Random Music

Sondheim at the Proms

It is Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and so a Prom dedicated totally to him and his music took place at the Albert Hall last night.  I am a huge fan of Sondheim as back in the 80s my then husband was in a London production of Follies.  My post on this is here so I won't repeat all I have said, save to say that I had a long chat with Sondheim who was charming, delightful and genuinely interested in what I had to say. And how do I know that?  Because I was at a backstage party and we were surrounded by the great and the good, Cameron McIntosh, Eartha Kitt, Julia McKenzie, Daniel Massey and others and not once did he let his eyes stray to see if he could find somebody more interesting to chat to (and there were plenty believe me).  Lovely man.

My favourite of his works are Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd as I know these best, but last night we also had excerpts from Company, Merrily we Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Entire concert was quite superb, packed house having a whale of a time. Stand out performances:  Julian Ovenden who I have only known as an actor playing Foyle's son in Foyle's War.  He has a simply gorgeous tenor voice and brought the house down with a big number from Company, also duetting in Too Many Mornings, a quite gorgeous lyrical song, from Follies.

Simon Russell Beale - knew he had been a chorister as a boy but did not know he could still sing. He and Daniel Evans, who I don't know at all, duetted on Everybody ought to have a Maid from a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, it then turned into a trio with Julian O joining in and then, to a huge roar of laughter and applause from the audience, became a quartet as Bryn joined them dancing and singing and hamming it up. Quite wonderful.

Ah Bryn - well what can I say? All Random readers know  how much I adore him and just a couple of weeks ago saw him as Hans Sachs and here he was, not only being funny and witty as detailed above, but turning in a terrifying performance as Sweeney Todd. I saw him do this a few years ago and the contrast between his raging at his enemies and then his longing to see his long lost daughter, was heartbreaking. This is some of Sondheim's most powerful music.

BUT, even though all the above was stupendous, gorgeous and marvellous, all of this was upstaged by the sublimely beautiful Dame Judi Dench.  She recently said in a newspaper interview that she hated being called a National Treasure but I am afraid whether she likes it or not, she is and will always remain so.

She made her entrance to the most tremendous shout from the audience and made her way to the front of the stage and while it was clear she wanted to get into the part of Desiree from A Little Night Music, she had to acknowledge the applause before it would stop. She was wearing a black velvet dress slit up the side and she looked quite quite beautiful.   Send in the Clowns is the most well known of all Sondheim's songs, it has been sung and recorded hundreds of times (I have seen the show with Jean Simmons in this part and Dorothy Tutin among others), but it is Dame Judi who reduces me to tears. Sondheim says that each song is a mini-play and for the time it was being sung, you could see Judi immersing herself totally in her part. She has a husky voice just perfect for this song.  It was originally written for Glynis Johns who has a similar speaking voice and who, after a lifetime of smoking, had terrible breath control, so it was written in these short phrases so that she could manage to sing it.  Very pragmatic of Sondheim, but out of this has come one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs, full of sadness at lost love and opportunities.

I am inserting a link here to a concert performance given by Dame Judi which gives you some idea of her interpretation of this song.  I recorded last night's performance on my posh new digi-box so am hoping to be able to download Send in the Clowns though I am pretty sure somebody else will get it up on YouTube before me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE3dLzIYKs8&feature=fvw

At the end of the evening the entire ensemble was on the stage singing Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George, and all the artistes were at the front joining in and I honestly thought the roof of the Albert Hall was going to do a take off into the stratosphere (they had a Dr Who concert the previous week so it could be likely...) and the applause, shrieking and screaming was deafening. Sondheim then came onto the stage and the noise levels got even louder.  I was hoping that the audience would sing Happy Birthday and they may well have done but the BBC had to leave as the broadcast had come to an end.

A simply stunning evening. Gosh, the Proms this year so far have been staggeringly good. Last year there was hardly a single concert that I would have gone out of my way to listen to, this year my Prom Prospectus is full of ticks and crosses and exclamation marks and we have another five or six weeks to go.

Coming up soon is another concert of music from the Hollywood musicals. I tried to get a ticket for this but failed as it had sold out in ONE, yes ONE hour so I am trusting to the Beeb to broadcast it on TV as they did last year.  That proved so popular they have shown it three times since.

If you have missed the Sondheim Prom it is on iPlayer for the next week - please don't miss it. Music making like this doesn't come along very often.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/for-one-night-only-dame-judi-to-perform-at--the-proms-2036177.html

What a start - Proms 2010

'"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" grumbled Jo, lying on the rug' Little Women - L M Alcott

Substitute the words Summer and Proms for Christmas and Presents and now you will know what I feel about the Prom concerts which take place each summer at the Royal Albert Hall.  I started attending these when I was about 14 (difficult to do when the Beatles were driving all teenage girls to a frenzy so that my love of classical music was viewed as very odd to say the least), and for the next ten years or so, attended nearly every concert every night each season and it was there I learned my music, heard the first performance in this country of Shostakovitch's 5th Symphony conducted by Stokowski, my first Mahler 2 with Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw, my first Gerontius with Sir Malcolm Sargent and so many more I cannot list them all here, but it is a place that holds so many happy memories for me.

