Proms: Second Half

The final concert of the Second Half of the Proms (given that the Last Night does not count!) Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin on its 400th anniversary, was another one that ordinarily I would not have chosen to attend, but one of the joys of having a season ticket is to be able to try all sorts of concerts that are slightly different. The hall was packed, and I don’t know whether this was because it was the last ordinary Prom of the season, or because people wanted to see this performance on period instruments. It was certainly demanding on the prommers, as it was 95 minutes long without an interval. (At the end I heard some people complaining that it really needed an interval, and the toilets were certainly very busy beforehand!)

The English Baroque Soloists specialise in playing on period instruments, and this naturally gave the orchestra quite a different sound compared to a modern orchestra. There were some weird and wonderful instruments, particularly the chitarrones, which are lutes with very long necks, and sackbuts, which I discovered are the strange-looking trombones (they brought in extra players, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, to boost their numbers).

The staging was also interesting. Shortly after the start, the children’s choir walked off-stage. I thought they didn’t do much, in fact I couldn’t recall them singing at all. Was it past their bedtimes? In fact, they climbed all the way up to the gallery, the same one inhabited by that other strange breed of prommer, and later sung from there. Some prommers behind me had puzzled over who the man was standing at the end of the children’s row, and it turned out he was their director who conducted up in the gallery. There were numerous other occasions where performers stood in different parts of the hall, at the rear or the side: 400-year-old surround sound, in effect, and arena prommers were definitely in the best position to appreciate it.

Most people survived the long stand without a break. The Vespers certainly made an impact on the audience, and were a more reflective end to the season in contrast to tomorrow – which everyone will be enjoying whether in person or on TV and radio.

Today the total collected by prommers for charity jumped from £80,000 to £82,000. OK, it might only be a just-over £1000 increase, but it still gave me satisfaction to know that my contribution yesterday was included in the total. A big round of applause for those who organise this collection each night.

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 75
Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
Monteverdi Choir
London Oratory Junior Choir
Schola Cantorum of The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School
English Baroque Soloists
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor

The penultimate concert of the second half-season featured the BBC’s Manchester-based orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic. Like their London counterpart, the male players wear white jackets. They appeared with their Chief Conductor Gianandrea Noseda in what must be one of his last concerts before stepping down. The orchestra seemed to be sitting a long way from the front of the stage, probably because they were reduced in numbers due to the demands of the pieces scheduled for the evening. It did have the advantage of the players not neeting to move out of the way when the piano was brought on.

The first work was Schubert’s Unfinished symphony. During the opening bars, you could have heard a pin drop. The orchestra sounded so clear as they played the first of the two themes that runs throughout the first movement. I’ve always quite liked this movement in particular, in the way it interweaves the two themes. Following on from Schubert was Schumann, with a piano work that’s considered in effect to be his second piano concerto. Apparently, his first piano concerto was originally a similar work that he split into three movements. The Introduction and Allegro appassionato is still performed as a single-movement work, but is very concerto-like. Irish pianist Finghin Collins, resplendent in a tailcoat, put in a splendid performance of this fairly demanding work.

After the interval was a première of a BBC commission, and not having a programme, I didn’t know what to expect: “RELIQUARY: Scenes from the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, enclosing an instrumentation of Schumann’s ‘Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart'”. Now I have been able to read the programme notes online, I understand what it is about. Schumann wrote settings of five texts supposedly by Mary, Queen of Scots, but his version is not very highly regarded. The BBC commissioned Robin Holloway to write a new orchestration of the songs, and he linked them together with instrumental interludes to make them into a coherent work. It was actually quite clever, and listenable too. The music was traditionally-composed, but at times with an almost cinematic feel, and had a definite Elizabethan sound, particularly with the drums. Anyway, this was the sort of BBC commission I like to see. Robin Holloway came on stage at the end, but it seemed he couldn’t look at the audience. He must be shy, or suffer from stage fright, in which case I feel sorry for him. Not all composers seek the limelight. They shouldn’t have to go on stage to take a bow at a première if it makes them uncomfortable.

