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Nothing we can't hum there
Aug. 3rd, 2022 08:25 pmIt was a particularly early start on Tuesday, as I was awake and wasn't quite sure how well things would work. Planning on going into London three times within a week meant it was marginally cost-effective to get a 7-day season ticket, which could allegedly be bought at the ticket machines and activated on my GWR smartcard. (I had no faith that buying the ticket online would work, I'm not sure whether the card is attached to the right account; I figured that buying at a station would mean I could get staff to fix it if it went wrong.) Once I'd realised you have to start by selecting the 'ITSO' icon (duh), things did go to plan. In fact I caught a slightly earlier train than I'd expected, and found my way comfortably to the Royal Albert Hall by about 8:30 to join a short queue. At 9:00 I duly received raffle ticket number 13 - which ought comfortably to get me a place on the rail given there is only a single Arena queue these days - but still, I wasn't guaranteed entry until I'd bought my concert ticket online later in the morning. There is a concert later in the season for which I have doubts the system will work as intended, but we'll see.
This was my first weekday Prom since 2019, and therefore also the first in my current job. A recent quirk has been that we're able to book holiday by the hour, and so I'd booked two hours holiday for the day - thinking that one hour in the morning and one in the evening would give me plenty of time to get to and from the office, which worked well. But one downside to our hybrid working arrangement is that I have to carry my laptop rather than leaving it in an office locker overnight (unless I want to go back again the following day), and I had concerns about how much of a delay this might impose on the bag check. Fortunately my bag was mostly empty apart from that, and it wasn't an issue. Those at the very front of the queue congregated slightly left of centre, for better viewing of the soloist. This left me with an almost central position on the rail, with which I was very happy.
The concert was given by Aurora Orchestra, which has gained a reputation for playing from memory. Having seen a couple of their previous Proms on TV and been impressed by the talk given about the music, that was why I'd selected this Prom. But that was for the second half; the concert began with a short Xenakis piece, O-Mega, characteristically percussive with accompanying dissonant brass fanfares. A more conventional orchestra assembled with Patricia Kopatchinskaja as the soloist for Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1. This diminutive soloist performed barefoot, but passionately thumped the floor from time to time; not quite Glenn Gould, but still. Not to be outdone, conductor Nicholas Collon engaged in some energetic conductor dancing, once rocking the podium and bringing it perilously close to toppling over. Kopatchinskaja was called back to the stage several times, but finally spoke saying she would not give an encore, because the concerto spoke for itself about totalitarianism and despots, and the fiery look in her eyes was certainly not something to be crossed. It was a brief and eloquent statement which brought yet more applause. During the First World War, performance of German music was strongly discouraged in Britain; during the Second World War, we adopted a certain Germanic four-note signature (more on that later) based on its Morse code interpretation. So now, let's not ban Russian music; and whilst there are a range of opinions on the subject, there's little room for doubt that Shostakovich is the embodiment of rage against the Soviet state.
So to the second half: characteristically, a well-known and popular orchestral piece to be played from memory, preceded by an educational talk about the music. Tom Service and Nicholas Collon riffed off each other, with obligatory audience participation (sections of the hall clapping out the four notes in canon), as they walked through Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. It doesn't matter whether it's original - I'd read in Antony Hopkins' book that the scherzo theme is itself a reworking from Mozart, though the Aurora's mashup of the finale with La Marseillaise to show how Beethoven's theme just fits the style of military marches of the period was novel to me, as was the fact that it's the first symphony to feature the contrabassoon and the piccolo (I already knew about the trombone). Following the talk, the performance itself was full of energy and pace; the cellos in particular seemed to be enjoying themselves far more than could have been good for them (in fact this reminded me of the Michael Nyman Band Prom in 2009). The Aurora concert this season was not televised, so you had to be there; but it was the epitome of Reithian principles.
This was my first weekday Prom since 2019, and therefore also the first in my current job. A recent quirk has been that we're able to book holiday by the hour, and so I'd booked two hours holiday for the day - thinking that one hour in the morning and one in the evening would give me plenty of time to get to and from the office, which worked well. But one downside to our hybrid working arrangement is that I have to carry my laptop rather than leaving it in an office locker overnight (unless I want to go back again the following day), and I had concerns about how much of a delay this might impose on the bag check. Fortunately my bag was mostly empty apart from that, and it wasn't an issue. Those at the very front of the queue congregated slightly left of centre, for better viewing of the soloist. This left me with an almost central position on the rail, with which I was very happy.
The concert was given by Aurora Orchestra, which has gained a reputation for playing from memory. Having seen a couple of their previous Proms on TV and been impressed by the talk given about the music, that was why I'd selected this Prom. But that was for the second half; the concert began with a short Xenakis piece, O-Mega, characteristically percussive with accompanying dissonant brass fanfares. A more conventional orchestra assembled with Patricia Kopatchinskaja as the soloist for Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1. This diminutive soloist performed barefoot, but passionately thumped the floor from time to time; not quite Glenn Gould, but still. Not to be outdone, conductor Nicholas Collon engaged in some energetic conductor dancing, once rocking the podium and bringing it perilously close to toppling over. Kopatchinskaja was called back to the stage several times, but finally spoke saying she would not give an encore, because the concerto spoke for itself about totalitarianism and despots, and the fiery look in her eyes was certainly not something to be crossed. It was a brief and eloquent statement which brought yet more applause. During the First World War, performance of German music was strongly discouraged in Britain; during the Second World War, we adopted a certain Germanic four-note signature (more on that later) based on its Morse code interpretation. So now, let's not ban Russian music; and whilst there are a range of opinions on the subject, there's little room for doubt that Shostakovich is the embodiment of rage against the Soviet state.
So to the second half: characteristically, a well-known and popular orchestral piece to be played from memory, preceded by an educational talk about the music. Tom Service and Nicholas Collon riffed off each other, with obligatory audience participation (sections of the hall clapping out the four notes in canon), as they walked through Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. It doesn't matter whether it's original - I'd read in Antony Hopkins' book that the scherzo theme is itself a reworking from Mozart, though the Aurora's mashup of the finale with La Marseillaise to show how Beethoven's theme just fits the style of military marches of the period was novel to me, as was the fact that it's the first symphony to feature the contrabassoon and the piccolo (I already knew about the trombone). Following the talk, the performance itself was full of energy and pace; the cellos in particular seemed to be enjoying themselves far more than could have been good for them (in fact this reminded me of the Michael Nyman Band Prom in 2009). The Aurora concert this season was not televised, so you had to be there; but it was the epitome of Reithian principles.