be a goody, this.
i love ehnes' playing; he should make the barber sound ravishing.
i don't know copland's third. anyone?

As has been mentioned elsewhere by martle, Copland 3 is a bit of an uneven work which needs a very firm and charismatic hand to make it sit up and sparkle. The last movement, founded on his Fanfare for the Common Man can be a bit of a shock to those who already know the shorter piece, especially when the cruching key-changes work against expectation. Bit of a 'fingers crossed' one.

Ehnes in the Barber should be magic.

Frayed knot, Tommo - but enjoy all that brassy noise later. 

I enjoyed it, and overall a good prom.  I always find it hard at times like these, because it is so easy to describe what I didn't like about something compared to what I liked about it.

I agree with NotoBom that the brass overplayed - I was looking for something a bit more focused and 'ballsy', rather than just loud.  And the trumpets wre sharp.

James Ehnes looks a bit demonic/maniacal/demoniacal? in his publicity shot, but is really a big cuddly bear.  But he was well suited to the last movement of theh Barber - absolutely amazing.  He clearly wanted to go faster than Marin Alsop (aka Eddie Izzard) set the band off at, and at times I am sure Ehnes had to adjust to stay behind with them......   

I was on the rail and had a good view of him, but was perhaps too close - so maybe no one else heard the scratchiness in the first two movements.  He had a beautiful tone on high E-stringy bits, but just seemed to overplay when it came to fighting the orchestra on A and D strings (with scratchy tone occasionally ruining beautiful lines).  To be fair, I thought the band were too loud in places, especially as they had reached some great p and pp markings in the Beethoven.  (Mind you , I haven't a clue where the violas were for the Beethoven - it sounded like they were comparing notes on sandals.)

And Alsop?  Did the Beet without a score, and it was a world away from the other works - she has huge vitality and verve when she conducts this way which would have benefited the others.

The Copland had lots of really god bits, linked by some not so good bits.  The first movement was really earthy, and I felt the best of the lot.  In the second, there needed to be more of an air of kids having a rough and tumble in the park - it was all a bit straight, when there needed to be boisterous fun.  (but I think the violas woke up here, by the way).  The third lost some mystery at the end.  The last was impressive, but again needed more business/vigour in the interplay between wind and strings.  I felt frustrated that it just needed to be louder, for the closing passages, but the cymbal roll ending was actually all the more impressive having been restrained for the bit before.

All told, a really good night

Tomo

tommo, I simply must have set eyes on you at some point. Admittedly I only arrived at the RAH at 5:50 as I had to page-turn for my teacher's recording session at the Wigmore, but I still (slightly ssneakily) managed the third row.

The concert got better as it went on, I thought. Brought out the CFM types... 

I can but wish, tommo!! 

But I was next to that group I think. I did (unwittingly) see you!!