Music
More than a yard of tickets to the Proms!
Daniel Barenboim conducted a pair of fine performances of Beethoven’s later symphonies with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. He included many Western performing traditions but these relatively youthful performers gave energy to the music in a way that more established orchestras often do not sustain.
Is Daniel Barenboim’s West–Eastern Divan Orchestra a political orchestra or a musical orchestra? As they reach the pivotal centre of their cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies, the question becomes more apparent. The visionary project of an orchestra that unites through music the various cultures of the Middle East has aught the imagination of a number of funding bodies and clearly there are some brilliant soloists in the orchestra. Programming short pieces of Pierre Boulez’s music alongside the Viennese symphonic masterpieces is similarly visionary and probably makes good television and any concert which concludes with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is almost bound to send the crowd away pleased.
A passionate, light and bouncy performance by Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment directed by Laurence Cummings. Handel's Judas Maccabaeus includes “See, the conqu’ring hero comes!” (No 58) and “the other” Hallelujah! chorus.
Handel's Judas Maccabaeus is a setting of the historical story of the army which seized control of Judea from the Greek-Macedonian Seleucid Empire between 166 and 164 BC and established self-determination for the Israelite people through renowned battles and despite plagues.
Prom 5 was the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Juanjo Mena. The crowd-puller was Richard Strauss's setting of Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra". Since the Karajan recording and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the opening music "Sunrise" has been both a showcase for hifi sound and a fairly sure spine-tingler even at home. With a very full orchestra and underscored by the lowest notes of the magnificent Harrison organ of the Albert Hall, the effect was certainly electrifying and of course there was no hint of hifi overload as this was a live performance.
Awesome Prom 2, my first this season: a semi-staged performance of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady. It seems that even someone who doesn’t know anything about musicals will know at least one of the tunes, probably “Get me to the church on time”.
