LIVE tonight 7.30pm the BBCSSO conducted by Andrew Manze

[salymap]

Vaughan Williams symphonies 4 and 5, plus the Lark Ascending and Bach violin sonata in G minor, BWV 1001. Jennifer Pike, (violin) From Glasgow's City Halls

[Chris Newman]

Hi salymap,

It looks like a warm-up for Prom 46 where Manze and the BBCSSO play RVW's Symphonies 4, 5 and 6. Getting the idiom into their system.

bws
Chris

[salymap]

Yes Chris and he's already given a lovely performance of symphony 6 recently.

bws
saly

[mercia]

a strange juxtaposition (IMV) from the gentle Bach straight into the violent VW, still .........

[Hornspieler]

a strange juxtaposition (IMV) from the gentle Bach straight into the violent VW, still .........

Jennifer Pike's Bach was not just gentle - it was pathetic.

I do hope she does better with "The Lark Ascending".

HS

[Panjandrum]

Jennifer Pike's Bach was not just gentle - it was pathetic.

As in heartrending?

[Hornspieler]

As in heartrending?

Unaccompanied Bach is the ultimate test for any string player. One needs to "dig in" to the instrument - not skate carefully over the strings.
On tonight's performance, I would only give a rating of B minus.

HS

(Where on earth is Cellini when one needs his opinion?)

[Chris Newman]

Yes Chris and he's already given a lovely performance of symphony 6 recently.

bws
saly

Yes, Andrew Manze's Number Six on March 8th was something very, very special indeed. Tonight the Fourth took its time to develop the sort of fierceness I associate with Sir Adrian Boult, Paul Daniel or especially Ralph Vaughan Williams himself in his brilliant recording but Manze's Fifth Symphony sounded superb. Gorgeous Cor Anglais solo. I love his big arched phrasing. I enjoyed Jennifer Pike's Lark Ascending; maybe the last note was a bit abrupt (a hangover from the end of the Fourth Symphony perhaps). Andrew Manze is turning out to be a good egg with RVW and British music in general. I see that he is planning to do all Nine symphonies over several Prom seasons. I wonder if a set of recordings is mooted.

bws
Chris

[Hornspieler]

Hooray! A lovely performance of "The Lark Ascending" Maybe not approaching the benchmark set by the late Hugh Bean, but a sensitive and beguiling performance for all that (Those important horn solos were a bit overpowering - microphone too close?)

I have a splendid recording, made by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Norman del Mar during a tour of the Far East of the Symphony Nº 4. Compared with that, I felt that tonight's performance was slightly lacking the savagery and malice of RVW's intentions; but no complaint about the 5th symphony - a most accomplished and moving experience and as good as I have ever heard.

A good night's listening, marred for me only by that rather limpid and (IMHO) out of place Bach.

I would have preferred that old war horse "The Wasps" overture to open this RVW tribute.

HS

[EdgeleyRob]

Getting the idiom into their system.

They already have judging by tonights performances, although I agree no 4 could have been more... violent...in parts.

I would have preferred that old war horse "The Wasps" overture to open this RVW tribute.

And maybe the Concerto Accademico, which is never heard,rather than the Lark.