Last Friday was the first night with a simply stunning performance of Mahler's 8th symphony, the so called 'Symphony of a Thousand' with a huge orchestra, multiple choirs taking up all the seats way up high behind the orchestra, and multiple soloists.  It is in two parts and though I love Veni Creator Spiritus which comes first, my real love is saved for the second half which is based on Goethe's Faust and has the more glorious music (for me at any rate).  All the soloists gave it their all and it was lovely to see the soloists smiling and loving it when their colleagues  were singing.  The most sublime moment for me is when the tenor sings 'Blicket Auf' the orchestra soars away behind him, the choirs come in and from that moment on we have twenty minutes of the most beautiful and uplifting music you could hope to hear. It builds and builds and by the end always reduces me to tears and it did this time as well.

Prom Number two which I attended last night was the Welsh National Opera and Meistersinger with Bryn Terfle as Han Sachs and I have been waiting to hear him sing this for a long time.  Though there was no solo calls and the entire performance was very much a team effort, there is no disguising the fact that Bryn was head and shoulders above everybody else on the stage and of course, as a world famous opera  singer with a huge reputation, this was to be expected.  But, as with his Dutchman last year at the Opera House, which I reviewed here, there was no feeling of a superstar pinching the limelight and for this, I am most grateful having sat through certain performances in the past at an opera house where the Name jetted in, performed and jetted out not forgetting to collect his cheque as he/she left.

The Welsh National Opera, of which I am currently a friend, had two boxes in the Grand Tier and I was offered a place there for Saturday night.  Yes, it cost a bit but as I managed to return my previous inferior ticket and also had to return my ticket for the WNO in Birmingham when I was not well to my irritation and annoyance, the two of them added together more or less paid for this so that made me feel a bit better.  The box was to the left of the stage if you were looking out at the audience and only half way along the side so the view was terrific and to stand looking out at the Albert Hall and the prommers made me feel so nostalgic, but it was a good feeling.

As I said, Bryn was simply magnificent as Hans Sachs as I knew he would be, bringing warmth and nobility to the role of the Cobbler Poet. It is a wonderful part but so long and so wordy and it always amazes me that singers are able to commit everything to memory.  I feel it might be easier with say, Verdi or Puccini, which have more tunes and choruses, but Wagner is a different ball game altogether.  Takes me a little while to get into the Wagner idiom but once I am there I find as the evening wears on the music and the action slowly take me over and draw me in until I am totally engrossed.  Some of my friends recoil in horror that I will sit through something this long but when you love the music the time flies by.

As well as this seat, we also had supper laid on and very posh it was too, salmon, charcuterie, salads, fresh fruit platters, cheeses and good coffee and an endless supply of wine and soft drinks. I was most grateful for the coffee as by the last act I had been up since 6 am and was beginning to keel over.

The final act is quite quite glorious.   The writing of the Prize Song, the quintet at the end of the first half and then into St Johannes day when all the Meistersingers gather together to choose the champion singer.  The chorus came into its own here, the excitement building and the orchestra dancing along, the entrance of the Meistersingers and then THAT wonderful chorus 'Wacht Auf' at which every hair on my body stood on end and goosebumps appeared all over and from that moment on I sat on the edge of my seat on the verge of tears at listening to this simply marvelous and magical music.   And yes I know, Hitler loved Meistersinger, annexed it and used to have it performed at his Nuremberg rallies, and yes I know Wagner was not a nice man to put it mildly, but all this is forgotten when listening to his genius.

Standing ovation at the end and audience yelling and shouting, as was I and hope that the WNO revive this in the next year or so and I shall make sure I get to Cardiff to see it. In the meantime  Bryn is  singing Scarpia in Tosca again next year and shall make a point of seeing that - for the third time - which will keep me going even if his Tosca is Angela G again who I really find irritating.  No matter.

As I write this I am listening to Prom Number 3 which is Simon Boccanegra, the Covent Garden production which was shown on BBC 2 last week.  Talk about an embarrassment of riches, Mahler, Wagner and Verdi, Bryn Terfel and Placido Domings all in three days and if you queued and prommed you could see these marvelous performances for a total sum of £15. Unbelievable.  It is at this time of year, that I forgive the BBC for its arrogance, its total disregard for viewers thoughts and feelings, its dismissal of all criticism and feel that my licence fee is justified (come September when the Proms are over this feeling will, no doubt, fade....)

