Photo from the concert – © Philharmonia Orchestra | Marc Gascoigne
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Southbank Centre, London – Royal Festival Hall, London
Guest Reviewer, Richard Landau
On November 13, with his customary acuity, Colin Anderson defined the essential features of Herbert Blomstedt’s interpretation of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, a concert that was played again the following day in Helsinki with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, commented upon by Esa-Pekka Salonen (as below). A video recording of the first concert is available to view online, where its unique qualities – not least the fine contribution of the orchestra – may be savoured at will. Not to be missed. https://yle.fi/aihe/tapahtuma/2024/11/13/frso-herbert-blomstedt.
Last night’s account of the Ninth was essentially comparable to that given in Helsinki, save that the contribution of the Philharmonia was nonpareil, every section playing with a level of commitment that was nothing short of stupendous. The audience was as silent as I have ever heard at a concert, not least for a piece of such long duration. Without the least sense of excess, the Adagio final movement was deeply affecting and the total silence that followed it, lasting almost half a minute, was testament to the almost hypnotic quality that the performance had had on the capacity audience.
The array of microphones in place, as well as some discreet filming in evidence, suggests that this great Mahler experience has been captured for posterity.
To open the concert, Leonidas Kavakos (who a few years ago recorded all Mozart’s Violin Concertos for Sony) was soloist and director of a reduced Philharmonia in a nicely sprung account of the Violin Concerto in D (No.4), more intimate in manner than is often the case, and all the better for that. His encore was sprightly Bach.
As a huge fan of Blomstedt who attended every concert of his with the Cleveland Orchestra in recent years I am so envious of your experience with his latest triumph. Thrilled that this has been filmed. I doubt whether he will make it across the pond again.
I will cherish forever his Beethoven Seventh- his last concert here – which was an interpretation I had waited 70 years to hear.
I hope there is more in store for you. We are uniquely blessed with his unique long career.
Eric, HB is due in the States in Feb, albeit not Cleveland, rather San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Colin
This was a view that stands opposite to Bernstein.
Superb.
Enough said.
M9 as recorded by a member of the audience! Given the balances, it may have been done from the Choir area. Unfortunately, the silence that has been mentioned in several reviews, and the subsequent applause, has not been retained – both were integral to the performance – although it will serve well-enough for the time being. I am not embedding the link though, which follows…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0DQD5-Nb3A
Thanks to the mystery pirate!
November 25…
***The above YT link is no longer valid.*** “Please could you remove the YouTube link that’s been posted in the comments – at the bottom of the article. It’s an unauthorised recording and we’re in the process of having it removed. … The first movement of the Mahler was recorded in-house for our archive – nothing to be released publicly.” Philharmonia Orchestra.
It has now (rightly?) been taken down by the Philharmonia, on copyright grounds…
Not rightly, just mean and selfish.
You are a fool. An irresponsible fool. Unauthorised recording is theft. Copyright belongs to the performers. Colin Anderson should b3 ashamed of himself for encouraging this.
Mr Turner, I assume you are the Michael Turner who is a viola-player in the Philharmonia? I equally assume that your first four sentences are in response to Mr Pritchard?
If this is so, please tell me how I have encouraged “this”? CA
Good afternoon Mr Anderson. Yes, and no. I was a member of the viola section of the Philharmonia Orchestra until my retirement in 2021. I was present at this magnificent concert, one of the finest I have ever attended.
Yes, the comment was aimed initially at Mr Pritchard. It was foolish and irresponsible in my opinion. As was your link above to this pirated recording. You will see you finished your comment with “thanks to the mystery pirate”. As a well respected music journalist I am disappointed that you think okay to steal intellectual property.
Let us be clear: what gives someone the right to make money from another person’s performance, be that person an individual like the one who sat in the audience and made the recording, or YouTube whose platform presents it? Someone is making money here, but it is not accruing to the true owners of that copyright, in this instance the Philharmonia Orchestra?
Let’s be honest, this is theft. How are orchestras to make their money from recording if pirates are stealing their performances?
I agree I should not have written “Thanks to the mystery pirate!”, but I was so pleased to have an unexpected opportunity to get a flavour of a concert I would love to have been at, however dully recorded, and wanted to share it.
However, I’m not sure any money has been lost in this instance given only the first movement was recorded by the Philharmonia with the excerpt destined for the archive. I assume whoever recorded it officially, including the cameramen, would have cost the orchestra a fee or had it supported by a benefactor. Colin
Excuse me, but what relevance has the orchestra’s archive to do with what appeared on YouTube?
Colin’s statement that the recording was made “by a member of the audience” reminds me of the copyright situation in such a case. Google the question “Who owns the copyright in a sound recording?” and this answer comes up: “Copyright in sound recordings is generally owned by the ‘maker’ of the sound recording. The term ‘maker’ usually refers to the person who owns the equipment the recording was made on, such as the production company, studio or record label.”