The concert concluded with one of Mozart’s most popular symphonies, No. 40, which again was given a clear and precise performance by the BBC Philharmonic.

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 74
Schubert Symphony No. 8 in B minor, ‘Unfinished’
Schumann Introduction and Allegro appassionato in G major, Op. 92
interval
Robin Holloway RELIQUARY: Scenes from the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, enclosing an instrumentation of Schumann‘s ‘Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart’ (BBC commission: world premiere)
Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Dorothea Röschmann soprano
Finghin Collins piano
BBC Philharmonic
Gianandrea Noseda conductor

Wednesday was the final chance to hear the BBC Symphony Orchestra before their appearance on Saturday in the Last Night, this time under their Czech principal conductor Jiří Bělohlávek, who will also conduct the Last Night for only the second time (although he did appear as a vacuum cleaner player last year…) As the orchestra’s principal conductor, Bělohlávek was dressed in the same white jacket as the male players.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is undoubtedly a great orchestra, and this was shown in the splendid opening performance of Wagner’s prelude to the third act of Lohengrin. Next up was a première of a Radio 3 commission by a composer called Tansy Davies. The piece had the title Wild Card, and a wild card is something that could turn out to be either good or bad. Unfortunately, for me at least, it was the latter. Only now do I read the programme and discover that there are meant to be sections in the music that depict all 22 cards in a Tarot pack. I would never have known as the work was largely homogeneous with little of interest to listen out for, except the occasional eccentric percussion instrument such as the wind machine (if that’s what it was). The work received a rather lukewarm applause from the audience, with the arena already rather sparsely populated anyway – I don’t know whether it was due to the Tube strike, earlier heavy rain, the programme, or simply that it’s nearly the end of the season.

After the interval it was back to business with Bruckner’s 7th symphony. This is another marathon work, clocking in at just over an hour. Again, it was a fine performance from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Bruckner wrote the slow movement following Wagner’s death, providing a connection with the opening work. Whether Wagner came to a sticky end after a bad reading in of his Tarot cards is unknown. The symphony received a resounding and well-deserved applause from the audience. We’ll certainly all be listening to Jiří and his orchestra on Saturday, whether in the hall or over the airwaves.

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 72
Wagner Lohengrin – Prelude (Act 3)
Tansy Davies Wild Card
(BBC commission: world premiere)
interval
Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E major
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek conductor

So we’re into the last few days of the Proms now, and today it was the turn of the French national orchestra, with a programme of French-related music. In the first half, it was two of Debussy’s well-known and popular tone poems Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune and La mer. The orchestra, under their new (Italian) music director Daniele Gatti, gave these two works a decidedly French-sounding impressionistic colour. Fortunately, unlike the performance of Britten’s depiction of the sea in Prom 42, the music was not interrupted by bird calls. Somehow, music about the sea always manages to be easily evocative of its subject. While Debussy’s version is more gentle than Britten’s (perhaps the difference between the seas off the coast of France with the sun glittering off them, and the cold, wet Suffolk coast?) parts of it still have the power of the waves, in particular the ending, which is always certain to go down well with the audience. There was no soloist this time, but as with a couple of the recent pianists, Gatti himself at times hummed along with the music! That’s the first time I’ve heard a conductor do it.

After the interval, it was Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which had its infamous première, which resulted in a riot, in Paris, giving the French connection. (Incidentally, a ballet version of La mer, also by Vaslav Nijinsky, had a similar impact a few years earlier.) The orchestra had grown even larger for the second half, and ensured the music went out with a bang as Stravinsky’s score reached its climax. The level of applause secured us the first encore for a while, causing the concert to go on well past its estimated finishing time.

Update: The encore was the Prelude to Act 3 of Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, a full performance of which was given in Prom 2 in July. Thanks to the Radio 3 announcer (and iPlayer) for that.

One surprise today was that the fountain had disappeared from the centre of the arena. Perhaps it’s in preparation for the Last Night on Saturday. I guess that’ll be the last we see of the fountain until next year. I did wonder what happened to the people who always sit in the same chairs around the fountain, such as the man with the long, grey beard who is always right in front of it. One strange phenomenon was that, whereas usually everyone crowds to the left-hand side of the fountain, without it there more people went to the right. It’s true that there was no soloist for this concert, but even so, that doesn’t normally make any difference.

