Prom 66: Beethoven/Schoenberg/Shostakovich (4.09.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
Royal Albert Hall


Beethoven: Fidelio - Overture
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Mitsuko Uchida makes a welcome return to the Proms for Schoenberg's rarely heard Piano Concerto. It's a work whose 12-tone abstraction is tempered by intriguing autobiographical suggestions - 'Life was so easy', 'Suddenly hatred broke out' - scribbled on the original manuscript. Autobiography is also at the fore in Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony. Composed in 1943, at a particularly dark moment for Russia in the war, the work is a fragile statement of hope that the composer himself summarised as: 'All that is dark and oppressive will disappear; all that is beautiful will triumph.'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_(Schoenberg)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Very possibly my favourite of Schoenberg's orchestral works - and here with very possibly its finest performer (Uchida, that is - I've never heard Jurowski conduct the work). Dmitri'll have difficulty following that!

[ahinton]

Very possibly my favourite of Schoenberg's orchestral works - and here with very possibly its finest performer (Uchida, that is - I've never heard Jurowski conduct the work). Dmitri'll have difficulty following that!

Well, both works do end in C major!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, both works do end in C major!

Now that's what I call "prolongation"!

[Darkbloom]

It would take a lot to make me listen (let alone stand) to a DSCH symphony, but Jurowski might persuade me. I can't think of anyone else who could persuade me to go and seem them conduct, regardless of the repertoire.

[gedsmk]

It would take a lot to make me listen (let alone stand) to a DSCH symphony, but Jurowski might persuade me. I can't think of anyone else who could persuade me to go and seem them conduct, regardless of the repertoire.

I would for V. Petrenko, M. Jansons, S. Skrowaczewski, and I. Fischer. All on their game capable of

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It would take a lot to make me listen (let alone stand) to a DSCH symphony, but Jurowski might persuade me. I can't think of anyone else who could persuade me to go and seem them conduct, regardless of the repertoire.

I appreciate the fact that the RAH provides such excellent seating throughout the year, including at the Proms.

[bluestateprommer]

Crisp start to this Prom, with VJ and the LPO (DM accidentally misidentified them as the LSO at the start, an uncharacteristic slip, which he acknowledged when VJ walked on stage) neatly delivering LvB's Fidelio overture. (Kind of curious to hear the Prommers' "Heave! Ho!" right before a piano concerto as recondite as Schoenberg's, about to start.)

Likewise, Mitsuko Uchida (sorry, Dame Mitsuko Uchida) dispatched Schoenberg's op. 42 with aplomb, ably supported by VJ and the LPO. Rather droll of her to play a Schoenberg miniature as her encore. DM mentioned that Uchida did have the services of a page-turner for the Schoenberg, understandably so. One hopes that Dame M. treated her page turner much more nicely than Andras Schiff treated the page turner in Schwartzenberg (who admittedly did make a mistake during the performance).

Last, and certainly not least: cracking DSCH 8 from VJ and the LPO, well paced and firing splendidly on all cylinders, with the unholy dins of sounds well judged indeed. (One fears for the ears of the musicians at those moments.) Fortunately, unlike their Prom last year, no happy clappers to disrupt the atmosphere, although I suppose the presence of the names Mitsuko Uchida and Arnold Schoenberg were enough to pre-filter the audience. Would be nice to hear a report from people actually in the RAH for this one.

[Nick Armstrong]

cracking DSCH 8 from VJ and the LPO, well paced and firing splendidly on all cylinders

Wasn't it just. Didn't hear all but what I did hear was top-notch. A definite for a compete re-hearing.

The subtleties were done beautifully too - that crucial moment where the twin clarinets rise and hand over to the bassoon to start the last movement was exquisite - that top clarinet note was SO sweet, perfectly in tune and pure! And thank heavens, no numpty in the hall coughed or dropped a champagne bucket at the moment critique. Perfection.

no happy clappers to disrupt the atmosphere, although I suppose the presence of the names Mitsuko Uchida and Arnold Schoenberg were enough to pre-filter the audience. Would be nice to hear a report from people actually in the RAH for this one.

Indeed, I know at least 3 discerning individuals who were there, two of whom were jovially threatening to have a crack at pole-position for inter-movement clapping and post-symphonic whooping Happily both were audibly restrained! Look forward to their reports Vladimir obviously held the tension intact at the end - bet it was his influence which preserved a sufficient silence. (I think this performance is a candidate for the LPO Live label, so keeping any shouty gits at bay had double value).

[teamsaint]

I have looked forward to this all summer, and it lived up to all my hopes.

