Bantock at the 2013 Proms

[alberto]

I have read quickly the program of 2013 Proms. I have seen a comforting number of works by Granville Bantock.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Yes, and good news too! I think five works are scheduled? And I'm not too sure why - there isn't (so far as I am aware) any particular 'celebration' coming up as there is in the case of Britten and Wagner. Maybe Bantock has just struck it lucky!

[Alan Howe]

Trouble is, there's precious little else for the jaded palate...

[Jonathan]

Agreed Alan!

[Gareth Vaughan]

I really feel the proms has gone for overkill on Wagner operas. Time was when they were content to schedule 2 or 3 concert performances of opera per season. Now there are umpteen.  And why not confine opera at the proms to those operas which are rarely, if ever, staged?  Much as I love The Ring, I wouldn't want to stand through the whole of Gotterdamerung!

What about an opera by Bantock instead? Or by Holbrooke - or by any number of English or foreign composers whose operatic oeuvres are unlikely ever to appear on stage?  That's what opera in the concert hall should be about.

[Alan Howe]

You're right, Gareth. Far too much Wagner and not enough Verdi. And not enough unsung music full stop.

[Jimfin]

Well, yes, what about a non-orchestral Bantock work? Omar Khayyam or the Song of Songs would probably be a sell-out, if the Gothic was.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I couldn't agree more.

[Amphissa]

Bantock paints lovely pictures, but they often seem curiously insubstantial and ephemeral to me. After listening to one of his works, I never set the CD back in the play queue thinking "I've got to listen to that again."

I'm much more interested to hear Trifonov's take on the Glazunov Piano Concerto No. 2 (Prom 41). He won the 2011 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Trifonov's recordings and performances available so far, most of which are several years old, have gotten mixed reviews, but Martha Argerich thinks very highly of him. The Glazunov 2nd is an odd piece and I have not much cared for the few recordings I've heard. I'm wondering if Trifonov, who likes playing less familiar pieces, can breathe some life into it.

[Alan Howe]

I actually agree about Bantock. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad he's being performed, but I've always found he promises more than he delivers. But he's an important figure in the British musical renaissance, of that there's no doubt. Of the reminder of the Proms offerings, only the Glazunov struck me as of any interest to fans of neglected music. Oh dear.

[Jimfin]

There's the indescribably lovely George Lloyd Requiem, 1998, I know, but indisputably romantic!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Fully agree with you, Jimfin. But shssssssh!

[eschiss1]

Stenhammar Excelsior Overture, too. Brief, several-times-recorded, but - pardon the double negative - not overplayed. (I like the Szymanowski 3rd in the same concert, but I'd agree it's at least as much impressionistic as Romantic- though probably at least as much Szymanowskian as either... well, anyway. And in honor of a deceased friend of mine (not that it actually is in honor of him, and I like Rubbra's music very much too...), yay that they're doing some Rubbra; from the capsule description above I thought they might have been backtracking to - well, something like our routine of almost all standards all the time..., goodness forfend.)

[Gareth Vaughan]

Omar Khayyam is Bantock's absolute masterpiece - a gorgeous work, beautifully constructed and orchestrated. But I would love to hear Christ in the Wilderness or The Song of Songs - and these are just the sort of works which should be done at The Proms.  I think every Proms season should have at least one concert devoted to a large scale work by a British composer who is neglected: Holbrooke's Apollo and the Seaman; Foulds' Vision of Dante; Bliss' The Beatitudes; Bainton's 1st Symphony; Jacobson's Hound of Heaven; etc., etc. - the list is enormous.  Surely that's not too much to ask of a BRITISH music festival.

[eschiss1]

Well, I did quite like the performance of Foulds' World Requiem a few years ago when I heard it over the radio (and I thought I heard some specific things from Brian's Gothic prefigured in it, though I am too often overimaginative about such things.)