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

[Chris Newman]

You are, I take it CN, familiar with Leonore Overture Number 4 (and I don't mean Fidelio).

Oh, Bryn!!! I was obviously too serious about my musical link with The Happy Wanderer(s). I had completely forgotten the famous 4th Overture as delightfully conducted by Norman del Mar!! A shame it and associated music are not allowed on YouTube.

[Tevot]

Another imho excellent concert which seemed to be very well enjoyed by the audience - certainly Rob Cowan seemed to be impressed. It'll be interesting to see what the newspaper critics make of it. Both the French pieces were quite static it seemed to me (first time I've heard the Messiaen who is a composer I don't generally warm to) and it was interesting to hear Rob Cowan's reaction to the Dusapin - namely "(you) never knew where it was going to turn..." which I suppose can be a weakness as well as a strength. I rather liked the Dusapin though and will certainly be giving it a spin again on the trusty i-player.

Best Wishes,

Tevot.

[Roslynmuse]

I enjoyed much of the Dusapin - the static nature of much of the work didn't bother me at all, and I thought he coloured and shaded the melodic/ harmonic shapes in such a way as to keep my interest alive. Two red herrings - the high violin entry near the start reminded me irresistibly of the first Peter Grimes Sea Interlude (the pitch - I think - as well as the scoring, and perhaps some subconscious link to Dusapin describing the inspiration for the work being early morning on a freezing beach - the answering bass swell was also Brittenesque), and some of the later high-lying string lines made me think of Mahler 10 (very fine playing, by the way). A more blatant influence seemed to be the end of the Rite in the last five minutes or so (although squared off rhythmically into predictably regular bars) - a disappointing conclusion to what had up till then been a piece I was looking forward to revisiting. Also, here, unless my ears deceived me, there didn't seem to be any increase in rate of harmonic change, just a more active surface. In retrospect, the jazzy percussion five or six minutes in should have warned me of the way the piece might go. Oh, and I really disliked the moment another poster described (more or less) as flatulent! OK, there was a premonition of that in the opening bars, but nowhere near so crude, and I can't imagine what Dusapin was trying to convey here.

Hints of Dutilleux (the funky bass/timps riffs before the final section).

I haven't heard enough of PD to get a sense of his voice, and this struck me as fairly 'soft-core', but I think worth another listen, and a comparison with next week's performances.

[Tevot]

Here are a two reviews of the concert:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...ll-review.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011.../prom-5-review

Best wishes,

Tevot

[Roehre]

I had completely forgotten the famous 4th Overture as delightfully conducted by Norman del Mar!! A shame it and associated music are not allowed on YouTube.

The only performance I've got is on a Decca 2CD with two Hoffnung concerts, are there any others?

[Bryn]

Roehre, the originals can be found on this EMI double CD album:



Amazon seem to have the lowest price.

[Bryn]

It seems that instead of a repeat of Prom 5 this Afternoon on 3, we are to get a different performance of the Triple Concerto, with Myung-Whun Chung directing from the piano:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012lm51

[french frank]

It seems that instead of a repeat of Prom 5 this Afternoon on 3, we are to get a different performance of the Triple Concerto, with Myung-Whun Chung directing from the piano:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012lm51

Silly Bryn - scroll down and you'll see that the piano soloist was Martha Argerich ...

[Bryn]

Silly Bryn - scroll down and you'll see that the piano soloist was Martha Argerich ...

Perhaps she turned up after the first movement?

[french frank]

Perhaps she turned up after the first movement?

Hmmm, there must have been quite a scrabble for that piano stool ...