Double first
Jul. 19th, 2023 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiI had a marginally better position in the queue on Tuesday; it was only when buying my concert ticket online that I found out this concert was also a sell-out for seats. As the first five concerts had now been completed, a separate queue was forming before 9am for those purchasing a Last Night ticket under the five-ticket rule. Some people were in both queues. Explaining this to any visitor would be like explaining the rules of Mornington Crescent.
The concert itself began - after a slight incident with queue-jumping - with another BBC commission and premiere, Grace-Evangeline Mason's ABLAZE THE MOON (uppercased in the listings so I assume it's important). For the second time in as many concerts I found the new work quite appealing; is there a shift in tastes, I wonder, at the BBC commissioning desk?
The piano was already on stage at the start of the concert, but the obligatory cry of "Heave-Ho!" still resounded as the lid was lifted. Sir Stephen Hough (perhaps they gave him a knighthood so that no-one would mention that concert) was the soloist for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 1. This time, the right notes were there. Sometimes people say that a piano concerto is a struggle between the soloist and the orchestra. From a central position at the front of the Arena, it's fair to say the pianist wins every time, but it's perhaps not the most balanced aural experience. Rubinstein's Melody in F was a light encore.
The single work in the second half was Mahler's Symphony No 1, a work I'd most recently seen in 2018. I heard someone in the afternoon saying they thought Mahler's first two symphonies were the only ones worth listening to. I wouldn't agree, but the first is one of my favourites and it is one of the more manageable ones. This time, conductor Mark Wigglesworth had the BBC Philharmonic arranged with the cellos opposite the first violins. The opening notes, which always seam primordial to me, felt particularly visceral on this occasion. Looking across the strings, I noticed: no vibrato. Wigglesworth played with the tempo a little here and there, but never too much. It really was an exciting performance, the orchestra on form throughout. The horn section stood up at the end of the finale: Mahler's direction seems to have become the convention now. The concert finished promptly and, despite notices to the contrary, Kensington Gardens was still open, which made for a more convenient retreat to Paddington and the journey home.
The concert itself began - after a slight incident with queue-jumping - with another BBC commission and premiere, Grace-Evangeline Mason's ABLAZE THE MOON (uppercased in the listings so I assume it's important). For the second time in as many concerts I found the new work quite appealing; is there a shift in tastes, I wonder, at the BBC commissioning desk?
The piano was already on stage at the start of the concert, but the obligatory cry of "Heave-Ho!" still resounded as the lid was lifted. Sir Stephen Hough (perhaps they gave him a knighthood so that no-one would mention that concert) was the soloist for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 1. This time, the right notes were there. Sometimes people say that a piano concerto is a struggle between the soloist and the orchestra. From a central position at the front of the Arena, it's fair to say the pianist wins every time, but it's perhaps not the most balanced aural experience. Rubinstein's Melody in F was a light encore.
The single work in the second half was Mahler's Symphony No 1, a work I'd most recently seen in 2018. I heard someone in the afternoon saying they thought Mahler's first two symphonies were the only ones worth listening to. I wouldn't agree, but the first is one of my favourites and it is one of the more manageable ones. This time, conductor Mark Wigglesworth had the BBC Philharmonic arranged with the cellos opposite the first violins. The opening notes, which always seam primordial to me, felt particularly visceral on this occasion. Looking across the strings, I noticed: no vibrato. Wigglesworth played with the tempo a little here and there, but never too much. It really was an exciting performance, the orchestra on form throughout. The horn section stood up at the end of the finale: Mahler's direction seems to have become the convention now. The concert finished promptly and, despite notices to the contrary, Kensington Gardens was still open, which made for a more convenient retreat to Paddington and the journey home.