Prom 63: 'The Rite by Heart' (2), Aurora Orchestra, Saturday 2 September 2023

[gradus]

Thanks very much for getting in touch with us and for your kind words about Aurora. I work in the Aurora management team and hope you don't mind me replying on behalf of our musicians.

All rehearsals for memorised concerts do happen from memory, with the conductor either singing or playing the piano to give references to the score (i.e. rather than calling out bar numbers). Usually players have their parts at rehearsals in case they need to check anything; they'll keep them to one side or on the floor so that they only refer to them if necessary.

Everyone has stopped using the score by the general rehearsal (with the conductor giving feedback in the same way as described above).

I hope that helps, and we look forward to welcoming you to another concert soon.

How interesting. I saw them perform the Rite at Snape and quite apart from the excellent performance the thing that impressed me was the way the players embraced each other when it ended, presumably an overwhelming sense of achievement mixed with sheer relief that it had gone so well.

[Master Jacques]

How interesting. I saw them perform the Rite at Snape and quite apart from the excellent performance the thing that impressed me was the way the players embraced each other when it ended, presumably an overwhelming sense of achievement mixed with sheer relief that it had gone so well.

It sounds like the kind of response we'd expect after a Circus acrobatic act. I wonder if that's how live music sees the future - as a sort of high-wire, 'extreme sport'? Leaving audiences wondering how on earth the players remember all those notes, in the right order, certainly has little to do with recreating art.

[gradus]

It sounds like the kind of response we'd expect after a Circus acrobatic act. I wonder if that's how live music sees the future - as a sort of high-wire, 'extreme sport'? Leaving audiences wondering how on earth the players remember all those notes, in the right order, certainly has little to do with recreating art.

There is a hint of circus about it but it sort of suits the piece. When I saw them perform Beethoven 5, they were introduced by Tom Service who explained to us something or other about Beethoven. Again excellent playing and they gave the final movement as an encore with members of the orchestra, not the strings, dispersed around the auditorium, which was clever but I didn't really see what it added to the music but perhaps that wasn't the point.

[mikealdren]

An orchestra playing from memory is unusual but, as others have said, it's normal for soloists and some quartets do it too. Musical memory is an odd phenomenon, I had a friend who played the '48' from memory, any one in any key. He was an academic and trying to understand how it worked for some and not others, sadly he died young.
I have a nephew who plays with Aurora, he has always played from memory and thinks little of it.
As to standing up, it certainly helps the violinists make a better sound, the Brodsky quartet decided this years ago and soloists (apart from Perlman of course) always stand.

[Bryn]

An orchestra playing from memory is unusual but, as others have said, it's normal for soloists and some quartets do it too. Musical memory is an odd phenomenon, I had a friend who played the '48' from memory, any one in any key. He was an academic and trying to understand how it worked for some and not others, sadly he died young.
I have a nephew who plays with Aurora, he has always played from memory and thinks little of it.
As to standing up, it certainly helps the violinists make a better sound, the Brodsky quartet decided this years ago and soloists (apart from Perlman of course) always stand.

The Quebecois Quatuor Bozzini do likewise.

[Master Jacques]

As an appendix to this "memorise or not to memorise" thread, I'm currently reading Stanford's autobiographical memoir, in which he relates that at the Leipzig conservatoire in the late nineteenth century it was considered extremely disrespectful to the composer, to play a solo piano piece without the music on the stand. That sort of thing was only for vulgar showmen (and women).

Which just goes to show that the only "rule" here, is that fashions - and moral certainties - change as regularly as the times.

[Serial_Apologist]

As to standing up, it certainly helps the violinists make a better sound, the Brodsky quartet decided this years ago and soloists (apart from Perlman of course) always stand.

Some time ago, I wrote claiming that it was their instruments that the Brodskys played standing up in the manner of cellos and double basses, eliciting shock and disbelief from others here on the forum. Thanks for putting me right about this!