BBCSO/Ian Volkov/Barbican live R3/19:30/22/01/14

[Richard Barrett]

I should say that in the past some of Dufourt's works have struck me as somewhat ponderous (eg. Les Chasseurs dans la neige d'apres Bruegel and the other pieces collected with it under the title Les Hivers), which is why I only posted links to pieces I already know and like.

[ahinton]

I should say that in the past some of Dufourt's works have struck me as somewhat ponderous (eg. Les Chasseurs dans la neige d'apres Bruegel and the other pieces collected with it under the title Les Hivers), which is why I only posted links to pieces I already know and like.

Fair enough!

[teamsaint]

Best to avoid Brylcreem in the future, ts!

Perhaps it was just that the orchestra didn't really gel.......


Sorryserious thread, but 12 tone started the silliness !!

[Serial_Apologist]

Perhaps it was just that the orchestra didn't really gel.......


Sorryserious thread, but 12 tone started the silliness !!

[edashtav]

{...}

The sort of nonchalant, polished articulacy, in short, that the BBC performers brought to Boulez' cummings ist der dichter, which sounded almost neoclassically articulate and restrained in this context. (Perhaps, though, it's time for presenters to stop referring to it as a "party piece" for the BBC Singers...)

With the full orchestra reassembled, Volkov created a Beethoven 7th of lean athleticism and cumulative energy, with the weight of impact coming from the last two movements (a notably fresh, swift and physically exciting account the scherzo and trio). Volkov took care not expend too much emotional energy either in the opening vivace or the beautifully balanced allegretto. No need for over-obvious HIPPS point making in a reading as perfectly weighted and flighted as this. An Apollonian ease of dispatch.

I've caught up with the 2nd half of this concert on iPlayer.

Your description of Volkov's Beethoven's 7th accords perfectly with what I heard, Jayne and I love your felicitous last sentence.


"Polished", "articulate", "nonchalant" : all fine epithets for his Boulez. I didn't find it neo-classical as you did rather "neo-impressionist" popped into my brain. Whatever, it was lovely.

I agree with your mild rebuke re "party piece".
Am I alone in finding that modern technology means that those writing the presenters' notes keep rehashing what's on the BBC's database rather than bringing fresh thought and insight to a work? Boulez was described as "an extraordinary figure in the history of contemporary music", accurate insofar that Pierre is alive and working at the age of nearly 90, but he, and cummings ist der dichter, are, in reality, yesterday's music. I'd have preferred Boulez to have been described as a 20th century composer. Over half the people in the world today were born AFTER the composition of cummings is der dichter. It's not contemporary music to them!

The ONLY contemporary music in this concert was the Dufourt Piano Concerto.

As for using a bleeding (and thus meaningless) chunk of a Boulez Piano Sonata to cover platform rearrangement, I belong to the Bryn school of thought. "YE GODS" Has the BBC lost all respect for music and its composers?

[jayne lee wilson]

Andrew Clements' review...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/23/bbcso-volkov-review

He felt the balance on the Dufourt was better via iPlayer than in the hall itself...

[edashtav]

I agree with much that Andrew Clements wrote in his Guardian review, Jayne, and his invocation of Xenakis (maybe undigested!) as the major influence on Grisey's early piece is spot-on.