Henry Wood
Sep. 1st, 2019 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiWhat could be more liberal metropolitan elite than going on a protest march at lunchtime followed by a Prom in the evening? So, I spent a couple of hours in the National Gallery - probing some less familiar corners as well as the Canalettos, Constables and Turners - before heading back to South Kensington. The arena was quite sparsely populated, and I was in the second row.
The BBC Concert Orchestra was conducted by Bramwell Tovey - no relation to Donald Francis Tovey, apparently - in a programme inspired by Sir Henry Wood's novelties and orchestrations. (Of course, as the sole conductor for many years at the Proms, much of the classical repertoire must have had its first Proms performance under Wood's baton; but you still know a "Proms Novelty" when you see one). The concert began with Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole, not one of my favourite composers and a Proms novelty to me, but an interesting piece with its typical colours and mounting energy. John Ireland's Piano Concerto was next, with Leon McCawley as the soloist. The programme notes suggested Prokofiev as an influence; in early sections I though also of Rachmaninov, but later on, also of Vaughan Williams and Britten. McCawley gave an encore of Schumann arranged by Liszt.
The second half began with the dread phrase "BBC commission: world premiere". You never know what you're going to get. In fact, Dobrinka Tabakova's Timber and Steel was quite enjoyable, following a John Adams minimalist style. The main body of the second half - and the real attraction of this concert for me - was the set of Henry Wood orchestrations: Debussy's Préludes - La cathédrale engloutie; Granados's Danzas españolas - Andaluza, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder - Träume and Grainger's Handel in the Strand. Overdone, yes, but still enjoyable. The concert concluded with more Ravel - this time the decadent La valse, perhaps echoing the sense of the End Times I had felt earlier in the day.
The BBC Concert Orchestra was conducted by Bramwell Tovey - no relation to Donald Francis Tovey, apparently - in a programme inspired by Sir Henry Wood's novelties and orchestrations. (Of course, as the sole conductor for many years at the Proms, much of the classical repertoire must have had its first Proms performance under Wood's baton; but you still know a "Proms Novelty" when you see one). The concert began with Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole, not one of my favourite composers and a Proms novelty to me, but an interesting piece with its typical colours and mounting energy. John Ireland's Piano Concerto was next, with Leon McCawley as the soloist. The programme notes suggested Prokofiev as an influence; in early sections I though also of Rachmaninov, but later on, also of Vaughan Williams and Britten. McCawley gave an encore of Schumann arranged by Liszt.
The second half began with the dread phrase "BBC commission: world premiere". You never know what you're going to get. In fact, Dobrinka Tabakova's Timber and Steel was quite enjoyable, following a John Adams minimalist style. The main body of the second half - and the real attraction of this concert for me - was the set of Henry Wood orchestrations: Debussy's Préludes - La cathédrale engloutie; Granados's Danzas españolas - Andaluza, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder - Träume and Grainger's Handel in the Strand. Overdone, yes, but still enjoyable. The concert concluded with more Ravel - this time the decadent La valse, perhaps echoing the sense of the End Times I had felt earlier in the day.