Prom 5 - Monday 18th July 2011 (Messiaen, Dusapin, Beethoven)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Presented by Rob Cowan

Myung-Whun Chung conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and is joined by Proms first-timers Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, and pianist Frank Braley for Beethoven's Triple Concerto. There's also colourful music by Messiaen alongside the UK premiere of an exciting new work for large orchestra by Pascal Dusapin.

Pascal Dusapin is one of the most exciting contemporary voices around, combining stylistic experimentation with emotional directness. Dusapin studied briefly with Olivier Messiaen, whose first orchestral work, Les offrandes oubliées, opens the concert.

Messiaen: Les offrandes oubliées
Pascal Dusapin: Morning in Long Island - Concerto No. 1 for large orchestra (BBC co-commission with Radio France; UK Premiere)
Beethoven: Triple Concerto

Renaud Capuçon (violin)
Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Frank Braley (piano)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung (conductor)


Renaud Capuçon (violin)
Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Frank Braley (piano)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung (conductor)

[Tevot]

I'm looking forward to this one as it gives me the opportunity to get to grips with the Triple Concerto - which if I've read the proms archive correctly has been performed only 21 times at the Proms; last time in 2001. Looking forward to the Dusapin too (he reminds me of Berio - certainly his piano concerto A quia had echoes) I'd also recommend "Watt" which is Dusapin's trombone concerto. Yes - it promises to be an interesting and engaging concert - as indeed does Prom 6 with the Rite of Spring and the Brahms Double. I have fond memories of Myung-Whun Chung's Nielsen cycle on BIS back in the 1980s - so I'll definitely be tuning into these concerts.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Roehre]

I am looking forward to that Prom too, especially Dusapin's concerto for orchestra.

Messiaen's piece was one of the very first ones of his which I came across, many moons ago.

As an absolute Beethoven-fan I am nevertheless afraid I think Beethoven's inventiveness in solving compositional problems had a day off during the composition of the triple-concerto.
And that was the 2nd time around, as the composition of a triple concerto in D was abandoned - and much for the same reason why I think the concerto is not a great success: the inertia of the melodies and themes.

In the completed concerto especially the opening theme of the 1st mvt basically offers hardly any grips for further development. But let's face it: Beethoven had to re-invent the concerto-form here, as he didn't have any examples of a pianotrio-sinfonia-concertante at hand (AFAIK he was the very first to compose for such a combination), and the pianotrio is inherently unbalanced anyway. So he came with a kind of concerto-grosso solution, with the soloists more stating melodies than actually developing them. But IMO this strategy hasn't really paid off.

Nevertheless it is an interesting work, though IMO far from Beethoven's best.

[Alf-Prufrock]

Golly, a vuvuzela concerto !

[Chris Newman]

I loved the Messiaen which was beautiful and moving; very moving. I had not heard this particular work before but wish to do so again.

I felt Pascal Dusapin's Morning in Long Island - Concerto No. 1 was also beautiful but for too long it remained static, then when it sped up it repeated something familiar that I cannot put my finger on.

[pilamenon]

I loved the Messiaen which was beautiful and moving; very moving. I had not heard this particular work before but wish to do so again.

I felt Pascal Dusapin's Morning in Long Island - Concerto No. 1 was also beautiful but for too long it remained static, then when it sped up it repeated something familiar that I cannot put my finger on.

Agreed about both. So good to hear Les Offrandes again after an absence. Wasn't it beautifully done?

Golly, a vuvuzela concerto !

It sounded like a giant orchestral fart.

[Roehre]

I loved the Messiaen which was beautiful and moving; very moving. I had not heard this particular work before but wish to do so again.

I felt Pascal Dusapin's Morning in Long Island - Concerto No. 1 was also beautiful but for too long it remained static, then when it sped up it repeated something familiar that I cannot put my finger on.

I've heard the Messiaen only half, but I am always impressed by this juvenilium of Messiaen's (he was 21/22 at that time).
The Dusapin IMO is too long for its contents (though I like the orchestral colouring), and the "familiarity" for me was actually the "fog-horn " from Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse and the percussion section of some big-band-show-orchestra.

For me the Beethoven is too weak a work to listen to regularly. Btw, the very opening of the tripleconcerto, as well as half of the 1st theme in the rondo of the 4th pianoconcerto were originally sketched for the prisoners' chorus in Leonore.
Not a bad guess, chris