After the concert was over I headed off to stay the night with my family and so glad that the evening was not ruined by having to get the Vomit Comet home from Liverpool Street, always a most dispiriting experience.  I could curl up in bed in less than an hour and fall asleep just remembering this glorious evening and then drove home this morning with no traffic around and the sun shining .

And just to finish the weekend off nicely, I entered a comment on the Classic FM Facebook page in response to John Suchet (new programme on this station and he is excellent) asking what we were all doing and my response was 'I'm lying on the sofa enjoying thinking about Bryn in a wonderful performance of Meistersinger last night' and lo and behold, ten minutes later he played some Bryn and said 'and  I know this will please Elaine Simpson-Long' and I nearly fell off my sofa in shock.  

So tired but full of happy memories of a simply wonderful evening.  Now I will be drawing my horns in having spent more than I should recently but, as I have said before, I will happily live off baked beans for the chance to attend such performances which are uplifting to the soul and spirit.

Bad Boys

This is the rather wince making title of the latest CD from my hero, Bryn Terfel, complete with picture of him on the front glowering and looking a bit like Ray Winstone if the truth be told. I really dislike this kind of marketing, but realise that sales are all and as this is a mixture of operatic arias and slightly lighter stuff, I presume that Deutsche Gramaphon are trying to haul in the so called 'crossover' buyers as well.  I try not to be a musical snob, and probably fail, but dislike this all purpose sales push very much.

Well, no matter, I adore Bryn and he can do very little wrong in my eyes and this CD arrived this morning, rather late from Amazon because of the weather conditions, but arrive safely it did and this afternoon decided to have a listen and see what I thought of it all.

The villains, or 'Bad Boys', range from slightly dubious to downright nasty and so we have two versions of Mefistofele on here:  one by Boito and one by Gounod and have to say that though they display the bass baritone at his best, they have never been particular favourites of mine.  Pizarro from Fidelio and Iago from Otello are pretty unpleasant, both well portrayed, and then we have Scarpia, his aria at the end of the first act of Tosca when the Te Deum is being sung in the background and he sings 'Tosca you make me forget God'. As always, a shiver down the spine and, having seen Bryn sing this role at Covent Garden, a reminder of just how good he is in this part.  

Dulcamara from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore is included though my personal opinion is that he is more a chancer and snake oil salesman (literally) than a villain; ditto Don Basilio from Il Barbiere singing La calunnia, slimy and a bit repulsive but not a real proper in your face villain.

Then two contrasts:  Sportin' Life from Porgy and Bess with a swinging fun version of It ain't necessarily so which Bryn sings with huge relish and then When the Night Wind howls from Ruddigore by Gilbert & Sullivan, obviously slipped in to amuse the listener and sung with great panache.

Two tracks are memorable and for differing reasons.  The first is Epiphany from Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.  I saw Bryn do this at the Festival Hall a couple of years ago and his performance of this was riveting and sent chills of horror down my spine.  Sweeney is venting his hatred of mankind and his decision to kill as many as possible until he can execute the Judge, the ravisher of his wife and it is a tour de force.  When he let rip with this in the live performance there was a stunned and shaken silence when he came to the final note and the audience were genuinely disturbed by the intensity of his performance.  

The other memorable track is Stars from Les Miserables and is memorable for a totally different reason. To me it is a perfect example of an overblown over the top so called show stopping number from a musical.  Every one has such a big sing, it is obligatory, and sometimes their portentousness is wildly at odds with the setting and, while I appreciate that Les Miserables is set during the French revolution, the portrayal of the down trodden citizens nobly standing up for what they believe in, when most of the time they were yelling and cheering at Madame la Guillotine, is rather hard to take.

(You will see from a comment left below that I have the historical setting of this musical incorrect and am grateful to be pointed in the right direction.   However, I still find the music "all sound and fury and signifying nothing"..)

This number is just trite and awful and full of bathos - the only way I can describe it is to imagine listening to Climb Every Mountain, My way and to Dream the Impossible Dream all rolled into one which will give you an idea of just how cheesy it is.  I know Les Miserables has been running for years, I know millions have seen it all round the world, but whenever I see or hear an excerpt from it, I run screaming from the room. 

So don't think I will be playing that track very often.

Nor will I the track in which Bryn sings Leporello, Don Giovanni and the Commendatore either.  Bit of a laugh first hearing but not sure that it was really a good idea.

But, as  I said, I adore Bryn and so will forgive him anything...mind you I will be booking to see him in Die Meistersinger later on in the year and if he should pull out of that or cancel, well I might change my mind...

But I have faith.