BBC Proms 2024: Prom 67 - Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'; Schoenberg: Violin Concerto; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (Kopatchinskaja / BBC SO / Peltokoski)

9th September 2024
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'
SCHOENBERG Violin Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Tarmo Peltokoski (conductor)



My final Prom of the year took me back to the starting point - a Schoenberg celebration for his 150th birthday on 13th Sept, which happens to be a Friday (a problem if you know Schoenberg). Compared to the later "Piano Concerto", which is programmatic and surprisingly catchy, the 12-tone "Violin Concerto" doesn't have many memorable landmarks. The tone row consists mostly of 2nds and 4ths, so the melodies and harmonies sound incredibly harsh. The score gives me vertigo - how can you pitch the notes, let alone play those unnatural double stopping with natural harmonics? The final cadenza colla parte is just insane. There is no performer on the planet who has got Schoenberg in his/her DNA as much as Patricia Kopatchinskaja. She even recorded "Pierrot lunaire" as a singer. Not only did she sail through the thorny technical difficulties, but she went one step further to unearth the hidden beauty and even Classical elegance in II, and make the rondo in III almost a party singalong. Turns out this technical beast of a concerto actually has a heart. Credits to the BBC Symphony Orchestra under (the 24-year-old!) Tarmo Peltokoski as well, who assuredly accompanied the soloist antiphonically and heterophonically, perhaps even became a lyrical overkill in III. It was phenomenal. I hope they will make a recording of this. A couple of "witty" encores from PatKop and Tarmo followed, which demonstrated the latter's over-the-top pianism and skills at making duck noises. DSCH 5 after the interval was solid. The first movement had some rare transparent playing, II was hard-hitting, but overall it lacked fire and felt a bit rigid (perhaps due to limited rehearsals because of the Schoenberg). Powerful and clean performance, but wasn't a wow. RVW's "Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'" started the programme. Not sure why it was there, but it was smooth. Peltokoski seems like a safe and reliable conductor. A certain Asian orchestra should be in good hands. Need more sampling.

BBC Proms 2024: Prom 62 - Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (BRSO / Rattle)

6th September 2024
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

MAHLER Symphony No. 6

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Simon Rattle (conductor)



The annual Simon Rattle love fest, this time with his new band Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, playing Mahler 6 (Andante-Scherzo tonight). IT WAS PERFECT. The BRSO sound is considerably coarser than the BPO and the LSO, and I turned up fully expecting Rattle to milk every phrase to the last drop. He didn't, and the less rounded sound (especially in the brass, even the harps were a bit rough) actually worked to the advantage of M6. It is incredibly hard, even on paper, to pace this symphony because you don't want to make a 90 min solid wall of sound, but you need to keep the momentum and volume and keep pushing it just to make everything cataclysmically collapse at the end. Aesthetically difficult too - is it a happy or sad work? A mixture of both? Or neither because it is "nihilistic"? I found the perfect Andante tonight where beauty was neither happy nor sad. The singing contrapuntal lines just blossomed gloriously at an excellent speed - to nothing, it just existed. The Scherzo was rough and ironic in the best possible way. The march in the first movement never felt forced (though could probably benefit from a faster tempo), but it's the shaping of the finale that was astonishing. Every time I listen to M6, I always wonder, what do you do after each hammer blow? The mastery of Rattle was on full display here where he demonstrated it was possible to release the tension while keeping the momentum going in order to build another climax in quick succession. It must have taken a lifetime of experience to be able to pull this off. The hammer blows were also actually on time for once. It was thrilling and touching in equal measures, the nice and the ugly were perfectly balanced and the playing was incredible. Of the many M6s I have heard live or on recording, this was one of the very best. I did wonder if the LSO would be too nice for this symphony, and conversely if the BRSO would be too rough for M2. That comparison exercise would be very interesting. Meanwhile, M6 has remained my favourite Mahler symphony. Once again, IT WAS PERFECT.

