Prom 33 (7.8.12): Wagner, Bruckner & MacMillan

[jayne lee wilson]

Very impressed with Macmillan's Credo too!

The Pater and Filius sections are quite starkly instrumented, vocally almost ritualistic, with some startling leaps and high choral registers; and delicate, intimate voicings for three solo violas towards the end of Filius. The Spiritus Sanctus is more textually elaborated - I felt a slight sense of anticlimax here which wasn't entirely dispelled on a second hearing - but it draws the musical threads together tightly for a fulfilling end.
The three choruses soared impressively and expressively around the sympathetic space, the winds and brass seeming to comment on their intense declamations.

It's a striking piece - do catch up with it if you missed it live.

[kernelbogey]

The performance - so effortlessly, naturally Brucknerian - sounded ready for the studio... if only they could hire out the Musikverein or the Konzerthaus to tape it in.

Jayne, you write beautifully.

[EdgeleyRob]

Jayne, you write beautifully.

I couldn't agree more.Jayne's reviews are by far the best thing on this forum.

[Petrushka]

I couldn't agree more.Jayne's reviews are by far the best thing on this forum.

[jayne lee wilson]

Blushing a little now... (metaphorically anyway, the wine already did that - but it was a rather nice ribeye, so...) I listened again last night to the last 2 movements of Mena's Bruckner 6 and was even more impressed. Then I played Karajan's finale on the bedside Tivoli as I was getting up. Yes, the steadier pace is telling, but Mena has plenty of time.

It always takes me 2 or 3 listens to get the hang of the finale each time I return, an astounding quicksilver flow of constantly varied and developing main ideas, with short subsidiary motifs used to give rhythmic impetus (often related to AB's signature 2+3 rhythmic shape eg. No.4 (i)), as it moves through many changes of mood and direction to achieve its tonal goal. Remarkable piece, very advanced as a structure - no wonder Robert Simpson rarely sticks a "rondo" or "sonata" label on a Bruckner movement. You can't really apply formal grids to this music.
It probably took Mahler till the 1st movement of the 7th to achieve a comparable fluency and integration.

I sometimes think the most useful term ever invented for late 19th/early 20th century symphonic achievements was "developing variation" - courtesy of Arnold Schoenberg.

So - just go with the flow...

[amateur51]

it's the accompanying Amarone that usually does it

[Beef Oven]

Very impressed with Macmillan's Credo too!

The Pater and Filius sections are quite starkly instrumented, vocally almost ritualistic, with some startling leaps and high choral registers; and delicate, intimate voicings for three solo violas towards the end of Filius. The Spiritus Sanctus is more textually elaborated - I felt a slight sense of anticlimax here which wasn't entirely dispelled on a second hearing - but it draws the musical threads together tightly for a fulfilling end.
The three choruses soared impressively and expressively around the sympathetic space, the winds and brass seeming to comment on their intense declamations.

It's a striking piece - do catch up with it if you missed it live.

I wonder if Macmillan was present. He tells us he does not like England and the English, so he may have stayed away

[Flosshilde]

I wonder if Macmillan was present. He tells us he does not like England and the English, so he may have stayed away

Does he? Where? I know that he's highly critical of the anti-English-ness of the SNP.

I think he was at the Prom - perhaps someone who listened to the whole of his piece can say if he came on stage at the end. He did talk to the presenter just before his work was played, although it could have been recorded previously, or by telephone. He was very explicit that it is intended purely as a concert work, & not liturgical (probably wisely - how often dose a symphony orchestra feature during Mass these days?)

[JoeG]

Watched the TV transmission - he was there - I was impressed with his piece and the Bruckner

[Beef Oven]

Watched the TV transmission - he was there

Every man's got his price

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