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autoharp
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« Reply #90 on: 23:31:16, 06-02-2008 » |
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HtoHe
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« Reply #91 on: 23:45:58, 06-02-2008 » |
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was it The Spectator? I checked BL's career details and found he was writing for The Spectator in 1961 but, of course, the article could have been a freelance piece. |
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autoharp
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« Reply #92 on: 07:33:26, 07-02-2008 » |
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I should have added that there are a couple of references in The Times for 1962, rather than 1961.
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HtoHe
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« Reply #93 on: 23:22:00, 07-02-2008 » |
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Just back from the Cultureville Phil. I trust we’ll be getting Mary C’s take on this concert in due course. I was a little disappointed with the first half. I’m afraid that, for me, Bax’s The Garden of Fand gave plenty of clues as to why it’s so seldom programmed. And the Serenade for Tenor Horn & Strings was certainly the least enjoyable of the three performances of that work I’ve now heard by Ian Bostridge. I hasten to say I didn’t think this was the fault of Bostridge, the horn player Frank Lloyd – who was fine - or the acoustics. For me there was one simple problem: the strings were too loud. I don’t know how long they had to rehearse but I thought the balance was all wrong. And I had expected great things of Vernon Handley, with his reputation for excellence in English music.
Mr Handley redeemed himself royally, however, after the interval with a superb Vaughan Williams 5th Symphony. From the unconventional layout of the orchestra right through to the understated ending VH treated us to a reading the equal of which I certainly can’t remember hearing. I was engrossed from start to finish. And I wasn’t alone – the applause brought the poor chap back three or four times on his sticks to take well-deserved bows.
One more gripe about our benighted cultural hub. Just as for Wayne Shorter there were empty seats galore. One has to wonder how artists of the calibre of Shorter and Bostridge fail to sell out such a hall; and I’m sure it’s due at least in part to the appalling communications between Liverpool 08, liverpoolphil and the potential audience. Price might also have something to do with it. £10 for the cheapest ticket might be alright for the likes of me but it’s surely ironic that it’s so much dearer than the cheapest seats in venues like the RFH and the Barbican. Some people just haven’t got that amount of money for a concert ticket and I have to wonder how many of them would have filled the empty seats at, say, £6 or £7.
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #94 on: 00:11:07, 08-02-2008 » |
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Very interesting, HtoHe. I was on a total high after the Britten, rather unexpectedly since I'm not usually Bostridge's greatest fan, but to me he redeemed himself completely by this performance. The horn player was also pretty nearly faultless, just a tiny split note in the Epilogue that I am persuading myself was intentional. Pure magic until then, and it is such a wonderful, wonderful piece. I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. I'm sure this piece wasn't intended to have 6 double basses and at least a dozen each of first and second violins. It showed particularly in the Dirge, where some of the wonderfully dramatic words ("The fire sall burn thee to the bare bane") were rather overwhelmed by the orchestra. I didn't let it spoil it for me, though - I'm good at screening out sounds I don't want! It was good to hear Bostridge in a decent acoustic after the Concert Room on Tuesday - and the poor man will have another dodgy acoustic when he does the War Requiem in the Anglican cathedral in June!
I could tell the RVW was a good performance, but I really don't like it much. I listened carefully, but I still find it bland and - well, just not interesting enough. Same goes for the Bax.
It was more or less full in the central stalls, but I was surprised it didn't sell out. And why on earth did the concert have (in the brochure) the silly title "The Glories of the Garden"? There are no gardens in the Britten or the Vaughan Williams, and The Garden of Fand is the sea.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #95 on: 00:27:30, 08-02-2008 » |
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I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. I'm sure this piece wasn't intended to have 6 double basses and at least a dozen each of first and second violins. The score doesn't specify numbers at all. Not much help, is it ... Sorry! And why on earth did the concert have (in the brochure) the silly title "The Glories of the Garden"? There are no gardens in the Britten or the Vaughan Williams, and The Garden of Fand is the sea.
