2015 Proms

I'm still full of the Proms spirit and it's already the last night!
I have mixed feelings about the last night. I think I'd go but only if I could Prom and be sure to get in. Does anyone prom on the last night?

Prom 70 was an awesome concert. I'm sometimes a critic of the Proms audience. They are a bit too "cup final" sometimes, but I loved them last Monday night!! The performances were heroic.

Lugansky is just so absorbing and each performance seems more detailed and more insightful and more perfect than the last. The orchestra is full of talent! The clarinet solo in the Rachmaninov concerto, the brilliant violin solos in the Rimsky-Korsokov - all of them could be top international soloists and the orchestra is conducted by the slightest raised eyebrow of a man who knows all of them and the repertoire beyond any doubts.
We got the lush, rich sound that the orchestral string section is famous for and the aching beauty of the winds in the Rachmaninov. Scheherazade was played very fast, giving it an unusual, brash excitement.

The crowd were very well behaved for the concert, total silence followed the quiet ending to the second movement of Rach 2. The 6000 people packed into the arena hardly breathed for about 30 seconds while the final notes hung in the air. It was magical! The reaction at the end was a burst of cheers and applause. The second half was a perfect illustration of why a live performance beats a CD any day. I've heard Scheherazade before and listened to it and lectures about it before the performance, but the colour and character of the interpretation by the St P. Phil and Temirkanov was so much bigger than it sounds on a CD. It's still available on the iplayer worldwide - not the same as being there but worth a listen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ecdc8g#b068sbdk

The St Petersburg Philharmonic seem to enjoy visiting the UK. I can't wait til they're back again.
Nikolai Lugansky is back in the UK for 10 concerts before next summer. He likes Scotland a lot and the RSNO. He's playing the full cycle of Prokofiev concertos with them over the next 2 seasons in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Dundee. He's also playing in London next July with long-time Cellist friend Alexander Kniazev. I traveled to Paris to hear them both in June and I can highly recommend them - especially if they play the Shostakovitch sonata again!!

DavidA said:

Just heard recording I made of Schiff [playing the Goldberg Variations. Extraordinary work and very musicianly playing. I did miss the sheer electricity Gould brought to the piece though!

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I finally got around to listening to this tonight. The BBC radio 3 iplayer is worth the TV Licence money in itsself, especially when I can tell friends overseas that they can listen too, and especially at Proms time!!
I love Andras Schiff. I've heard him play Bach live and it is electrifying. The Goldberg variations and Schiff are a perfect match; the performance draws you in and the complex patterns in the sequence of variations, themes and sequence of themes are all just so absorbing. Schiff is crystal clear in his interpretation. There is no ego that I can detect - just the glory and sheer joy of Bach. I'll be listening to this again before it expires on the iplayer.
The BBC Proms organisers attracted some criticism for their programme of complete Bach solos on piano, cello and violin for this year's Proms. This, I think is misguided. Hearing all the solo cello music in one evening and also violin and this 70 minute work for piano - is the best way to experience Bach's vision in these works.
The cello suites are said to be biblical narratives in music. I'm non-religious but I get the point. The whole cycle is far more than the sum of its parts. The same goes for the Goldberg, and to a probably lesser extent, the violin pieces.
The Goldberg is constructed in a series of threes - supposedly to represent the holy trinity. The beauty of Bach is that you don't even need to know any of this to feel the direction and energy in the music. It's so clearly not just a wander through random variations, but a journey. Purpose and anticipation is in every note. You just can't switch off until the end, because each variation leads so naturally to the next and leaves no point at which you can leave.

There's still time to listen... http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/erpxj5#b068g2yf