BBC Proms 2017: Prom 72 - Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (WPO / Harding)

MAHLER Symphony No. 6

Wiener Philharmoniker
Daniel Harding (conductor)



As I will be unlikely to be in London next year, this is probably my last Prom for a while. That's right, I chose to end my five-year run with two hammer strikes: Mahler 6 performed by Vienna Philharmonic. I was late for the queue and literally got the very last standing ticket, then the doors closed behind me. It must be symbolism of sorts. Anyway. Daniel Harding started the performance without letting the applause to settle. WPO was without doubt impeccable, strings in particular, but Harding wasn't exactly the most inspired conductors around. For the majority of the symphony, it was pretty relentless. To put it crudely, across I-III, it had little dynamic variations. Contributing instruments took over from the previous instruments and patched up the sound to form one single moving entity. It made the "chasing game" in I very messy. Frankly, the block of sound was quite tiring to hear, esp. the Scherzo (played as III). The Andante (II) was quite beautiful, but could be done with more shaping. I think the first hammer blow in IV was off by a semiquaver. Despite knowing M6 for years, it's only recently that I start to extend my goldfish memory to listen to (any) Mahler from a large-scale structural perspective, and I kept looking out for architectural checkpoints. The "climax after climax" of IV must be terribly difficult to pull off. It was exhilarating, but again too much unshaped sounds. On the whole, it was a pretty vulgar and bombastic performance for my taste. You can easily find a recording of finer performance, one with more Viennese grace than the Austrians tonight. But I am very glad to have attended. The recent run of Mahler symphonies proves that I have mentally moved to a new listening mode. The end is a new beginning, and there is so much to look forward to the next time I am here.

BBC Proms 2017: Prom 71 - Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 (Ibragimova / LPO / Jurowski)

STRAVINSKY Funeral Song
STRAVINSKY Song of the Volga Boatmen
PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1
BRITTEN Russian Funeral
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 11

Alina Ibragimova (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)



If it wasn't the centenary of the Russian Revolution, you don't have an excuse to put on a programme like this, as regular audience would not easily form emotional connections with any of these historical works. I missed the Philharmonia/Salonen UK premiere of the Stravinsky "Funeral Song" in February, good that their RFH cousins and fellow local heroes, the LPO, are making up for me. This pre-"Firebird" work paints the picture of a developing composer, who is exploring his voice with much colourful orchestrations and unsubstantiated ideas. Haunting, evocative and surprisingly Romantic. It paved the way for his 2-min arrangement of "Song of the Volga Boatmen". Proms darling and astonishing violinist Alina Ibragimova then impressed the audience with Prokofiev VC1. A lot of chromatic sequences upon chordal figures, it brought out the expressive, melodic and Romantic side of Prokofiev, esp. in III, with much admirable filigree from beginning to end. There was so much head-banging in the audience I feared a head might drop off before the interval. As if that was not enough, she offered the first movement of Ysaÿe 5 as an encore - you know, the one where you play a pressed open fifth whilst having to pizzacato with the remaining fingers? Just a stroll in Kensington Gardens really. After the interval came an obscure brass band (with percussion) work by Britten, "Russian Funeral". Pretty potent, and direct, contrapuntal arrangement of a melody that is also used in III of DSCH 11 that immediately followed. DSCH 11 isn't exactly the most inspiring work on an absolute music level. It is a meaningless work if you don't know any Russian history, and good that I bumped into my secondary school history teacher. It's a very in-your-face depiction of a failed revolution, and a brutal performance conducted by Vladimir Jurowski at that. He did not allow the momentum to dissipate, and presented the four movements in one continuous 65-min stretch, one which maintained pretty homogeneously thunderous throughout. The tumultuous strings, especially the violas, were beyond impressive. Be it the elegiac contemplation of the slow movements, the bombastic brass in II, the crazy cor anglais and bass clarinet solos in IV, this powerful rendition kept smacking you in the face. It was very exhausting, and overwhelming. Perhaps it was a good conclusion to my 2017 Proms season.

BBC Proms 2017: Prom 69 - Anne-Sophie Mutter, Pittsburgh SO, Manfred Honeck

JOHN ADAMS Lollapalooza
DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No. 1

Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Manfred Honeck (conductor)



