Shostakovich 4 and the Tango Prom
Sep. 5th, 2018 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiIt's the last week of the Proms season, and all the concerts are good. In the end I opted to go for Monday and Tuesday only.
You can sometimes guess the popular concerts, but not always with certainty. I had no idea whether Prom 69 would be popular; in 2006 I expected Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to be far more in demand than it actually was, because of the novelty value. Likewise with its orchestral contemporary, Shostakovich 4, perhaps; the Bernstein in the first half wasn't known to me. Unfortunately, on arrival at Reading station I jumped straight onto a train on the London-bound platforms, only to find it slinking across onto the dreaded "relief line". It then turned out that only one of its engines was working, and at least three other trains overtook it on the way. I felt lucky to be only 15 minutes or so late, but it probably did push me back in the queue.
Nevertheless, it was a popular concert, and as the stewards asked the Prommers to stand up and move forward, the row in front of me melted away, and I ended up in a space in the second row. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Andris Nelsons, but for the first half piece, Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium"), only a subset was present. Baiba Skride was the violinist. It was a new piece to me, and I enjoyed it far more than my indifferent recollection of his first symphony earlier in the season - this had quite a lightness of touch and one or two sections reminded me of the second-half theme (i.e. not the famous opening one) in Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. The second half of the concert, on the other hand, was for large orchestra: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4, a dark piece that was halted in rehearsals after Stalin's criticism of the composer's Lady Macbeth opera, and not performed until 1961. It is an odd work; but his second and third symphonies are also uncompromisingly modernist (although those both combine choral paeans to the regime); there is so much going on and it can seem chaotic at times. Mahler 9 remains for me the saddest music in the world, but the ending of Shostakovich 4 is possibly the bleakest, the spine chilling final notes on the harp and celesta, and muted trumpet, over the most nihilistic bass strings. It was a good performance, appreciated by the audience, but it was not the place for an encore. At least the time-keeping had been disciplined and I caught a reasonable train home.
I expected Tuesday's Tango Prom to be popular - though not necessarily with all the usual Prommers - and set out a little earlier in order to boost the chances of getting a good place in the queue. This was successful, although the early morning queue wasn't as long as I'd expected. I was on the rail about half-way across on the day Promming side. It's impossible to please everyone with the less conventional concerts; some people complain of dumbing-down, whilst others will complain that it's not accessible enough. I was disappointed with the rather high-minded selection in the British Light Music Prom in 2013; I recall people being dissatisfied with the David Bowie Prom a few years later. Often, as was the case here, the detailed programme was only available quite late, though I gather seats had sold out nonetheless. I hoped I would be easily satisfied: put some Piazzolla in the programme, and hopefully works by other composers sharing some of the same characteristics.
Predictably, the concert was introduced by Katie Derham from the stage, and "Vincent and Flavia" (apparently from Strictly Come Dancing) danced some of the numbers. That didn't make much of an impression on me, but presumably a lot of people liked it and it will probably make for good TV. The first half began in Argentina, with the Britten Sinfonia and Clark Rundell giving works by several composers; then a John Adams arrangement of Piazzolla's La mufa. Multiple bandoneóns (what is the collective noun?) were present, and vocals for many of the pieces were provided by bass Nahuel di Pierro. Then, an unexpected move to the North: Finnish Tango. The bandoneóns moved over, their places taken by rock guitar, drums, and accordion, for a set of idiosyncratic pieces; the arrangements of Sibelius - Valse triste Tango (typical Finnish humour in the programme notes: "Sibelius was probably not aware that, while composing his beloved Valse triste in 1903, he was really creating a tango. He mistakenly went and chose the waltz rhythm for this beautiful melancholic gem. Even the best of us make mistakes. Happily, this one has now been corrected.") - and Unto Mononen's Satumaa, featuring Veli Kujala playing his own quarter-tone accordion - were particular stand-outs. Soprano Helena Juntunen provided the vocals in this section, and cracked jokes about the quarter-tones (Kujala was clearly having a whale of a time all evening): "those of you who enjoy contemporary classical music can admire the quarter-tones; for the rest ... don't worry, he's not drunk". The first halft was rounded off with a tango arrangement of Bowie's Life on Mars, or Sudenkorento.
The second half began with probably Piazzolla's most famous work - Libertango - and moved on to a set with Pablo Ziegler and his band (Ziegler played piano in Piazzolla's band in the 1970s). This took the tango in a jazz direction. Some pieces were better than others; I think Places and Blues Porteño probably worked best for me. The evening drew to a conclusion, perhaps inevitably, with Rodriguez's La cumparsita, and a short vocal encore. The concert ended late and I caught a later train back as a result, but at least it ran to time, and I felt satisfied with my choice of final Prom for the season.
