Then we had the usual furniture removals as the platform was re-arranged to include the grand piano - along with the promenaders' 'Heave-Ho' as the lid was raised! This was all in preparation of the second of the night's pieces Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, played by Alice Sara Ott, a new face at the Proms. Miss Ott who is German-Japanese seems to have come to notice through her famously standing in for established soloists such as Lang Lang, Hélène Grimaud and Murray Perahia, but also through her tour of Japan with tonight's orchestra. She played the Grieg beautifully and delighted everyone by playing an encore, Liszt's La Campanella.
The last piece after the interval was Nielsen's Symphony no. 4 'Inextinguishable' . As way of introduction to his symphony Carl Nielsen said “Music is life, and, like it, inextinguishable” and that is what this piece of music is all about, apparently. It was certainly a very exciting piece with lots of wind instruments, typically Scandinavian tones, but also some American accents coming in, too. In the last movement the two tympanists seemed to have a heated conversation back and forth across the platform. Needless to say there was a huge ovation for the orchestra and its conductor as the final notes faded away. And we were treated to another encore, this time a Swedish composer, Hugo Alfvén, and we think it was called the Song of the Shepherdess. So the four Scandinavian countries were represented at the concert.
Coming home there were warnings that several stations on the Underground and overground rail networks were closed at request of the police, but nothing could prepare us for the awful devastation caused by rioting that was reported in the news today.
Proms 2011 no 33
Royal Albert Hall
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo
Alice Sara Ott
No comments:
Post a Comment