Vive la France
Aug. 29th, 2025 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiThursday's Prom was another popular one. Like many, I was drawn by the Organ Symphony, but I've seen that before, and it was the rest of the programme that persuaded me. As I observed when the listings came out, its been an uneven season, and I've found two Proms a week quite heavy going.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted on this occasion by Marie Jacquot, began with Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1. If I'm honest, I would have preferred the second suite, as that contains the Farandole; but this has many of the same tunes and neither suite has been performed at the Proms since 2010. Jacquot seemed to be enjoying herself throughout the evening; either that or the wind had changed at a particularly fortuitous moment.
Next, Inmo Yang was the violin soloist in Pablo de Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. Although it seemed to begin a little shakily, the performance was full of musical pyrotechnics in the manner of virtuoso composers "improving" on other composers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in particular (I'm thinking of Busoni or Horowitz, for example). A solo encore of a Scherzo-Caprice by Fritz Kreisler was a further demonstration of talent.
I had no idea really what to expect for the first piece of the second half, Augusta Holmès' Andromède. This turned out to be a late romantic symphonic poem, and a bit of an enjoyable rarity.
And so to Saint‐Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ). I'm surprised to discover that I only seem to have seen this performed once before, in 2017, as it comes round often enough. Perhaps I just always think I've heard it before. Anyhow, it was a fine performance by the orchestra and organist Rachel Mahon. It's the right space for such a work, although perhaps not a night to be in the choir seats.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted on this occasion by Marie Jacquot, began with Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No. 1. If I'm honest, I would have preferred the second suite, as that contains the Farandole; but this has many of the same tunes and neither suite has been performed at the Proms since 2010. Jacquot seemed to be enjoying herself throughout the evening; either that or the wind had changed at a particularly fortuitous moment.
Next, Inmo Yang was the violin soloist in Pablo de Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. Although it seemed to begin a little shakily, the performance was full of musical pyrotechnics in the manner of virtuoso composers "improving" on other composers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in particular (I'm thinking of Busoni or Horowitz, for example). A solo encore of a Scherzo-Caprice by Fritz Kreisler was a further demonstration of talent.
I had no idea really what to expect for the first piece of the second half, Augusta Holmès' Andromède. This turned out to be a late romantic symphonic poem, and a bit of an enjoyable rarity.
And so to Saint‐Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ). I'm surprised to discover that I only seem to have seen this performed once before, in 2017, as it comes round often enough. Perhaps I just always think I've heard it before. Anyhow, it was a fine performance by the orchestra and organist Rachel Mahon. It's the right space for such a work, although perhaps not a night to be in the choir seats.