You can sometimes guess the popular concerts, but not always with certainty. I had no idea whether Prom 69 would be popular; in 2006 I expected Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to be far more in demand than it actually was, because of the novelty value. Likewise with its orchestral contemporary, Shostakovich 4, perhaps; the Bernstein in the first half wasn't known to me. Unfortunately, on arrival at Reading station I jumped straight onto a train on the London-bound platforms, only to find it slinking across onto the dreaded "relief line". It then turned out that only one of its engines was working, and at least three other trains overtook it on the way. I felt lucky to be only 15 minutes or so late, but it probably did push me back in the queue.
Nevertheless, it was a popular concert, and as the stewards asked the Prommers to stand up and move forward, the row in front of me melted away, and I ended up in a space in the second row. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Andris Nelsons, but for the first half piece, Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium"), only a subset was present. Baiba Skride was the violinist. It was a new piece to me, and I enjoyed it far more than my indifferent recollection of his first symphony earlier in the season - this had quite a lightness of touch and one or two sections reminded me of the second-half theme (i.e. not the famous opening one) in Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. The second half of the concert, on the other hand, was for large orchestra: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4, a dark piece that was halted in rehearsals after Stalin's criticism of the composer's Lady Macbeth opera, and not performed until 1961. It is an odd work; but his second and third symphonies are also uncompromisingly modernist (although those both combine choral paeans to the regime); there is so much going on and it can seem chaotic at times. Mahler 9 remains for me the saddest music in the world, but the ending of Shostakovich 4 is possibly the bleakest, the spine chilling final notes on the harp and celesta, and muted trumpet, over the most nihilistic bass strings. It was a good performance, appreciated by the audience, but it was not the place for an encore. At least the time-keeping had been disciplined and I caught a reasonable train home.
I expected Tuesday's Tango Prom to be popular - though not necessarily with all the usual Prommers - and set out a little earlier in order to boost the chances of getting a good place in the queue. This was successful, although the early morning queue wasn't as long as I'd expected. I was on the rail about half-way across on the day Promming side. It's impossible to please everyone with the less conventional concerts; some people complain of dumbing-down, whilst others will complain that it's not accessible enough. I was disappointed with the rather high-minded selection in the British Light Music Prom in 2013; I recall people being dissatisfied with the David Bowie Prom a few years later. Often, as was the case here, the detailed programme was only available quite late, though I gather seats had sold out nonetheless. I hoped I would be easily satisfied: put some Piazzolla in the programme, and hopefully works by other composers sharing some of the same characteristics.
Predictably, the concert was introduced by Katie Derham from the stage, and "Vincent and Flavia" (apparently from Strictly Come Dancing) danced some of the numbers. That didn't make much of an impression on me, but presumably a lot of people liked it and it will probably make for good TV. The first half began in Argentina, with the Britten Sinfonia and Clark Rundell giving works by several composers; then a John Adams arrangement of Piazzolla's La mufa. Multiple bandoneóns (what is the collective noun?) were present, and vocals for many of the pieces were provided by bass Nahuel di Pierro. Then, an unexpected move to the North: Finnish Tango. The bandoneóns moved over, their places taken by rock guitar, drums, and accordion, for a set of idiosyncratic pieces; the arrangements of Sibelius - Valse triste Tango (typical Finnish humour in the programme notes: "Sibelius was probably not aware that, while composing his beloved Valse triste in 1903, he was really creating a tango. He mistakenly went and chose the waltz rhythm for this beautiful melancholic gem. Even the best of us make mistakes. Happily, this one has now been corrected.") - and Unto Mononen's Satumaa, featuring Veli Kujala playing his own quarter-tone accordion - were particular stand-outs. Soprano Helena Juntunen provided the vocals in this section, and cracked jokes about the quarter-tones (Kujala was clearly having a whale of a time all evening): "those of you who enjoy contemporary classical music can admire the quarter-tones; for the rest ... don't worry, he's not drunk". The first halft was rounded off with a tango arrangement of Bowie's Life on Mars, or Sudenkorento.
The second half began with probably Piazzolla's most famous work - Libertango - and moved on to a set with Pablo Ziegler and his band (Ziegler played piano in Piazzolla's band in the 1970s). This took the tango in a jazz direction. Some pieces were better than others; I think Places and Blues Porteño probably worked best for me. The evening drew to a conclusion, perhaps inevitably, with Rodriguez's La cumparsita, and a short vocal encore. The concert ended late and I caught a later train back as a result, but at least it ran to time, and I felt satisfied with my choice of final Prom for the season.