sometimes feeling pictorial and at other times more abstract.
The reason for picking this concert was the performance of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4, in particular the famous concluding Rondo. (Disappointingly the programme notes made no reference to Flanders and Swann.) I hadn't appreciated until fairly recently that the soloist, Felix Klieser, faced some additional challenges: being born without arms, he played with the horn on a stand and one foot on the valves. It can be said, therefore, that his footwork was impressive; I don't think there are many instruments that could be played at all in such circumstances. As if one wasn't enough, he gave as an encore, with the orchestra, the finale from another of Mozart's horn concertos.
Finally, the second half of the concert was Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2. I think this is Rachmaninov's most successful symphony - it doesn't seem to have been a form that came very naturally to him - but even so, while there are "big tunes" and sections that demand attention, there are also indefinable bits where the mind can wander. It was another energetic and successful performance, and from a practical point of view, the concert finished on time, too. Despite the advertised timetable, Kensington Gardens was still open, so I was able to take the more direct, although rather dark, route back to Paddington.
Prom 22 on Tuesday was the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Bancroft, with an all-Russian programme. During World War I, German music was frowned upon in Britain, to no useful effect; in World War II, German music continued to be played, and Beethoven in particular was used for propaganda. In the current circumstances it seems reasonable therefore to play good Russian music that isn't endorsing the current Russian aggression; given typical relations between Russian or Soviet composers and the authorities of the time, that doesn't rule very much out. In the first half Isata Kanneh-Mason was the soloist in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. I'd had a conversation with someone in the last concert I went to, debating the merits of different places in the Arena, and whether the front was in fact not all that good for a piano concerto. On the left, you can see the pianist's fingers on the keyboard, which attracts some; in the centre, you get the sound (and sometimes the vision) reflected directly off the piano lid. Kanneh-Mason's playing was at once softer and less percussive than earlier concerts this season; more lyrical and intimate, perhaps, and also clearer, it worked well at the front of the Arena, but I wonder whether it will have reached the perimeter of the Hall satisfactorily. If Mahler 9 "will always be modern music", I think this concerto will always be fresh music.
With only a pause for rearranging the stage, the concert had no interval. The second work in the concert was Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, which was performed energetically all round. It was interesting to see tunes bouncing around the different string instruments in particular; Bancroft did spring into action with some conductor-dancing (maybe he'd been doing this earlier, but my view was obscured by the piano), despite acquiring on one of his shoes a stray piece of electrical tape that had come unstuck somewhere on the floor. Perhaps the shorter format of the concert was driven by the logistics of the late-night concert to come; the benefit for me was a return home at a civilised hour.
Wednesday didn't begin too well, as the train manager announced expected delays in the Ealing area, but it turned out that I still had about my usual place in the queue, so in fact the delay saved me some queueing in the rain. This time the performers were the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Karabits. They began with the UK premiere of Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 "A Musical Gift to Kyiv" by Ivan Karabits, the conductor's late father. Written around 1980, this was a colourful work, sometimes feeling pictorial and at other times more abstract.
The reason for picking this concert was the performance of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4, in particular the famous concluding Rondo. (Disappointingly the programme notes made no reference to Flanders and Swann.) I hadn't appreciated until fairly recently that the soloist, Felix Klieser, faced some additional challenges: being born without arms, he played with the horn on a stand and one foot on the valves. It can be said, therefore, that his footwork was impressive; I don't think there are many instruments that could be played at all in such circumstances. As if one wasn't enough, he gave as an encore, with the orchestra, the finale from another of Mozart's horn concertos.
Finally, the second half of the concert was Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2. I think this is Rachmaninov's most successful symphony - it doesn't seem to have been a form that came very naturally to him - but even so, while there are "big tunes" and sections that demand attention, there are also indefinable bits where the mind can wander. It was another energetic and successful performance, and from a practical point of view, the concert finished on time, too. Despite the advertised timetable, Kensington Gardens was still open, so I was able to take the more direct, although rather dark, route back to Paddington.