Tag: Ludwig van Beethoven

An Heroic, Massive Cast For A Sunday Evening Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 2 September 1990

This was a big concert with a massive cast. Two big works:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Eroica’
  • Leos Janáček – Glagolitic Mass

One heck of a lot of musicians: The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir & BBC Symphony Chorus, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra & the (now) late, great Czech conductor Libor Pešek. Not to forget soloists John Mitchinson, Michael George, Jane Eaglen, Ameral Gunson and Ian Tracey.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this concert.

Jilly accompanied me on this occasion, according to my log, which is usually pretty reliable, as long as I wrote the details down at or near the time, which on this occasion I guess I did.

However, I returned to the scene of the crime, for a different rendition of the Glagolitic Mass, a couple of years later and did not log the name of my companion, which has resulted in one of the greatest mysteries in the entire history of Ogblog postings about 1992 classical concerts – click here or below.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle At The Proms, But Who, If Anyone, Accompanied Me?, Royal Albert Hall, 19 July 1992

The prime suspect for the 1992 evening is now Bobbie, who has gone very quite on that topic.

Jilly wrote to say:

With regards to the concert in 1992, I must admit that my memory does somewhat fail me. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday, let alone 30 years ago, but all I can say is that I don’t remember ever seeing the Glagolitic Mass performed, and I’m not sure that I’ve actually ever seen Simon Rattle conducting in person, but if it’s helpful for you to put me down as having been at the concert with you I won’t object!

Well, Jilly, what do you have to say now that the log has fingered you for a different performance of the Glagolitic Mass? I’m expecting a confession. No need for an apology.

To be fair, Jilly also says:

Thank you for attaching the review at the bottom; how that choir managed to sing a Slavonic piece without the score just baffles me. Reading and pronouncing the transliterated version of Rachmaninov Vespers utterly did my head in, and that was with a good number of rehearsals.

Well all I can say to that is:

Glagolitic script: Лобачев Владимир, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Joking apart, I remember this 1990 Prom as being a big one in every way, including the audience response at the end of a long Sunday evening concert.

I think Jan Smaczny in The Independent liked it:

Pedek Prom Smaczny IndyPedek Prom Smaczny Indy 04 Sep 1990, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Tom Sutcliffe in the Guardian absolutely did.

Pesek prom Sutcliffe GuardianPesek prom Sutcliffe Guardian 04 Sep 1990, Tue The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Does this bring any of it back to your memory, Jilly?

A Five Day Work Visit To Amsterdam Including A Concertgebouw Evening 23 September 1989

Hotel Krasnapolsky Amsterdam Steven Lek, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Dutch people were friendly, you know they put me up and they fed me…

Amsterdam, Al Stewart

My client was hugely apologetic. The only way they could arrange the three days of meetings in Amsterdam required at a delicate stage of the project I was managing was to schedule a Thursday, Friday and then Monday. They realised that this would be inconvenient for me and of course they were happy to fly me backwards and forwards to London if I wanted to spend the weekend at home or they were happy to put me up and feed me at their expense for the duration, including the weekend.

Young, free and single in September 1989, I was delighted to go for the “stay in Amsterdam at their expense” option.

Please stay at the Kras on our corporate account if you are going to stay that long…

…they said. It would have been rude to say no. I usually stayed for my short stopovers at a more modest place, the Rembrandt Classic I think, preferring the less formal and low key atmosphere.

Once work was done on the Friday evening, the weekend was my own. I didn’t keep a log of this visit but I remember most of the things I did:

  • an Indonesian rijsttafel meal on the Friday evening. A rijsttafel for one is a bit of an oxymoron, but the restaurant came highly recommended by my Dutch clients, for good reason;
  • Van Gogh Museum;
  • Rijksmuseum;
  • Rembrandt House;
  • Concertgebouw on Saturday evening (see below);
  • Anne Frank House (on the Sunday if I remember correctly);
  • Lots of strolling around the canals, sitting in coffee bars (the proper posh ones that serve coffee and play classical music), reading my book and feeling terribly sophisticated. I’m sure Mozart Violin Concertos weren’t playing all the time in every coffee shop, but I do remember hearing them more than once. I have, ever since, associated those concertos with this weekend in Amsterdam.

Concertgebouw, 23 September 1989

I was thrilled to be able to score a good ticket at the Concertgebouw “on a whim”. I guess it is that much easier to be lucky and get a single ticket at short notice. I liked the look of the concert and was not disappointed.

I heard/saw the house band (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra aka Koninklijt Concertgebouworkest) conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, with

  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Overture “Leonora” Op 72a
  • Richard Strauss – Horn Concerto No 2 in E Flat Major
  • Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No 7 in D Minor, Op 70

Local lad, Jacob Slagter, was the horn soloist.

I have long-loved the Dvorak’s 7th symphony and was in seventh heaven (did you see what I did there?) at this performance of it.

Here is that very orchestra, but under Colin Davis a few years earlier, playing the Dvorak 7th:

I loved Amsterdam. It is one of the few places in the world, other than London, where I think I could live happily.

My First Night At the Proms: Me, Jilly & Claudio, 1 September 1983

Claudio Abbado in 1982 (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Judging from the notes in my diary, I was spending most of my working days late August and early September in Kenton, doing stuff for Laurie Krieger’s various enterprises, about which I have written a little elsewhere on Ogblog and no doubt will write more in the fulness of time.

As luck would have it, I was asked to return to the office that Thursday afternoon for the rest of the week. Luck, because Jilly, whom I had arranged to meet that evening, got a sudden compulsion to leg it over to the Royal Albert Hall to see the prom that night, as Claudio Abbado was to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra.

It’s Claudio Abbado. he’s the greatest. We’ve got to see him. We might never get another chance…

I was less sure than Jilly about this at the time. She was a budding music student of course, whereas I was still on the low foothills of appreciating classical music.

But I had heard of both pieces to be performed that night – here’s the BBC stub for that “show”:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major, ‘Emperor’
  • Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique.

Indeed, I even owned a recording of the Fantastique.

I remember queuing for quite a long time. I don’t remember whether we enjoyed this concert from the arena or the gallery. My guess is that it was the gallery as I don’t think we could have got there early enough to get in to the arena, but perhaps in those days “after work arrival” was good enough for the arena.

Of course it was very good indeed. Of course Jilly was right – I can now always say that I saw Claudio Abbado conduct.

Feeling envious that you didn’t hear the concert? Wondering whether you remember what orchestras and soloists (Emmanuel Ax on the piano for the Emperor Concerto) sounded like live under Abbado?

Fret no more. A website named pastdaily.com uploaded the recording of this concert as a tribute when Abbado died in 2014. Embedded below.

Claudio Abbado Conducts The London Symphony – 1983 – Past Daily Mid-Week Concert/Tribute Edition

Thank you Jilly and thank you Past Daily.