On Thursday my husband and daughter went to Prom 30 (Gothenburg SO, Dudamel, Von Otter). This was my daughter’s first so she probably now thinks that they all begin with an hour of sorting out feedback noise. It was worth it when the concert (of Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Sibelius) got going, though the delay and the change of conductor were probably the cause of a certain amount of scrappiness.<\/p>\n
On Sunday night it was my turn, to hear Runnicles and the BBCSO in the first prom to feature music by Berg, who is being celebrated this year as an ‘anniversary composer’. Welcome as this is, I can’t help feeling that this particular anniversary is a little spurious. Shouldn’t one commemorate the 125th birthday rather than the 120th? And is it just coincidence that Berg’s music comes out of copyright next year? It would have been lovely to have a chance to hear some of the less frequently performed works, such as the Altenberglieder<\/i> or the Chamber Concerto, but in their absence I settled for the Three Orchestral Pieces<\/i>. I felt this performance didn’t quite take off until the third piece; nevertheless it surpassed listening to a recording (I’d never heard the work live before), since no recording can do justice to the dialogues which take place between the various parts of the orchestra. There was also some visual excitement in the use of a hammer in the third piece. I’d always imagined this has being operated like a gong, but the hammer (which looked like an enormous croquet mallet) was swung down over the percussionist’s head onto a large block of wood. (It is therefore hard to be taken by surprise by a hammer blow if you are in the audience!)<\/p>\n
After the interval there was Mahler’s Das klagende Lied<\/I> which was new to me. It was performed with the first part, which Mahler later cut; having heard it I think Mahler was right to cut it as it was pretty turgid compared with the rest. This piece was suited to the venue, though, with the offstage orchestra in the third section working particularly well.<\/p>\n
The Guardian<\/i> reviewed the concert here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Thursday my husband and daughter went to Prom 30 (Gothenburg SO, Dudamel, Von Otter). This was my daughter’s first so she probably now thinks that they all begin with an hour of sorting out feedback noise. It was worth … Continue reading