Prom 56 Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Review

Prom 56 almost didn’t happen, with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (Jugendorchester) getting stuck in the tunnel on the EuroStar near St Pancras on their way into London from Amsterdam earlier on Saturday. The adventures of a touring orchestra! Thankfully, they made it to the Royal Albert Hall in time, and the way they played in this Prom – well you’d never know there’d been a bit of a problem earlier! This orchestra is regarded as one of the best Youth Orchestras in Europe, and understandably so.

Richard Wagner’s Rienzi Overture was the opening piece for Prom 56, which was very good. The orchestra has played the full concert version of this opera twice recently at the Salzburg Festival, so they are well acquainted with this piece, and it shows in their playing of it. A very cheerful and uplifting piece to start this Prom.

“Heave-ho!” The second piece of this Prom was Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. I found the first movement just-going, but the second was very beautiful. The final movement too was good. There was an encore of the very beautiful piano duet The Enchanted Garden from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Thibaudet was joined by conductor Philippe Jordan to perform this encore.

After interval was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor. I was thinking that this symphony was a bit average – but the final movement is fantastic, and completely makes up the rest of the symphony only being just-going. This symphony saved Shostakovich’s life, as he had been in a bit of trouble with the Soviets at the time, but the success of this symphony (helped by that fabulous final movement – I don’t doubt!) put him back in the Soviets’ good books.

Prom 55: Lutosławski, Shostakovich & Panufnik Review

Conductor Antoni Wit

Prom 55 was ‘Polish Night’, continuing one of this Prom’s seasons themes, that of Polish composers and Polish music, which was in this Prom interspersed with music by the Russian composer Shostakovich. The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra performed in this Prom with conductor Antoni Wit, who was making his last appearance and chief conductor and artist director of the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra was the first piece of this Prom. I thought this piece was good and well played, especially by the brass section.

After the traditional ‘heave-ho!’ as the piano is brought on stage, the second piece of Prom 55, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major begun. Quite like the Prokofiev Symphony in Prom 53, Shostakovich was restricted by a lot of Soviet boundaries when he wrote this. It is, however, a very fun piece, as none of the three movements’ links in with the next. Soloist, and Proms debut artist Alexander Melnikov played wonderfully, and treated the audience to an encore of Fireworks from Claude Debussy’s Preludes.

The second act began with two pieces by Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik, his Tragic Overture and Lullaby. The Tragic Overture was written during WWII, and was Panufnik’ as a way of résistance and defiance toward the Nazis. The Lullaby was written in 1947, and I found it to be a terribly sad and moving piece, performed by the string sections of the Warsaw Philharmonic. Both of these pieces were beautifully played by the Warsaw Philharmonic and were really very nice.

The final piece was more Shostakovich, his Symphony No. 6 in B minor. An encore of the Gavotte from Prokofiev’s Symphony No 1 was performed, following on with the Russian theme, but this was then followed by a second encore of the Polka from the Liberal Suite by Lutosławski, because, of course, the main theme of this Prom was Polish music, so it had to end with some of that. I also believe that this was the first Prom of the season in which we’ve had two final encores.

Prom 13: National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America Review

Prom 13 was performed by the very new (as in, only formed this Northern summer) National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (I will from now on refer to them as the NYOUSA). I’m always so amazed by Youth Orchestras; to my more-or-less completely untrained ear, they sound every bit as good as the professional big boy orchestras do. The line-up for Prom 13 was good, featuring Shostakovich Symphony No 10, and Tchaikovsky, the first we’ve heard of his music this Proms season.

Up first was American composer Sean Sheperd’s piece (overture?) Magiya. This piece was ok, but it didn’t do a lot for me. I find that pieces like this can be better if you’re actually there, rather than listening through iPlayer 10,000 miles away (of course, it all sounds better if you’re actually there, but still). So yeah, good but not great.

The second piece was Pietyr Illych Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. I’m a little biased here, as Tchaikovsky is my favourite composer, hands down. But this was so beautifully played by soloist Joshua Bell (and, of course, the NYOUSA). I can’t fault it. And the finale is so Tchaikovsky, but I love it. If you only listen to one piece of Prom 13, make it this one.
The Violin Concerto received an encore, and Joshua Bell played Tchaikovsky arr. Lascae Melodie Op. 42 from Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher. Again, beautiful.

Joshua Bell

After interval was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E Minor. This is one of my favourite symphonies, so I’d been looking forward to it. It’s a big piece, and was played wonderfully by the NYOUSA. The last two minutes or so of this symphony is just amazing, and I love the way this symphony ends (I have quite a thing for openings and closings, as you may have noticed!). For a new, young orchestra, the NYOUSA played extremely well, and I quite enjoyed this.

PS: I’m not going to be listening to/reviewing Wagner’s Ring Cycle which is performed this week, partly because I don’t have four hours a night to listen to each of the four operas, partly because how many times can I say “It was long and loud and everyone sang and played good and thank goodness it’s now over because $%!# it’s long!” So I’ll review the Chamber Prom instead, and, of course, Proms 16 and 17.