Prom 16 (26.7.12): Elgar, Wood, Ravel & Debussy

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thursday 26 July at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Elgar: In the South (Alassio) (23 mins)
Hugh Wood: Concerto for Piano (25 mins)
Ravel: Une barque sur l'océan (8 mins)
Debussy: La cathédrale engloutie (orch. Henry Wood) (8 mins)
Debussy: La mer (25 mins)

Joanna MacGregor piano
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in an Entente Cordiale of British and French music. Joanna MacGregor, widely acclaimed as one of the world's most innovative musicians, is the soloist in Hugh Wood's jazz-influenced Piano Concerto. Hugh Wood celebrates his 80th birthday this year.
Elgar's warm and sunny overture In the South opens the programme, a musical postcard from a happy holiday in Mediterranean Italy.The watery influence seeps into the French second half, which concludes with Debussy's revolutionary seascape La Mer, a sparkling of light at play on the ocean, forever associated with Hokusai's famous woodprint of the Great Wave. Around the same time, Ravel turned his attention to depicting a boat setting sail, fighting with wind and ocean's current. Originally one of his piano pieces, he later scored "Une barque sur l'ocean" with great precision for full orchestral colour. Henry Wood, founder of the Proms, was an early champion of Debussy in England, so it's fitting that Debussy's most popular piano pieces, La cathedrale engloutie, is heard in a rarely heard orchestration by Wood himself.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

How common is the name "Wood" in the musical world?

Henry Wood, Charles Wood, Haydn Wood, Hugh Wood. Any more?

[Serial_Apologist]

How common is the name "Wood" in the musical world?

Henry Wood, Charles Wood, Haydn Wood, Hugh Wood. Any more?

Diane du Bois
The Woodchoppers' Ball

[Caliban]

How common is the name "Wood" in the musical world?

Henry Wood, Charles Wood, Haydn Wood, Hugh Wood. Any more?

Alpie, you should pop across to the Alphabet Associations thread when it gets near the end of the alphabet

[mercia]

Any more?

Arthur [Barwick Green]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Ah, yes. I forgot about him.

Ursula Vaughan Williams was a Wood for a while too, but that wasn't her maiden name.

[EdgeleyRob]

Jedwood,sorry forget that you said musical world.

[Serial_Apologist]

Victoria wouldn't

[EdgeleyRob]

Edwood Woodwood would.

[Caliban]

The vigilant will have spotted that Thierry Fischer has dropped out (through illness), and is being replaced with Ryan Wigglesworth...