Herrmann, Vertigo – Suite; Korngold, Violin Concerto; Prokofiev, Symphony No. 3 in C minor. Vadim Gluzman violin; BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno conductor
The insertion of the Korngold concerto was a fairly late one – it was originally meant to be Mason Bates’ piano concerto, with Danil Trifonov playing the solo part – he however couldn’t apparently get a visa in time…..I was in fact quite happy with the change as it fitted in well with the Hermann score, and the Korngold is a work I’ve never heard live, and wanted to. I had heard the Prokofiev once before, in Munich, with the Opera orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, in 2015, in an exciting performance, and I wanted to hear the work again. Gustavo Gimeno is a new name on me, though I see he’s currently chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Interestingly – given its close connection with the thematic material of the Prokofiev piece – he conducted Madrid’s production of The Fiery Angel last year……. I see he is also about to take up the chief conductor role at the Madrid Opera – so clearly a rising star…..
It was lovely to be back at a Prom albeit one with less than full attendance, which you’d expect given that this was a far from mainstream programme – still the Stalls, Arena and Choir were pretty full.
This programme in its final form was very interesting- all three pieces had their origins in stories which the music was originally intended to accompany – the Vertigo Hitchcock film is the obvious basis of the Hermann piece and its swirling obsessive motif at the beginning very much mirrors the plot of the film. The Korngold work takes themes from 4-5 different films he wrote music for, including the ‘Prince and the Pauper’ in the finale of the concerto. The Prokofiev work uses music from the ‘Fiery Angel’ opera (I would love to see that). The question then for me is – how successful are these three pieces of music as stand-alone pieces – can they survive and on what basis?
I suggest there are three elements to a successful transition: 1. Strong melodic content; 2. Colourful interesting orchestration; 3. Some sense of structure and progression in the work as ‘absolute music’. For me only the Prokofiev ticked all 3 boxes. The Korngold piece (‘more corn than gold’ as a New York critic had it unfairly after its New York premiere), dedicated to Alma Mahler, is a last bastion of lush late Romanticism and has glittering orchestration ( I was sitting in the choir behind the percussion section so was fully immersed in some of the glorious sounds). Likewise, no-one who composed ‘Marietta’s Lied’ is going to fail on no 1, and there are some gorgeous tunes. But it’s very difficult to understand where the work is going – the tunes are announced, fiddled with (literally) and reprised: that’s it. It’s very different from Korngold’s tight, severe post-war symphony. The Hermann piece only passes on criterion 2 – it doesn’t really work without reference to the original movie plot. The Prokofiev is a very different beast (it’s interesting to note that Prokofiev was actually 6 years older than Korngold – in idiom the 4th symphony sounds like the work of a younger man – and there is a very clear distinction between different themes in the opening movement, and the alternation of machine-like frenzy, nostalgia and fear is carried through, with different emphases, in the next three movements, concluding on the opening frenzy. I found it utterly compelling to listen to as a journey, both the driving motor rhythms, the passion of some of the string-based music and the darkness of some of the instrumental solos. I must listen to the R3 recording.
The BBCSO sounded impressive throughout – of course not always easy to tell from row 1 of the Choir seats but certainly the Prokofiev was tightly played, there were some excellent wind solos – particularly by horn and oboe – and the percussion were having a whale of a time throughout! Mr Gimeno was very stylish in his beating of time and gestures and one sensed the orchestra were enjoying working with him. Vadim Guzman (Israeli but Ukrainian in origin) sounded good, though again it’s difficult to tell when he’s playing with his back to you, and played a melancholy encore by the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov.
John's musical journey 