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 71
Debussy Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune
Debussy La mer
interval
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Orchestre National de France
Daniele Gatti conductor

The final week of the Proms began with a concert by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under their French conductor Stéphane Denève who has quite a presence on stage, in part thanks to hair that’s a bit like a red version of Simon Rattle’s. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the orchestra play live before, and I had to say the quality of their sound is up there with the best London orchestras.

It was a lively programme all round, opening with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival overture. Then came Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, with soloist Paul Lewis. Now, Lewis is another of those pianists who is quite vocal when he plays, and he hissed and hummed, but only for part of the concerto. As I said before, I’m not the greatest fan of that. I also thought I spotted the odd wrong note, not that it really matters – I’m sure pianists go into autopilot when they play something as well-known as this concerto.

After the interval were three interludes from The Sacrifice by James Macmillan. I was expecting something difficult to listen to, but it was actually quite pleasant and energetic, if a little dark at times. This was billed as the “London première”, with the UK or world première presumably having taken place in Scotland. The final work in the concert was Respighi’s Pines of Rome. This colourful depiction of the Italian capital contains many contrasting sections from the so soft you can only just hear it to the loud parts full of rich orchestration. The RSNO handled this dynamic range perfectly, although the background noise in the hall detracted from the quieter passages a little. The ending was as loud as anything I’ve heard so far in the hall, including as it did the organ, and so the work received the expected ovation from the audience as soon as the last note had sounded.

I was interested to see James Clark leading the RSNO this evening. He’s a familiar face as he was for a long time the Concert Master of the Philharmonia (who for some reason use the American job title), an orchestra I follow closely. I had noticed his name had disappeared from their website, and now he turned up with a new orchestra. A quick search revealed this was his first concert as leader of the RSNO. As The Herald‘s music critic says, “He is a big man physically and a towering force as a leader.” Or as prommer standing behind me exclaimed, “I’ve never seen such a large man lead an orchestra.”

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 69
Berlioz Overture ‘Roman Carnival’
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ‘Emperor’
interval
James Macmillan The Sacrifice – Three Interludes (London premiere)
Respighi Pines of Rome
Paul Lewis piano
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Stéphane Denève conductor

Sunday was “Henry Wood Day” and featured two Proms. The first was a recreation of the Last Night’s programme from 1910. This contained a large number of shorter items, a tradition continued in Last Nights to this day. The Prom was incredibly long, at three and a half hours, and strangely the interval wasn’t until two hours or more in, meaning a long stand for prommers!

The BBC Concert Orchestra returned to give a splendid performance, and were conducted by Paul Daniel, who has presided over the real Last Night in the past. Daniel was dressed in a velvet tailcoat, and was supposedly playing the part of Henry Wood. During the Paganini Moto perpetuo turned to look at the audience and pulled a face, while continuing to wave his baton. The music was all good, and featured some more unusual items and songs, for example Wagner’s Kaisermarsch as well as favourites that are still often heard today such as L’Arlésienne and Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4.

Top cellist Steven Isserlis performed the one new work in the line-up, which had been added to maintain Wood’s belief of including new music. The work in question was based on the only surviving part of Vaughan Williams’s unfinished cello concerto, and going by what  we heard, it’s a pity we were deprived of the full concerto. Composer David Matthews came on stage, but it was easy to imagine he was Vaughan Williams coming to take his bow. Isserlis is an interesting performer to watch. At times his posture and the way he threw his upper body made him look like a rag doll, yet one that could play with such expression. A nice touch when he left the stage was that he went out of his way to shake hands with the orchestra’s principal cellist, sitting on the opposite side of the conductor: the fraternity of cellists, perhaps.

