Sláva Ukrayíni!
Jul. 31st, 2022 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiI realised yesterday's train strike would make last night's Prom impossible, but I hoped I would be able to make it to Prom 19A this morning, and although the trains were not particularly frequent from Reading I arrived just as the queue was forming up to enter the hall.
You can tell if only by the A that this was a late change to the originally planned schedule. There are normally one or two Sunday morning concerts in the season but they tend to be organ or other solo recitals, or events targeted towards families and children. This was, in most respects, a mainstream orchestral concert, but with a difference: the band was the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, formed of Ukrainian professional musicians either based elsewhere in Europe or estranged from their homeland, or with special permission to tour. Predictably, flags were being handed out as people entered the hall. Normally, I tend to think the applause as the orchestra enters the stage amounts to saying "thanks for turning up", but to be fair this orchestra had a more demanding journey than most. Eventually, the awkward combination of the orchestra not sitting until the applause had faded, and the applause not fading while the orchestra was standing, was resolved.
Predictably enough, the concert began with a Ukrainian work, Valentin Silvestrov's Symphony No 7. I didn't know what to expect of this contemporary composer; it turned out to be a work I'd listen to again, a single movement with a dark opening and some more melodic passages, eventually fading to nothing. For Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2 the orchestra were joined by Anna Fedorova. It's not a work I know well, with one or two fragments that I recognise, but this seemed a successful performance. In the mode of a gala concert, the next piece was operatic: Liudmyla Monastyrska sang an aria from Beethoven's Fidelio. The final scheduled work was Brahms's Symphony No 4, a piece I'm always keen to hear, although apparently I haven't seen it live since 2014, and again this was a good performance. It seemed inevitable that there would be an encore of some sort, and Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson announced that it was an arrangement of the Ukrainian National Anthem. Of course, the Prommers were already on their feet, but the orchestra (only the cellos, it appears, are exempt - but it's difficult to imagine any way of playing that instrument standing up) and the rest of the hall joined us.
You can tell if only by the A that this was a late change to the originally planned schedule. There are normally one or two Sunday morning concerts in the season but they tend to be organ or other solo recitals, or events targeted towards families and children. This was, in most respects, a mainstream orchestral concert, but with a difference: the band was the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, formed of Ukrainian professional musicians either based elsewhere in Europe or estranged from their homeland, or with special permission to tour. Predictably, flags were being handed out as people entered the hall. Normally, I tend to think the applause as the orchestra enters the stage amounts to saying "thanks for turning up", but to be fair this orchestra had a more demanding journey than most. Eventually, the awkward combination of the orchestra not sitting until the applause had faded, and the applause not fading while the orchestra was standing, was resolved.
Predictably enough, the concert began with a Ukrainian work, Valentin Silvestrov's Symphony No 7. I didn't know what to expect of this contemporary composer; it turned out to be a work I'd listen to again, a single movement with a dark opening and some more melodic passages, eventually fading to nothing. For Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2 the orchestra were joined by Anna Fedorova. It's not a work I know well, with one or two fragments that I recognise, but this seemed a successful performance. In the mode of a gala concert, the next piece was operatic: Liudmyla Monastyrska sang an aria from Beethoven's Fidelio. The final scheduled work was Brahms's Symphony No 4, a piece I'm always keen to hear, although apparently I haven't seen it live since 2014, and again this was a good performance. It seemed inevitable that there would be an encore of some sort, and Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson announced that it was an arrangement of the Ukrainian National Anthem. Of course, the Prommers were already on their feet, but the orchestra (only the cellos, it appears, are exempt - but it's difficult to imagine any way of playing that instrument standing up) and the rest of the hall joined us.