I don’t think I’ve been in the Arena for a sell-out Prom before. I was sold my ticket with seconds to spare before I squeezed into the Arena. A popular programme, and I heard a fair few Australian accents in the audience for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis. As it happened this programme featured two composers I’m going to be performing in the autumn, so it was a good way to get into the mood.
Hard to avoid Richard Strauss completely this year, as he has the monopoly on major anniversaries. I have tried to minimise exposure, reasoning that if I ration the amount I will get about the right dosage. His Don Juan opened the concert, with a zippy performance. The Elgar Cello concerto, with Truls Mørk as soloist, was a complete contrast in mood. I don’t actually know it all that well, and I have to confess to preferring earlier Elgar to later (ducks hastily). This particular performance lacked a bit of momentum though and seemed to drag in places. As I heard the end of it, echoing the beginning, I wondered whether Elgar thought the Great War had achieved nothing (as my grandfather, who served in it, did).
I’ve managed never to go to a performance of the Symphonie Fantastique, despite being a Berlioz fan. This was a chance to put this right and this performance was again full of verve (like the Strauss, this piece records a lover’s eventful life story) and a nod to the peformance practice of the era in some portamento which you don’t usually hear. I gather some repeated passages were omitted though and I think I’m used to hearing them, particularly in the fourth movement.
The orchestra was more than up to the demands of the music, although I felt occasionally there was some shrill woodwind. The brass playing though was excellent, and the strings silky.
The encore was Percy Grainger’s Handel in the Strand. I had to suppress the thought that lots of percussion was used because Grainger liked being hit himself; the arrangement appears to be by someone else.
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