But for me the real highlight of the concert was the chance to hear, and participate in, Wood’s own Fantasia on British Sea-Songs. While the programme claims the Fantasia is an “indispensable” part of the Last Night and has been “included in most Last Nights” since 1908, what it fails to mention is that the BBC decided to drop this work just a few years ago, so it’s no longer heard at all. This has already had an effect on the continuity of Proms traditions: a pair of students standing near me seemed unfamiliar with how they were supposed to join in with the Fantasia. Anyway, it was great fun, with the handkerchiefs coming out for “Tom Bowling”, trying to keep up with the “Hornpipe”, humming “There’s no place like home”, and whistling along to “See the conquering hero comes!”, before singing the chorus of “Rule, Britannia!”. BBC if you are listening: please reinstate this work (in it’s original version as heard tonight) in the Last Night in future years, or failing that, programme the Fantasia for another Prom in each season to allow prommers to maintain these traditions for future generations, and to have a bit of fun. The theme to Pirates of the Caribbean is not a satisfactory substitute.

The Prom finished with the National Anthem, and it was touching to see a nearby French couple heartily joining in singing the British anthem. In fact, as they were reading the words from the programme, they sang the second verse, which was more than some of the British prommers managed!

There were no speeches, just a brief word from Paul Daniel to tell us speeches started at a much later date!

The second Prom of the day featured the Ulster Orchestra under Paul Watkins playing music premièred by, or otherwise associated with, Henry Wood. It opened with a fanfare Arthur Bliss wrote for Wood’s 75th birthday, which as fate would have it turned out to be his last. Some of the other works were familiar, in particular the ever-popular Karelia Suite by Sibelius, which received its UK première in 1906. There was also Rachmaninov’s first piano concerto, which was given a sparkling performance by Steven Osborne. This work by a young Rachmaninov had its UK première in 1900, although tonight we heard the 1917 revision. It’s not as well known as Rachmaninov’s other concertos, but is still well worth a look, containing hints of what is to come in the famous second and third concertos.

There were also several less familiar works that are certainly worth a listen, including Bax’s lively London Pageant, written for the coronation of King George VI, and Parry’s Symphonic Variations, which are said to have inspired Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations, although as the “symphonic” title suggests, Parry’s work is played all as one, rather than as a set of short pieces.

All together, it was a great day of music, one of the best of the season, if rather a marathon at nearly six hours! It was a selection of music that really embodied the way the Proms should be, which is perhaps unsurprising given that most of the music was, one way or another, chosen by Henry Wood himself.

• Full details of both Proms (and listen again for 7 days) here
• Catch the 1910 Last Night on BBC4 on Thursday 9 September, or on BBC iPlayer for 7 days afterwards

Prom 67
Wagner The Flying Dutchman – overture
Beethoven Rondino for wind octet
Paganini, arr. Pitt Moto perpetuo
Musorgsky, orch. Henry Wood The Peep-Show
Bizet L’ Arlésienne – Suites Nos. 1 & 2 (excerpts)
David Matthews/Vaughan Williams Dark Pastoral – based on the surviving fragment of the slow movement of Vaughan Williams’s Cello Concerto (1942) (BBC commission: world premiere)
Dvořák Rondo in G minor
Beethoven Overture ‘Leonore’ No. 3
Thomas Mignon – ‘Connais-tu le pays?’
Dvořák, orch. Henry Wood Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7
Wagner Kaisermarsch
interval
Wood Fantasia on British Sea-Songs
German Merrie England – ‘Who were the Yeomen of England?’
Forster Mifanwy
Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 in G major
The National Anthem
Jennifer Larmore mezzo-soprano
Sergei Leiferkus baritone
Steven Isserlis cello
BBC Concert Orchestra
Paul Daniel conductor

Prom 68
Bliss Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood
Bax London Pageant
Howell Lamia
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor (1917 version)
interval
Sibelius Karelia Suite
Parry Symphonic Variations
Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin – Waltz and Polonaise
Steven Osborne piano
Ulster Orchestra
Paul Watkins conductor

The Royal Albert Hall was once again packed for the second concert featuring Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, and again Rattle received cheers when he came on stage at the start.

