Music
Prom preview
Peter Phillips
Most people are usually in some way critical of the annual line-up of concerts in the Proms. There are so many possible areas of disappointment, which proceed from the impossibly high expectations which are generally entertained of this largest of large music festivals. Here are some typical cavils, with my own reactions in brackets: a favourite composer under- represented (Bruckner — only one piece, the Symphony No. 8); an over-familiar composer over-represented (Beethoven — five concertos, four symphonies and an overture); too few exciting foreign orches- tras (20 British orchestras and five others, of which two are EEC youth orchestras, leaving the Pittsburg SO, the Polish Cham- ber Orchestra and the Swedish Radio SO); too much modern music (the theme this year is 20th-century American composi- tion); not enough British music (by com- parison with the 22 American works there are four commissions for British compos- ers); unimaginative programme-planning (well, I fear that may be the verdict). Put like that, this is not a notable year, unless you happen to be interested in the American angle. This certainly has con- siderable depth to it, with premieres by Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter and Steve Reich, and first performances at the Proms of music by Ives, Gershwin, Copland, Barber, Bernstein, Griffes and Schuman. Piston's Second Symphony, Ruggles's Sun- treader and Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever have been heard at the Proms in previous seasons.
Pride of place is given to Ives and Gershwin. Three of Ives's works are per- formed on 26 August — the only all- American night — and his Fourth Sym- phony on 25 July. This latter is a spectacu- lar piece in performance, requiring three conductors and seeming to be an anarchic pile-up of conflicting musical ingredients. Two of Gershwin's works will also be heard on 26 August, including the Rhap- sody in Blue. His Piano Concerto will be played on 14 September, and An American in Paris on 2 September. Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring also will make up part of the programme on 26 August. Against this background of recognised master- pieces come the experiments, though almost all are from established figures. Roger Sessions in fact died earlier this year at the age of 89, giving an extra poignancy to the first European performance of his When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd on 22 July, which is a setting of Whitman's elegy for Abraham Lincoln. All in all, for an American audience this would seem a square sort of celebration, for the Proms it is quite something.
It is with some relief, perhaps, that you observe the scarcity of Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. The reason is an interesting one — that the authenticity drive has actually made the performance of these composers unsuitable to the Proms. I would not be surprised if 20 years ago there was more of them than in this anniversary year. In many ways the BBC have done right not to put on a large number of early music concerts the Albert Hall is just not the place for them, and anywhere else does not have the feel of a Prom.
These feelings have been rather con- firmed by the first weekend of concerts, which amounted to the bulk of this year's early music contribution, dedicated to four anniversaries. It was a clever trick to start with Mozart's arrangement of Messiah, since the BBC SO and Singers could permissibly do the job, and filled the Hall with sound. Strange it was to hear all those famous numbers sung to German texts, though Mozart's orchestration offered some distraction. There were moments when just a touch of some unfamiliar in- strumental colour could change the impact of the music almost beyond recognition.
The Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner have given two recitals. The first on 20 July was of music by Scarlatti and Schutz in St Luke's, Chelsea. That was the first time I had attended a Prom outside the Albert Hall, and it seemed very little like a Prom to me. It was an enjoyable concert for all that — the size of the choir well suiting the size of the building. Their concert of Bach Cantatas in the Albert Hall the following night was less successful, since the orchestra of original instruments and some of the soloists, in particular, made little impact on the building. Nor was it particularly well attended.
It is unfair to expect the Proms to be all things to all music-lovers, and they should not try to be. If, ironically, the Bach/ Handel year marks the beginning of the end of early music at the Proms, the focus of the festival would be usefully sharpened. There is enough to worry about in the staging of music from 1750 onwards, with- out feeling an obligation to make a show- ing in the mediaeval, renaissance and baroque repertoires too. Perhaps with this greater concentration there might then be more space for some Bruckner sympho- nies, and that kind of thing.
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