Well, Anne-Sophie Mutter. Undoubtedly the violin legend in the world. She defines and "owns" a lot of works, notably the contemporary repertoire, but has become rather polarising in recent years. Her latest recordings are so self-indulgent and excessive in using vibrato that make them excruciating to listen to. However, her 2013 recording of the Dvořák VC was revelatory. It was successful in that she brought out the muscular potential of the Romantic work, and the torrential onslaught of III was jaw-dropping. Hearing it live, you get to see the physical involvement, and it's a nostalgic experience to witness a concerto performance where everybody was transfixed by the soloist alone. It takes a lot of charisma to make the orchestra virtually irrelevant, and you kind of earn it when you enter by sawing a brutal high A. For Mutter, massive applause is almost guaranteed and assumed, and it made standing through 7 min of John Adams' "Lollapalooza" worthwhile. What wasn't assumed was that she was eventually upstaged and made virtually irrelevant by the orchestra. Mahler 1 isn't the most dramatic or emotionally turbulent work of his, and the half capacity tonight probably wasn't having high expectations either. but 1 min in I felt it's the most rejuvenating music-making I have ever heard from a Mahler. I haven't quite worked out what exactly the magic was, there was something in the very nuanced conducting that was very gripping. The colourful shadings of the instruments, particularly the brass, was remarkable. The organic pacing of the narration made it very comfortable to listen to. The structural transparency was consistently masterful and made reading the programme notes redundant. It was never overdone and glorious, and sent the audience exploding in applause. The regulars I spoke to, who boast to have attended the Proms since the days of Adrian Boult, all agreed that "it was one of the best Proms in history" and inserted that "not even the Vienna Philharmonic would match that on Thursday" (Mahler 6/Harding). Who would have thought Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, of all people, doing Mahler 1, of all pieces, would win over London. I can't wait to see the professional reviews tomorrow. If they record for big labels, I think they would be massive by now.

BBC Proms 2017: Prom 66 - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra II

HAYDN Symphony No. 82
MAHLER Symphony No. 4

Chen Reiss (soprano)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Daniele Gatti (conductor)



When I took my first conducting lesson, after some warm-up exercises, the teacher pointed to a score of Mahler 4 and said, "why don't we take a look at that." That experience, and the fact that being a lab scientist, soon ended my aspirations to become a conductor. I wasn't trying very hard really, but that extra-musical sense of compact urgency has since been associated with Mahler 4 for me. Compared to the Bruckner last night, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Daniele Gatti seemed to be on better form today. It was a refreshing rendition of Mahler 4, delicate with Classical grace, a lot of pristine ensembleness, not overtly dramatic, with some elegant ländler lilts and the appropriate amount of naivety that is required for the child's vision of Heaven which is fundamentally rather dark if you consider it deeply. It was all very enjoyable until the soprano started to sing. She entered the stage at the end of the third movement at the back of the orchestra and remained behind the brass for her performance, providing some sort of visual manifestation for the voice overlooking the universe from beyond. The problem with this presentation is that they would need a rather penetrating voice to get the subtle vocal line above and across the brass. The vocal support was, frankly, inadequate, the intonation was off and there was no sense of sophistication in the shaping and phrasing. It sounded like a struggle. The orchestra played well to integrate, but could not save it. So that was a shame. I have little intellectual comments for the preceding Haydn 82. The forms were well defined. The academic minds would probably enjoy the lineage relationship between the two works. Otherwise, it's not a very invigorating performance to set the mood up for Mahler 4. I mean, how many people genuinely enjoy a dose of four-squared Haydn symphony on a Saturday night? Consider me uncultured.

BBC Proms 2017: Prom 64 - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra I

RIHM In-Schrift
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Daniele Gatti (conductor)



There aren't many reasons I'd sign up to stand for a Bruckner symphony - either it is 1) preceded by an interesting piece; 2) performed by big names; or 3) both. Well, the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is in town with its new chief conductor Daniele Gatti. For all his popularity in continental Europe, it is actually incredibly hard to be able to hear Wolfgang Rihm's work live in the UK. Rihm won the 2015 Grawemeyer Award for "In-Schrift-II" when most of the world don't even have the chance to hear its 1995 predecessor "In-Schrift", a commission for St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Every now and then I would put on a Rihm work to enjoy his sonic imagination. A lot of his works are characterised by some pulsating energy where groups of instruments would gravitate towards "an axis of direction", causing a lot of exciting events within mixtures, and the music keeps mutating around this vortex. Admirers would call them "sound sculptures" as there are indeed copious remarkable explorations of timbres whilst haters would think his music has no real content. Essentially that's the feeling for "In-Schrift". It scores for a very "earthy" group of instruments - no upper strings and includes a contrabass tuba. It's quite something to hear a bunch of low-register instruments blasting out under the high ceiling of RAH, and I don't think many composers are bold enough to insert a whole minute of (5) woodblocks hitting (against nothing else) in the middle of an orchestral work. Rihm has written more intoxicating music (like "Chiffre I") but it was a curious experience nonetheless. I hadn't heard Bruckner 9 since sixth form, and revisiting it reminded me that I used to have a heart. Gatti consciously avoided vulgarity by paring down the earth-shattering drama in the opening movement. It was technically proficient, the structure flowed and there were individual glorious moments but on the whole it did not really take off. II was powerful and clinical. It is difficult to come across a satisfactory ending as the work is technically inconclusive. For all its lovely build up and ebb and flow in III the performance ended with little feeling of structural and emotional resolution and one walked away from this Prom feeling hanging mid-air. Perhaps it was the intention.