The programme was somewhat different today, however. Most of the works were numbered sets of pieces of one sort or another. The Prom opened with the one prelude to Act 1 of Wagner’s Parsifal (the only one not a countable set). This is quite a slow and tranquil overture, rather than a fanfare to open the concert. It was followed by Strauss’s Four Last Songs, a work quite regularly heard at concerts. Strauss’s colourful orchestration was shown at its best by the Berlin Phil, and soprano Karita Mattila gave the lyrics quite a tender rendition. I can never help wishing there was an orchestral version of the songs, though.

After the interval, it was time for three sets of orchestral pieces, each set by a different composer: Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra and Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra. When he returned to the platform, Simon Rattle addressed the audience briefly to say that when they rehearsed the three sets of pieces, they realised they belonged together as one work, so he asked us not to clap between them. Some Prommers already said this had been discussed at the pre-concert talk. In the event, the “pieces” all sounded of a similar style to me. None contains a tune the audience will be humming on the way home. Whether or not to clap between movements is a perennial debate, but not clapping between new works adds a new dimension. Surely, just as people argue against inter-movement clapping because this interrupts the work as a coherent whole, inter-work clapping is a necessity to mark the end of a work as the composer intended. I feel that running one work into the next damaged their integrity: the opening of the first movement was no longer an opening, and the finale of the final movement was no longer a finale. For anyone who lost count, or was slightly unsure of the programme, it was hard to tell which composer’s work was which, but there was a clue. The colour of the lighting behind the orchestra changed with the work. I don’t know whether they intended this, or whether the lighting design pre-dated the decision to play the pieces as one, but it certainly proved useful.

Despite being more difficult listening, the second half of the concert was well-received, although some people noticeably hadn’t returned after the interval.

• Full details of this Prom (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 66
Wagner Parsifal – Prelude (Act 1)
R. Strauss Four Last Songs
interval
Schoenberg Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 – 1909 version
Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Berg Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Karita Mattila soprano
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle conductor

This evening’s Prom was the first of two in a row to feature Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Such is Rattle’s popularity in this country that he is the only conductor I’ve seen so far to receive cheers when he walks on stage at the start of the concert. Sir Simon grinned back at the audience, his trademark mop of hair looking wilder than ever, and dressed in a tailcoat and bow tie, after I commented earlier in the season that no conductors dress like that, other than the John Wilson Orchestra’s eponymous conductor.

A full to capacity Royal Albert Hall heard a concert of just two works – two symphonies in fact, but with rather contrasting styles. In the first half it was Beethoven’s 4th symphony. This was given quite an expressive performance that was well received. But the highlight of the concert was undoubtedly the second half, which featured Mahler’s first symphony. This is probably my favourite Mahler symphony, as while it contains all the Mahler hallmarks, as an early work it is somehow closer in form to the classical symphony of the likes of Beethoven. Rattle showed how he can coax an exceptional performance of such varied tempo and dynamic range out of the excellent Berlin Phil, giving new life to a work that was far from tired in the first place. One point to note was the off-stage brass at the start of the first movement. The musicians walked back on stage to take their places immediately, during the movement. It has to be said that when the distant-sounding fanfares are reprised at the end of the symphony, they sound just as far away relying on mutes and playing softly! The orchestra received probably the loudest applause I’ve heard at the Proms so far at the end of the symphony, perhaps unsurprising given the cheers even before they started, but well deserved it was too.

It’ll be interesting to see if tomorrow’s concert of a more varied selection of, and in some cases more challenging, works encourages such a large turnout.

I was surprised to find the area around the south porch of the Royal Albert Hall fenced off today. Some fellow prommers tell me this is due to a piece of masonry falling off. Unlike the rest of the 19th century building, the south porch was only completed in 2004. A case of modern construction not being up to Victorian standards?

• Full details of this concert (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 65
Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B flat major
interval
Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle conductor

Thursday’s Prom features the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under their French conductor, François-Xavier Roth, and so the first half of the programme was dedicated to French music. The opening piece by Rameau was rather lively, and was that sort of Baroque music that’s full of weird and wonderful percussion, including at certain points the conductor tapping his baton. At times the rhythms almost seemed syncopated. This was followed by a selection from Canteloube’s well known Songs from the Auvergne. Now, as I keep saying, vocal music is not my area of expertise, but didn’t soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci seem a little off-key, particularly at the start? She certainly has a lot of vibrato, which is a device used to hide that, but perhaps song aficionados are better placed to judge a singer’s voice than me. Canteloube’s work is sometimes heard in an orchestral version, and I’m afraid from my point of view, the singing just obscures his colourful orchestration.

