Thursday, August 5, 2021, Royal Albert Hall, London
Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 from 7.30 p.m., and later shown on BBC Four
Radio 3 trailed this Prom with typical remorselessness – if Mirga is so “charismatic”, did the concert need to be ‘sold’ in this irritating way, regularly over several days? And then there were the superlatives chucked at her during the evening itself…
Following the interval was Brahms’s Third Symphony (Opus 90), a somewhat hasty first movement, at least with exposition repeat observed (unexpected from this conductor), and a few dynamic and phrasal tweaks, small things yet outside of rather than germane to the music. Of the middle movements the first flowed without controversy, yet, despite sensitive playing, it didn’t invite this listener in; and its successor was lumpy and treacly (fine horn solo, mind). The Finale fared best, expectant and striding, albeit for the quiet and satisfied ending to fully ‘work’, greater tension needs to have been in evidence from the off than was the case here; anyway the mood was broken by an intrusive “bravo”.
The evening opened with (centenarian) Ruth Gipps’s Second Symphony (Opus 30, 1945, first-performed in Birmingham the following year, and recently recorded by Chandos), a very British affair in terms of expression, constructed ingeniously as a continuous evolving structure colourfully scored with some touching pastoral passages (her teacher Vaughan Williams in the mix), a yearning for pre-WWII times gone by; and also embracing happy-go-lucky optimism and the eloquently nocturnal. Very sympathetically rendered by the orchestra that Gipps (who died in 1999) was once a member of, as an oboist.
Also around the twenty-minute mark is Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel Symphony [London premiere] from his opera (first staged in 2016) based on Luis Buñuel’s eponymous film, with (extracted and modified) music that is rhythmically complex and strangely dark, stridently marching, and including an inebriated rather whimsical/surreal waltz, all orchestrated with typical élan, multi-layered yet pinpoint lucid. Another sympathetic performance, virtuosic and powerhouse.
http://www.colinscolumn.com/clarinet-concertos-reawakened-robert-plane-with-bbc-scottish-so-martyn-brabbins-champs-hill-records/ [Gipps’s Clarinet Concerto]
https://www.classicalsource.com/concert/mirga-the-cbso/ [a previous Brahms 3]
https://www.classicalsource.com/concert/the-metropolitan-opera-thomas-adess-the-exterminating-angel/
Yes, the R3 announcer was embarrassing in her unbridled praise for Mirga GT, not really her place, some presenters are too free with their opinions. The Brahms disappointed, agree with review, although I liked the Gipps and Ades.
From our seat in the stalls, looking across an arena half-filled by the gigantic camera boom that once occupied a peripheral part of the hall, we were at least spared any oleaginous verbiage from the radio announcer (‘no-one cares what YOU think!!!’, John Reith apparently roared at his presenters in the early days of the BBC). I enjoyed the Brahms more than your good self, Colin. True, there were nuances in the first movement which could be thought of as over-thought, but the playing was excellent (albeit inevitably compromised just a bit by the social distancing in terms of ‘core’ string-section sound). I loved the third movement, so often treated as a light-romantic intermezzo. Here, measured in tempo, it was mysterious and rather tragic. I trust that the ‘look-everyone-at-how-moved-I-was’ idiot who shattered the precious silence after the symphony’s soft end with a ‘bravo!!!’ was taken outside, vocal chords summarily removed.
Andrew, here’s a Brahms third movement that I loved:
https://www.classicalsource.com/concert/philharmonia-orchestra-maazel-brahms-the-romantic-2/
Colin
Wish I could have heard it, Col, although your phrase ‘this was Maazel at his most interventionist’ raises a suspicion that I might have got a bit irritated! This charismatic maestro could certainly get in the way sometimes…
How any musician can follow Ms Grazinyte-Tyla’s interpretation of musical semaphore disguised as conducting, beggars belief. She did however manage to achieve a good result with the Gipps Symphony that I was pleased to see a half empty Royal Albert Hall enjoy.