BBC Proms

[Ilja]

I must agree with Hovite in general. However, I see there are a couple of pieces by Foulds, together with Korngold's Violin concerto and one of Roussel's symphonies will be getting an airing although, personally, I don't particularly care for his stuff. I suppose we could say that the younger generation of composers are being given a chance, but I suspect they have been mostly drilled in the "modern" incomprehensible style. At least Schumann's bicentenary is being well celebrated which is more than be said for Franz Lachner's back in 2003. Sadly, I forgot to listen to the performance of Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" which opened the series.

As to the younger generation, the modern incomprehensible (and I agree in some cases) fashion was several styles ago - the current fashionable style, or a current fashionable style, is an eclectic sort of neo-Romanticism mixed with references to Jazz and rather a number of other things.

Luckily, the ideologically cemented monopoly of Boulezian nastiness from the 1960s is more or less behind us, and there *are* genuinely interesting things being composed right now. A while back I visited a conservatory's finals night, and was positively surprised by the inventiveness *as well as* the melodiousness of most of the contributions. Unfortunately, some of the teachers looked almost stung whenever something non-serial came along, but at last it was only a minority. Another surprise was the amount of historical awareness among these students, also from less-than-current sources. There may still be hope...

[eschiss1]

And personal taste matters a lot; having heard some of the recent effusions and attempts, I find myself much preferring, not so much the Boulezian efforts, as genuinely communicative works like those of Roger Sessions et. al. ... and yes Milton Babbitt's humor, too.
So goes.

[Alan Howe]

Parry 5 last night at the Proms was superbly done by the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic under Vassily Sinaisky. The conductor had a superb grasp of the ebb and flow of the music, understanding its apparent backward glances towards Elgar and giving the music an almost Russian passion in places. My only comment would be about the piece itself - it seems to be somewhat buttoned-up throughout, coming to climaxes which then break off in a very British way. The ending was very powerful, however, and Sinaisky received a thunderous ovation. 

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Alan.It sounds great. I assume that it'll be broadcast at some stage?

[Alan Howe]

The repeat is at 2.30 pm on BBC Radio 3 next Tuesday, 27th July.

[Mark Thomas]

By which time I shall be home. Thanks, Alan.

[giles.enders]

Why is this topic not under 'The Radio and Internet Broadcast' heading ?

[albion]

Why is this topic not under 'The Radio and Internet Broadcast' heading ?

Probably because it started out as a repertoire discussion relating to live events which might not necessarily be experienced in broadcast form.

[giles.enders]

The first post was BBC Proms.

[Alan Howe]

In general the other board is for friends to post information about broadcasts. This discussion, I take it, is actually about the nature of Proms programming - i.e. whether the Proms take unsung music sufficiently into account. (Answer: no, but with the odd honourable exception.)