Promenading again
Aug. 23rd, 2024 09:11 pmAdmittedly, when I refreshed my mind for the programme of Prom 43 with the CBSO and Kazuki Yamada, and looked at the first half, I did wonder if I had lost my senses: Ravel and Mozart, neither of them particular favourites. In fact, I was surprisingly positive about Ravel's Mother Goose suite, although the more programmatic mimicry of birdsong once or twice didn't really work for me. For the most part, it didn't sound like Ravel.
Paul Lewis was the soloist for Mozart's Piano Concerto No 27. For me, it was a technocratic performance; the sound was clear enough, but it didn't dazzle. I got the impression from someone next to me in the Arena that they weren't all that taken with it either.
The second half opened with a short piece by Augusta Holmès: Ludus pro patria – ‘La nuit et l’amour’. Another unknown composer, but a quite pleasant work.
Of course, the final work in the concert was the reason I'd chosen this one: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - in the Henry Wood orchestration. I recalled previous performances of Leonard Slatkin's collations, with each picture arranged by a different composer, and I've also seen the familiar Ravel orchestration. Wood apparently he withdrew his own arrangement after Ravel's later publication. Wood's orchestration is earlier, bigger, brasher, and takes more liberties, omitting all but the opening Promenade.Gnomus was particularly spiky; there was effective use of offstage brass on either side of the gallery for Il vecchio castello. I recall Slatkin describing Wood's extended introduction of Bydło: truly, the ox cart lumbering. The bells in The Great Gate of Kyiv were not always in tune with the orchestra, but somehow the cacophony worked.
Paul Lewis was the soloist for Mozart's Piano Concerto No 27. For me, it was a technocratic performance; the sound was clear enough, but it didn't dazzle. I got the impression from someone next to me in the Arena that they weren't all that taken with it either.
The second half opened with a short piece by Augusta Holmès: Ludus pro patria – ‘La nuit et l’amour’. Another unknown composer, but a quite pleasant work.
Of course, the final work in the concert was the reason I'd chosen this one: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - in the Henry Wood orchestration. I recalled previous performances of Leonard Slatkin's collations, with each picture arranged by a different composer, and I've also seen the familiar Ravel orchestration. Wood apparently he withdrew his own arrangement after Ravel's later publication. Wood's orchestration is earlier, bigger, brasher, and takes more liberties, omitting all but the opening Promenade.Gnomus was particularly spiky; there was effective use of offstage brass on either side of the gallery for Il vecchio castello. I recall Slatkin describing Wood's extended introduction of Bydło: truly, the ox cart lumbering. The bells in The Great Gate of Kyiv were not always in tune with the orchestra, but somehow the cacophony worked.