BBC Proms 2024: Prom 58 - Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947); Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (Orchestre de Paris – Philharmonie / Mäkelä)

3rd September 2024
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Jean-Baptiste Doulcet (piano)
Orchestre de Paris - Philharmonie
Klaus Mäkelä (conductor)



Klaus Mäkelä with Orchestre de Paris. Having seen Mäkelä for three years with three different orchestras, I can now confirm that he is a very polarising conductor. In extravagant and texturally complex works, he brings the best out of his orchestras, lets the players enjoy their moments, creates very transparent textures and often yields refreshing and invigorating results. This is particularly true for the "Petrushka" (1947) tonight, which is the best I have ever heard live. For once, the performance actually reminded the audience that the music was originally written for a ballet, has a physical dimension to it, and tells a long story, as opposed to some patchy orchestral mess you hear in most other performances. The clinical playing was breathtaking and got better and better in the later tableaux. Then his quieter and introspective moments mostly fall flat. The opening "Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune" suffered from this and felt like it was played by a different orchestra. Rather than the charged eroticism you'd expect, the flute solo was a bit lethargic and got overpowered by the strings, which unfortunately weren't as sensational and shaped as they could be. One would like to think it varies on a piece by piece basis, but it is a serious problem when this discrepancy happens within the same work. In "Symphonie fantastique", he got the whole audience to swing in enjoyment during the ballroom waltz in "Un bal", giving us a taste of classical grace and elegance this fabulous Parisian force could afford. Then the energy just dissipated in the cor anglais-oboe duet in "Scène aux champs" and the whole middle movement dragged on without direction before the excitement picked up again in the rhythmic final two movements, both brilliantly executed. There were moments where he just let his players go wild without conducting and when he shaped, he was bodily involved and got some sharp responses in return. You can see why the players love working with him. Does he deserve all the attention and jobs he gets? He sure is a special talent and well appreciated by everyone, but there is still some way to go before he becomes one of the greats. Time will tell.

BBC Proms 2024: Prom 55 - Schumann: Piano Concerto; Smetana: Má vlast (Ólafsson / BPO / Petrenko)

31st August 2024
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
SMETANA Má vlast

Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko (conductor)



To celebrate Smetana 200, Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko brought his opus magnum "Má vlast" to the Proms. 19th century Bohemian nationalism, six tone poems back-to-back lasting over 75 minutes, am I that interested? Not really, to be honest, but it's all about the joy of hearing one of the best orchestras in the world grinding their way through these masterfully orchestrated musical paintings. You know something special was going to happen as soon as the harp duet hit at the beginning of "Vyšehrad", and the overcrowded and smelly RAH became the most beautiful place on Earth when the glorious BPO strings sang the famous tune of "Vltava" over the magical winds. "Šárka" had some intense, dramatic moments depicting women slaughtering drugged men and the odd, quiet strings fugue in "Z českých luhů a hájů" was very effective live. Petrenko has this immense skill to instantaneously shape and mould the orchestral sound to his will and there is nothing quite like the golden BPO sound so it's worth the money just to experience that. Then the piece went on for too long and the audience's concentration waned during the solemn and militant "Tábor"-"Blaník" pair. If you enjoy big, deep brass playing, there's much to offer, but it didn't stop streams of people walking out halfway. Couldn't blame them because the first half was a questionable Schumann "Piano Concerto". The Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is someone DG PR has tried to force down people's throat in recent years. Granted, I do enjoy his disciplined, soul-searching and haunting Bach in small doses, such as the transcribed organ sonata encore tonight and his award-winning album, but the same approach does not work on a Romantic concerto. Schumann's polyrhythms are fascinating but they don't need to be emphasised like a Bach fugue. It felt like he was playing to a metronome and you ended up having Cyborg Eusebius and the Florestanator sending love messages in binary code and if I were Clara I would just elope with Brahms. In happier news, it was announced that a lady in the audience celebrated her 100th birthday tonight. She got as large an applause as the BPO. It was lovely.