This England
Jul. 28th, 2018 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiI wasn't too sure of Prom 17, which marked the centenary of the death of the English composer Hubert Parry, best known for anthems such as Jerusalem and I was Glad, with a selection of English music mostly from the decade surrounding the First World War, but I was drawn by The Lark Ascending and in the hope of discovering something new. The queue played chicken with the weather, and at the front we were lucky to get into the hall just in time to hear an apocalyptic roll of thunder as we waited to enter the Arena.
I wasn't disappointed; the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the unassuming Martin Brabbins began with Parry's Symphony No. 5, a work straddling generations, with four contiguous movements, a distinctly Brahmsian opening and some Tchaikovsky-esque passages, but also with some more modernist elements. Violinist Tai Murray joined the orchestra for Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, the only piece I knew in the concert. This is quintessential English pastoralia; I'm not familiar with George Meredith's poem, but for me the modal harmonies conjure images of a sultry and stifling English summer, evening sunlight through dusty parched hay-fields, an inexplicable sense of lethargy, melancholy and a whiff of an elegiac tone. Given the piece was written at the start of World War I and revised after its end, the melancholy is of course quite explicable. It was an excellent performance and she entertained us further with a showy Tárrega encore Recuerdos de la Alhambra - summer lollipops indeed.
The second half of the concert contained two Proms choral novelties: first, Parry's Hear my words, ye people, and then Holst's Ode to Death. The BBC National Chorus of Wales were joined by soprano Francesca Chiejina and bass-baritone Ashley Riches, and organist Adrian Partington. The Parry was the odd one out in this concert, dating from 1895, and was quite a traditional piece for choir, brass and organ; the Holst was a calm yet anguished setting of a Walt Whitman poem, itself a lament for the Abraham Lincoln and written in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The final work in the concert was Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 3 (Pastoral), capturing the same sensations as his earlier piece, like the Parry symphony its movements coalescing into a continuum, and making use of the space by placing the off-stage soprano and natural trumpet (which blended perfectly with the orchestral harmonics) up in the gallery.
I wasn't disappointed; the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the unassuming Martin Brabbins began with Parry's Symphony No. 5, a work straddling generations, with four contiguous movements, a distinctly Brahmsian opening and some Tchaikovsky-esque passages, but also with some more modernist elements. Violinist Tai Murray joined the orchestra for Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, the only piece I knew in the concert. This is quintessential English pastoralia; I'm not familiar with George Meredith's poem, but for me the modal harmonies conjure images of a sultry and stifling English summer, evening sunlight through dusty parched hay-fields, an inexplicable sense of lethargy, melancholy and a whiff of an elegiac tone. Given the piece was written at the start of World War I and revised after its end, the melancholy is of course quite explicable. It was an excellent performance and she entertained us further with a showy Tárrega encore Recuerdos de la Alhambra - summer lollipops indeed.
The second half of the concert contained two Proms choral novelties: first, Parry's Hear my words, ye people, and then Holst's Ode to Death. The BBC National Chorus of Wales were joined by soprano Francesca Chiejina and bass-baritone Ashley Riches, and organist Adrian Partington. The Parry was the odd one out in this concert, dating from 1895, and was quite a traditional piece for choir, brass and organ; the Holst was a calm yet anguished setting of a Walt Whitman poem, itself a lament for the Abraham Lincoln and written in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The final work in the concert was Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 3 (Pastoral), capturing the same sensations as his earlier piece, like the Parry symphony its movements coalescing into a continuum, and making use of the space by placing the off-stage soprano and natural trumpet (which blended perfectly with the orchestral harmonics) up in the gallery.