AND nobody noticed ( I think) that champagne bucket I kicked over .

Phew , what a scorcher. More thoughts tomorrow. VJ can do no wrong for me

[Simon B]

Characteristically potent, incisive concert from this combination.

The presence of Arny the Bogeyman had no deterrent effect - full house in all departments, sold out months ago.

The Shostakovich was vintage Jurowski. Brisk, clear, virtuousic, pulverising when required. Not the ultimate levels of tension I'd crave of the finest performance, but compelling all the same.

Maybe only meaningful to one other regular here, but: nice to see Russell Jordan back in the LPO tonight, albeit not quite in the old job!

[edashtav]

A fine, serious concert that held my attention from start to finish. Schoenberg's Piano Concerto is a rhythmically vital work and I felt that Jurowski provided a considerate and supportive accompaniment to Uchida's interpretation - the two worked better as a pair than did Boulez/Uchida in their recording. Most enjoyable.

Shostakovich's 8th Symphony is the first of his symphonies that I got to know - in a towering interpretation by Constantin Silvestri and the BSO. Whilst those performances remain a touchstone, I willingly admit that VJ and the LPO knocked them off my pedestal, this evening. The conviction of this Prom performance, the way in which finely controlled detail constantly illuminated form and structure were remarkable. There was a sureness and confidence in the playing that spoke both of the sharp perception of VJ and the hard work and professionalism of his orchestra that had prepared so thoroughly that they could afford to relax and give their all in performance, knowing that the foundations were secure. I think this performance is my stand-out moment of this year's Prom. It will remain etched in my mind for years to come.

As Europe faces a refugee crisis, this concert spoke strongly about matters of freedom, danger, insecurity and the eventual finding of peace. Planned, no doubt, years ago, this concert was so appropriate to our present context. It was a clarion call to think and engage more deeply in fundamental human concerns.

[jayne lee wilson]

PROM 66. LPO/JUROWSKI/MITSUKO UCHIDA (piano).

A Beethoven Fidelio Overture which, in its crisp rhythms and punchy dynamics, showed that you don't always need a HIPPs performance to express fully what it has to say. The very richness of the LPO's tonal character - strings with both a warm sostenuto and a gutty attack, full, rounded yet penetrative brass, winds singing out from a perfect internal balance - was a pleasure in itself.

Uchida and Jurowski gave us a Schoenberg Piano Concerto placed in a fierily Brahmsian tradition, aligned more with say, the 4th's Symphony's passacaglia finale, than with a spikier, second-viennese-school orchestral imagery. But still without an excess of rhetoric in that sharply-articulated final cadence. Again, with Uchida's elegance of phrase and controlled aggression, musically and technically it seemed flawless.

Jurowski kept Shostakovich's 8th Symphony moving - strikingly uptempo, in the Russian tradition out of Kondrashin or Mravinsky in his swifter traversals, rather than Sanderling's War Memorialising. But this was offset by the LPO's full, rounded Germanic sound again (founded on centrally-placed doublebasses) the band displaying remarkable virtuosity-at-speed through the two scherzos (stunning solo piccolo here) and awe-inspiring power in the three cyclical climaxes. (At which point, I should say how grateful I was to hear that second one - transitioning to the passacaglia - engineered from the RAH on the HDs livestream without any obvious dynamic compromise; how often we've heard that telltale pullback over FM...).
The passacaglia itself was genuinely quiet, and the haunting, Kanchelian horn call (perhaps my most cherished moment in the whole work) perfectly judged to sound against it - a stoical vigil, plaintively soft yet articulate. Unusally audible bass-clarinet dissonances toward the close were another haunting for the attentive ear to dwell upon.
So to the finale - after the Serious Situation has Abated, Life Goes On - Jurowski and the LPO's technical excellence as the art-concealing-art, at the faithful service of the musical vision. The cellos' counter-melody was especially eloquent, pulling away so gently from the agony of remembrance, before the last return of the collective cry of pain and defiance, then the dawn light breaking over the ashes, in the coda.

In sum: musically and technically a triumph, for both the orchestra and the Radio 3 engineers on HDs.

[Beef Oven!]

An utter sensation! Vladimir Jurowski's DSCH 8 was one of the best performances of ANYTHING I've ever witnessed!

I've never seen or heard the LPO play like that. The man is mesmerising, a magician.

I'd principally gone along for the Schoenberg Piano concerto, and hoped that a great DSCH 8 would be thrown in too. But I never expected anything like that!

Even the Fidelio Overture was great




I didn't clap between any movements - prior to the gig, some 6' 5" heavy turned up on a mountain bike and warned us off!