Tag: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

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 Scouse Second Night Of The Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 22 July 1989

No doubt about it – Bobbie joined me for this one. She was keen to see the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under the auspices of the great Czech conductor Libor Pešek. I was keen to see how he would deal with one of my favourite works, Smetana’s Má Vlast.

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

We heard:

  • Benjamin Britten – Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’
  • Sergey Rachmaninov – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
  • Bedrich Smetana – From Má Vlast:
    1. * No. 6 Blaník
    2. * No. 3 Šárka
    3. * No. 2 Vltava
    4. * No. 4 From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields
  • Bedrich Smetana – Skocná (Dance of the Comedians) from The Bartered Bride (encore)
  • Julius Fučík – Entry of the Gladiators (second encore)

Why Libor Pešek chose those Má Vlast four movements, and in that order, I couldn’t say. It was all wonderful to hear, in any case.

William Leece in the Liverpool Echo suggested that the Liverpool mob under Pesek brought The Royal Albert hall down:

Pesek Prom Leece EchoPesek Prom Leece Echo 24 Jul 1989, Mon Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, Merseyside, England) Newspapers.com

Strangely, although the national papers promoted this concert widely in advance, none chose to review it by the looks of it. Typical.

Here’s one of the sea interludes performed by the very outfit we saw:

Here’s Stephen Hough with the BBC Symphony from the first night of the Proms 2013 with the Rachmaninov Paganini:

Here’s Libor Pesek and The Royal Liverpool mob playing their four movements of Ma Vlast in Libor Prom order:

Alternatively, if you want to hear that recording in full in Smetana sequence, I have made it available on this playlist – click here. Do not be put off if you see a seemingly erased link – you can hear it whether or not you have a YouTube Music account – you just get adverts of you don’t.

In truth I couldn’t bring to mind Skocná – Dance of the Comedians, but James Levine & the Vienna lot brought it all back to me:

I’m really not at all sure that Entry of the Gladiators belonged with this concert, but that’s what they did. The piece was originally written as a serious piece of military marching music, although how anyone with that moustache composing that piece expected to be taken seriously, even back then, I cannot imagine.

On reflection, I think the use of that piece as a second encore was a mistake. When Libor Pesek suggested that they play a second encore, one of the scouse musicians loudly expressed his discontent with the traditional local expletive, but unfortunately Pesek thought the fellow said:

Oh, Fučík!

It was a great concert nonetheless.