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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464 metres
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« Reply #96 on: 08:14:52, 08-02-2008 » |
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I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. There was certainly a balance problem, but it seemed to be exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Bostridge seemed to be singing at the floor for a good deal of the time! |
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #97 on: 09:07:22, 08-02-2008 » |
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He always does that. It doesn't seem to make much difference to the sound. I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. I'm sure this piece wasn't intended to have 6 double basses and at least a dozen each of first and second violins. The score doesn't specify numbers at all. Not much help, is it ... Sorry! I know it doesn't, but Boosey and Hawkes do publish it in the "Works for Voice and Chamber Orchestra" Britten volume, and this just wasn't my idea of a chamber orchestra (though the Oxford music dictionary says "The term is elastic"). I've never seen so many at any other performance of the Serenade, and I just think it seemed wrong for the piece. But I STILL enjoyed it! |
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HtoHe
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« Reply #98 on: 10:47:29, 08-02-2008 » |
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I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. There was certainly a balance problem, but it seemed to be exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Bostridge seemed to be singing at the floor for a good deal of the time! If you mean the bowed head mannerism, 464 metres, then, as Mary says, it’s something he does all the time. I’ve heard this performer sing this piece in three different halls and this has never been a problem. Last night I was sitting in the middle of the Circle and the voice, was projected so well that it could have been coming from just in front of me at all times except when the strings were playing loudly. He always does that. It doesn't seem to make much difference to the sound. I do agree though that the strings were too loud, and surely there were too many of them. I'm sure this piece wasn't intended to have 6 double basses and at least a dozen each of first and second violins. The score doesn't specify numbers at all. Not much help, is it ... Sorry! I know it doesn't, but Boosey and Hawkes do publish it in the "Works for Voice and Chamber Orchestra" Britten volume, and this just wasn't my idea of a chamber orchestra (though the Oxford music dictionary says "The term is elastic"). I've never seen so many at any other performance of the Serenade, and I just think it seemed wrong for the piece. But I STILL enjoyed it! Well, last time I heard it, Mary, it was with Andrew Kennedy and the Nash Ensemble – a very much smaller group of strings but also a much smaller hall (Cadogan). I’m not really one for counting players but your comments echo those of the chap next to me who doubted the orchestra was meant to be so large. On a similar subject, what did you think of the layout for the RVW5? Perhaps one of the experts here will tell me it’s a standard alternative formation that I just haven’t noticed before but those huge wedges of bare platform either side of the central cellos, woodwind & horns were very eyecatching. And the trombones and trumpets looked quite lonely at the back. But, as I said last night, it sounded wonderful and that’s the main thing. |
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #99 on: 12:45:20, 08-02-2008 » |
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Andrew Kennedy - "The splendour folls on castle wolls", and other vowel distortions!
The last time I heard the Serenade was with James Gilchrist at the RNCM in Manchester, and a horn player who was nowhere near as good as last night's - I think she was from the Manchester Camarata, not sure. A much smaller ensemble - though as you say, a smaller hall - and absolutely no balance problems. but the performance wasn't nearly as magical as last night's was to me.
The layout for the RVW seemed all right, and I'm sure it's good for second violins to be thrust into the public eye like that! The gaps probably weren't as noticeable to me, in the stalls, as they were to you. Conductors do seem to like to alter the layout sometimes, though I don't know why. I've certainly seen the cellos placed like that before.
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464 metres
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« Reply #100 on: 12:49:33, 08-02-2008 » |
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If you mean the bowed head mannerism, 464 metres, then, as Mary says, it’s something he does all the time. I’ve heard this performer sing this piece in three different halls and this has never been a problem. Last night I was sitting in the middle of the Circle and the voice, was projected so well that it could have been coming from just in front of me at all times except when the strings were playing loudly.
I was sitting at the front of the rear circle, which is admittedly quite a way back, and the strings drowned out the voice for much of the time, although when Mr. Bostridge lifted his head, I heard him much better! I'm not very familiar with this piece, but I've just re-listened to a recording of a broadcast of it from last year with Andrew Kennedy and the BBCSSO, and even allowing for the better balance available with microphones, there definitely sound to be fewer strings there. Perhaps someone thought that a large number of strings were needed to fill the hall. Re. the RVW 5: Vernon Handley always arranges the violins, violas and 'cellos as they were yesterday, as did Sir Adrian Boult. Yes - the trombones and trumpets were quite a way back: I suspect that this is to comply with the new occupational noise regulations, to reduce the blast in the ears of the string and woodwind players. It's probably the shape of things to come! |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #101 on: 13:18:52, 08-02-2008 » |
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I still can't get used to the idea of Andrew Kennedy as someone whose vowel distortions get discussed on messageboards rather than the guy who used to mess around in the back of harmony lectures ...  |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #102 on: 14:08:59, 08-02-2008 » |
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I still can't get used to the idea of Andrew Kennedy as someone whose vowel distortions get discussed on messageboards rather than the guy who used to mess around in the back of harmony lectures ... He messes around with vowels and diphthongs now, tinners, though not all the time....and, to be fair, most singers do it to some extent. I once heard a whole choir sing Late the braht sayrapheem in bahning roo, a well-known piece by Handel  . |
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HtoHe
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« Reply #103 on: 21:48:31, 08-02-2008 » |
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Perhaps someone thought that a large number of strings were needed to fill the hall.
It's a pity the same someone didn't sit in the hall during rehearsals! Re. the RVW 5: Vernon Handley always arranges the violins, violas and 'cellos as they were yesterday, as did Sir Adrian Boult. Yes - the trombones and trumpets were quite a way back: I suspect that this is to comply with the new occupational noise regulations, to reduce the blast in the ears of the string and woodwind players. It's probably the shape of things to come!
Thanks for this, 464 metres. I have seen VH at least once before - but that was for for Elgar Cello Concerto & Enigma Variations so I suppose there wouldn't have been those striking empty areas on the platform - which were the main reason it caught my attention. |
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #104 on: 09:54:16, 09-02-2008 » |
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Vernon Handley was taught by Adrian Boult, as no doubt you know. Speaking of distorted English pronunciation, here's an interesting take on the Britten Serenade - but at least this chap has the excuse of being Spanish: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xjadsg5ufpY |
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