After the interval was a French commission by a Argentinian based in Paris, Martin Matalon. The title Lignes de fuite means something like “converging lines”. The work sounded to me like some of the eerie space-like special effects found in Holst’s Planets. Unfortunately, whereas Holst uses such sounds sparingly, and also gives us some great tunes, Matalon does nothing of the sort. After the piece had finished, I heard one prommer exclaim, “That’s 20 minutes of my life wasted!”

The final work in the concert, and for me without a doubt the highlight, was Mussorgsky’s Pictures at en Exhibition in an arrangement by the Proms’ very own Henry Wood. This was quite different from the familiar version by Ravel, which is rather more faithful to the original piano score. Wood’s version is billed as an arrangement as opposed to a mere orchestration. Indeed, his orchestration is thicker (and louder!) than Ravel’s, but there are also a number of other changes to the work, most significantly the omission of most of the Promenade sections that depict Mussorgsky walking from one painting to the next. It seems rather ironic to say that Henry Wood missed out the Promenades! This made Pictures more like a suite of separate pieces rather than the almost continuous music it is usually presented as. The work drew the concert to a thunderous conclusion, with the huge orchestra and organ playing Wood’s slightly altered closing bars of the movement he also gave a slightly altered title, The Bogatyr (meaning heroes) Gate at Kiev.

The very first Prom I attended was exactly six years ago yesterday. At that concert, the BBC Symphony Orchestra under its then principal conductor Leonard Slatkin played Pictures at an Exhibition with each movement chosen by Slatkin from a different composer’s orchestration: if that seemed like indulgence, it was his 60th birthday that day! He chose Wood’s version of Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle, so this is the second time I’ve heard that part.

• Full details of the concert (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 63
Rameau Dardanus – suite
Canteloube Songs from the Auvergne – selection: Pastourelle; Deux Bourrées: N’ai pas iéu de mio; Une jionto pastouro; Té, l’co té!; Bailero; Malurous qu’o uno fenno
interval
Martin Matalon Lignes de fuite (UK premiere)
Musorgsky, arr. Henry Wood Pictures at an Exhibition
Anna Caterina Antonacci soprano
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
François-Xavier Roth conductor

It shows how little I was paying attention during Wednesday’s Prom, and also how lacking in any knowledge I am of German, that I didn’t even know the orchestra was a youth orchestra. Perhaps it’s due to seeing children performing at the weekend, which made the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester seem positively mature. I did think what a nice sound the orchestra had, which is all the more impressive if it comprised less experienced players.

The title of the pieces also proved problematic. Was “Maler” a typo or deliberate mis-spelling of Mahler? Without a connection to Mahler in the first work, most of the music in the concert – by an orchestra named after the composer – had nothing to do with him. But of course, Mathias is a painter, which is the meaning of maler in German. This unfamiliar, short “symphony” by Hindemith was pleasant enough.

Following this was a song cycle by Mahler himself. Now even I know that lieder means song in German. The rest of the title I didn’t know, but it’s apparently “Songs of a wayfaring lad”. Regular readers will know I’m not the biggest fan of song cycles, but at least it meant there was one Mahler item in the programme. Tonight’s Prom was rather lengthy, and I overheard some prommers suggesting that was due to each of the works in the first half being too short to comprise a half on their own.

The problem of the imbalanced halves was due to another weighty Bruckner symphony, No. 9, after the interval. Rather long-winded, but a fine performance, and as I’ve already said, I would never have known they were a youth orchestra.

• Full details of the concert (and listen online for 7 days) here

Prom 62
Hindemith Symphony ‘Mathis der Maler’
Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
interval
Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Christian Gerhaher baritone
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Herbert Blomstedt conductor