I did not come to praise the Proms ...

It was my intention to watch the opening night of the Proms, Mahler 8 but the cable of my TV may have been (yet again) eaten by my children rabbits. My loss is the blog gain. (More on the Proms here).

The Proms is an initiative for which I am at best ambivalent. It offers at an attractive price a wide range of music. Programs are genuinely varied. If the end of the season brings visiting orchestras which can be often playing works on the safe side, adventurous programs are plentiful.

I first went there in 1978 for a Brendel - Abbado LSO program (Webern op 1, Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto and Tchaik 5th) and mostly remember the thrill of seeing these artists.

I returned in 1980 for the first BBC SO concert after the musician strike with a program led by Sir John Pritchard with Jessye Norman as soloist. I have few remaining impressions of the performance of Mahler 4, which may have been a one-off case for Jessye Norman but have found memories of Messian's glorious Poème pour Mi. I was not aware of it at the time but this was my best Proms moment.

In 1985, I was studying at Imperial College and the LSO under Colin Davis (not yet Sir Colin) played the same Mahler 8 with Bernum-like huge chorus forces outnumbering the audience. I was then back at the Proms in 1999 for a disappointing Ravel Beethoven Program with an unusual loud VPO under Sir Simon Rattle (I was in the chorus seats and felt that the balances and dynamics were so Un-Viennese). Earlier in the season, I had left the hall during Rameau's les Boréades with the same conductor because I just could not hear the instruments.

My last Proms was a very weak concert with Dudamel and his Gothenburg Orchestra which led me to ask in concertonet if the Albert Hall was not simply the worst of all possible concert halls and if one should not simply move the Proms elsewhere or close them ?

Looking back, I am afraid that I cannot think of one good evening. The stadium-size of the Hall makes music listening a very random event. Can the musicians really hear when they play ? Again, the VPO did not sounded like themselves. Dudamel led a technically poor Symphonie Fantastique but he did a more competent one (if not very Fantastique ...) in the Salle Pleyel with a combination of the French Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique and his Simon Bolivar forces. 

There is a genuine festive atmosphere and it is a democratic place but quality is just impossible to achieve in such a gigantic venue.

BBC engineers do a good job of capturing a lot of music and produce a good sound but how much is their work and nothing else ? Maybe, I came to praise them, maybe the Proms is a radio - now TV - event and not a musical one ?

(enclosed here a picture of Julius Ceasar staged by Peter Stein at Salzburg's magical Felsenreitschule where every word, every whisper was audible.)

How mainstream is Sibelius ?

I was in Victoria Hall last Thursday for a Sibelius - Henze concert. The Henze was a discovery but I have to admit that Ihave been very early a huge fan of Sibelius whose control of musical form and orchestral colors is just unique.

How accepted is Sibelius even today ? It seems that he is still not that known in Germany and that Rattle has to do some efforts to get a full cycle accepted in Berlin.

Looking at my notes, I first heard the second Symphony with K Penderecki in Paris in 1983 at a concert where I was mostly going to hear Rostropovitch premiere the composer's cell concerto. Two years after in London, I heard the same Symphony with Rattle and the Philharmonia in my encounter with this conductor. Muhai Tang played end 85 the first with the Paris Orchestra and told me that it was the first time the players encountered this piece.

Then I had to wait 1992 to hear Rattle play the same second in London with the LPO followed by Ashkenazy in Boston a few months after. C Telzlaff and Dohnany played the violin concerto in London five years after.

More significant was Salonen and the LAPO toured Europe with a cycle three years ago which allowed to hear the first, third (outstanding work), 6th and 5th ...

(and I cannot I cannot count various encore like the Scene with cranes, a 5 mn max encore played by Rattle and the VPO after a Beethoven 5th in Paris, nor a few Valses Tristes encored with Jansons and the GMYO or P Jaärvi and the VPO ...)

Bottom line, hearing Sibelius in the concert hall is still a rare event. Mahler works are repeated ad nauseam and works are losing freshness whereas fact is that Sibelius remain totally underplayed.

Ghosts of the tempi past ...

How would composers react if they could hear their music performed today ? In music and in arts as a whole, progress exist and style evolve.

Examples are countless. Historical recordings at the beginning of the 20th century reveal that violonists abused of glissando, as much as singers of portamenti. Even more unusual for our 2010 ears, tempi fluctuate madly.

There exists some piano rolls made by Mahler of his music. They the first movement of the 5th Symphony with some natural tempi changes but the most surprising piece tempi-wise is the very fast 4th movement of the 4th Symphony. Comparison with the famous Mengelberg recording done in 1939 show the Dutch conductor radically slower than the composer. Maybe Sir Simon Rattle unusual treatment of the first bars (very slow then  huge sudden acceleration in the middle of the bar) would be considered as normal by the composer. Maybe he would find Pierre Boulez's objective treatment too clinical.


Two recent posts from prominent Classical Music writers seem to be inspired by mathematical considerations.On the blogophere, pianist Jeremy Denk, whom I heard in Paris as a superb partner to Joshua Bell's violin has a witty and sharp blog, "Thinking Denk" which included some not very serious maths on the evolving tempi of Brahms's second Piano Concerto.

The second comes curtousy of Alex Ross, authour of "the rest is noise" who referred in a recent entry on his blog to the work done by Eric Grunin on his site on the Eroica. I would recommend to spend some time on Eric's site which includes some fascinating comparison of tempi extremes in this work. May I remind that Beethoven's tempi are usually on the very fast side and are therefore rarely followed although there exists some famous die-hards litteralists.

As we speak, I am listening to the live performance of the Eroica with the Vienna Philharmonic under Thielemann. The performance is definitely a fascinating one which does justice to the scope and ambition of the work. Phrasing and orchestral colors are splendid but be warned: tempi fluctuation are here aplenty. While Beethoven may have approved them, they sound very self-conscious to my ears of today.