It’s exactly the same situation with photographs. Open any glossy magazine with movie stars or models featured therein and see the copyright line at the bottom of the photo. There the (c) symbol is clearly shown against the name of the photographer, not the person being photographed. In short, contrary to the claim made above, the Philharmonia Orchestra does not, repeat not, own the copyright to the recording made by an audience member!
As to the person who recorded it making money from his video, how is that supposed to happen? How precisely are they doing so and what is the likely revenue? There is indeed a “monetization” situation on YouTube whereby the copyright owner of a video can sign up and receive royalties based on the number of “views” it receives. However, the last time I checked it was $4.39 per 1,000 “views” which is peanuts, so the Philharmonia wouldn’t have remotely got rich on that particular upload.
YouTube is a great archive of classical music that can be heard nowhere else. The Philharmonia should take a leaf out of the “LSO Live Recordings” book on YouTube where there are over 300 audio recordings by all the greats dating back to the 1950s. They are there for all to hear, 24 hours a day world-wide, which is how music should be, rather than be hidden away in some archive gathering dust. After all, where else would we hear Basil Cameron conducting the LSO in the “William Tell” Overture in 1957 except on YouTube! To think we could be hearing some great Philharmonia concerts too, were it not for a blinkered attitude devoted on how to make money. Their archive should be opened forthwith and put onto YouTube. In short, what’s good enough for the LSO is good enough for the Philharmonia!
I cannot let Mr Johnson’s comments pass without returning to this subject. I don’t know if he has attended concerts at the Royal Festival Hall in recent years. If he has, he will have heard the standard announcement just before the start of the concert: “unauthorised use of photography or recoding devices is NOT permitted in the auditorium…” This announcement became necessary as camcorders and then mobile phones became increasingly used. We all know that this is regularly abused. But having been warned concertgoers run the risk of being ejected from the hall if they flout this rule.
But come on, it is wrong on so many levels. Would Mr Johnson suggest filming at the National Theatre being okay? Of course not. Similarly, notices go up in cinemas everywhere warning about unauthorised copying of films. The reason is that money is there to be made from unauthorised material, and that revenue belongs to the artists.
Then there is the matter of quality control. Unauthorised recording or filming is bound to be poor quality. I am no longer a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra, but I dare say that recording the performance of Mahler 9 was discussed. It would be surprising if such a memorable concert had not been considered for recording. But for whatever reason the agreement was that the 1st movement only was recorded for their archive.
I must return to the point that my colleagues, not just in the Philharmonia, but across the profession, find it hard enough to make a living as it is, without income from recording being stolen from them and placed on platforms like YouTube by unscrupulous individuals. And those like the journalist who runs this particular platform should be ashamed of themselves for posting links to unauthorised material and praising the pirates.
When I consider the many years I have spent supporting the Philharmonia Orchestra – first as a Friend and a regular concert-goer, then as a writer reviewing PO presentations in the RFH as well as contributing regularly to its concert programmes, during which time I had a good relationship with certain players and with management – Mr Turner I find your inability to resist criticising me again, albeit with nothing not already said, to be ignorant of me and unfortunately all-too-revealing of yourself.
A selection of PO-related posts…
https://www.colinscolumn.com/philharmonia-orchestra-announces-second-half-of-2024-25-london-season/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/bis-records-robin-oneills-arrangement-of-j-s-bachs-goldberg-variations-bwv988/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/philharmonia-orchestra-announces-further-six-year-partnership-with-three-choirs-festival/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/kerson-leong-records-violin-concertos-by-britten-and-bruch-with-the-philharmonia-orchestra-and-patrick-hahn-for-alpha-classics/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/philharmonia-orchestra-and-esa-pekka-salonen-announce-the-release-of-award-winning-the-orchestra-app-for-iphone/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/philharmonia-orchestra-announces-four-year-partnership-with-mikkeli-music-festival/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/herbert-von-karajan-conducts-the-philharmonia-orchestra-at-salzburg-mozart-with-clara-haskil-ica-classics/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/bbc-proms-2021-philharmonia-orchestra-paavo-jarvi-conducts-prokofiev-1-shostakovich-9vikingur-olafsson-plays-j-s-bach-bwv1056-w-a-mozart-k491/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/as-beethoven-250-year-nears-its-conclusion-here-are-klemperer-the-philharmonia-orchestra-in-the-eroica-vienna-may-1960/
https://www.colinscolumn.com/michael-collins-records-finzi-vaughan-williams-with-the-philharmonia-orchestra-for-bis/
“Herbert Blomstedt conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 – extract from IV. Adagio”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G8JxIona0Q