WeeCalum
Posts: 57
|
 |
« on: 19:51:53, 06-03-2007 » |
|
I'm going to see this live for the 1st time in Edinburgh on the 21st April. Double choir + BBC SSO. Since it utterly blows me away just listening on CD can anyone suggest how to prepare myself for the complete mental meltdown I anticipate hearing it live. Will I need assistance to get out of my seat?. Will I be able to find my way out of the hall or remember where the car is parked? Hopefully not.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Whenever a New Leader emerges, weigh him down with more stones.
|
|
|
|
pim_derks
|
|
« Reply #1 on: 20:02:37, 06-03-2007 » |
|
I was reading the story of Belshazzar in the Bible just the other day! I have only one recording of the piece, the one conducted by Walton himself on EMI. I can't give you any advice for the concerto because I really don't know what it means hearing an English oratorio in a concert hall. This kind of music is simply never being performed in the Netherlands.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
|
|
|
|
martle
|
|
« Reply #2 on: 22:40:07, 06-03-2007 » |
|
Weecalum When I interviewed at a certain university many years ago, I was akked what my favourite C20th work was, and I said BF. This was met with a snooty (and, as I now recall, snotty) guffaw. But I still think it is a major, thrilling, inventive, brash, wonderfully colourful work; and therefore I recommend setting up an abulance service, nurses on hand with screens available if at all possible, and some GOOD chewey sweets! Enjoy!  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Green. Always green.
|
|
|
|
roslynmuse
|
|
« Reply #3 on: 22:56:21, 06-03-2007 » |
|
I recall being played an excerpt as part of our "gallop through 20th century British music" when I was at University, 20+ years ago. "SLAIN!!!" |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
martle
|
|
« Reply #4 on: 22:58:38, 06-03-2007 » |
|
r-muse  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Green. Always green.
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #5 on: 09:07:46, 07-03-2007 » |
|
I've sung in it many times. I found the first time exciting, maybe even the second time. After that I got bored with it and didn't find it very interesting music at all - but a lot of it is certainly loud! It's just straightforward story-telling.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
WeeCalum
Posts: 57
|
|
« Reply #6 on: 12:39:55, 07-03-2007 » |
|
Mary,
I haven't got to that stage yet. I still find the changing rythyms, tempos and theSHEER LOUDNESS of it exhilarating
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Whenever a New Leader emerges, weigh him down with more stones.
|
|
|
|
Ron Dough
|
|
« Reply #7 on: 13:35:33, 07-03-2007 » |
|
Pace Mary C, as well as 'straightforward story-telling' the piece for me also has a hugely potent sexual charge to the music, which could endear it to those who love many of the guilty pleasures which she has no time for. I wasn't aware that of this performance until you mentioned it, wee c, and am now working out whether I can re-jig my schedules to travel South to the capital on the day in question. I could listen to it daily; live performances have always left me in a state of elated exhilaration!
Btw, did you know that in the process of composition Walton ground to a complete halt for well over six months? If you didn't know this before, would you be able to hazard a guess exactly where he stopped and picked up again?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
roslynmuse
|
|
« Reply #8 on: 14:05:59, 07-03-2007 » |
|
"Thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting" ?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
reiner_torheit
|
|
« Reply #9 on: 14:08:14, 07-03-2007 » |
|
"Thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting" ? Looks like the writing's on the wall for you then, eh?  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #10 on: 14:58:41, 07-03-2007 » |
|
'Amy, Amy, Semple McPherson' It can be quite eventful in live performance. In my time I have seen the baritone soloist get his tails caught in his chair just before standing up for his big 'shopping list' solo and so he did the whole thing half-crouching, Charles Groves' baton sailing into the choir at one exciting point, and Meredith Davies, poor chap, letting rip with a magnificently loud fart in his exertions just before 'SLAIN!'. Anything can happen....  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #11 on: 15:06:07, 07-03-2007 » |
|
Pace Mary C, as well as 'straightforward story-telling' the piece for me also has a hugely potent sexual charge to the music, What, loud thumpiness, you mean, as in rock music? Maybe better not to go any further into this It's a fairly hard sing, because the choir invariably has to stand all the way through. No dreaming/planning the supermarket list/doing the crossword during this one. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Ron Dough
|
|
« Reply #12 on: 15:15:48, 07-03-2007 » |
|
Yes, Mary, loud thumpiness! Maybe it's a testosterone thing. (P.S. t-p, that's not Swiss triangular chocolate) ( Ron does Dionysiac and Apollonian, both.) |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 16:58:24, 07-03-2007 by Ron Dough »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
David_Underdown
|
|
« Reply #13 on: 15:19:13, 07-03-2007 » |
|
'Amy, Amy, Semple McPherson' It can be quite eventful in live performance. In my time I have seen the baritone soloist get his tails caught in his chair just before standing up for his big 'shopping list' solo and so he did the whole thing half-crouching, Charles Groves' baton sailing into the choir at one exciting point, and Meredith Davies, poor chap, letting rip with a magnificently loud fart in his exertions just before 'SLAIN!'. Anything can happen.... In that same solo, when I was singing Belshazzar (in the chorus, not as the soloist I hasten to add) in Ely Cathedral, "and the souls of men" was given the additional accompaniment of a rather impressive thunder-clap rolling around the fens. The timing could only have been improved had it coincided with "Slain!" |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
--
David
|
|
|
|
roslynmuse
|
|
« Reply #14 on: 16:46:04, 07-03-2007 » |
|
'Amy, Amy, Semple McPherson' It can be quite eventful in live performance. In my time I have seen the baritone soloist get his tails caught in his chair just before standing up for his big 'shopping list' solo and so he did the whole thing half-crouching, Charles Groves' baton sailing into the choir at one exciting point, and Meredith Davies, poor chap, letting rip with a magnificently loud fart in his exertions just before 'SLAIN!'. Anything can happen.... That's marvellous! A fifth brass band!!! |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
