Tag: Simon Rattle

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

One of the great mysteries of my diaries and logs. Normally I would leave a clue as to who accompanied me. This time, there are no clues. Did I book this one as a single ticket – so keen to see Simon Rattle and the CBSO I decided to go it alone? My electronic financial records don’t go back far enough for me to be able to tell.

OK, let’s round up the usual suspects. Jilly. Annalisa. Bobbie. (Were it anyone other than one of those three, I’m sure there would be clues in my diary/logs).

I had written the following NewsRevue piece, destined to be a hit, the day before this concert and would have been full of it that evening, if accompanied:

Come Back Labour, NewsRevue Lyric, 18 July 1992

But I digress.

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

I/we heard:

  • Roberto Gerhard – Don Quixote (complete ballet: 2nd version)
  • Leos Janáček – Glagolitic Mass

Here is a more recent Simon Rattle with the Berlin (rather than Birmingham) lot, doing a short extract from the Gerhard…

…and a short extract from the Glagolithic Mass:

If you want to see what Simon Rattle looked like in Birmingham in the 1990s, the following is his farewell gig there from 1998, with the CBSO & CBSO Chorus:

Edward Greenfield in the Guardian loved this concert:

Rattle Prom Greenfield GuardianRattle Prom Greenfield Guardian 22 Jul 1992, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

OK Jilly/Annalisa/Bobbie. A confession would be much appreciated if one of you remembers being there.

A Prom Commemorating The Day War Broke Out, City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle, Royal Albert Hall, 3 September 1989

Another CBSO with Simon Rattle concert and another note in my diary wondering who joined me for this one. My prime suspect this time is Bobbie. For sure she was around again by then, as she had been away for most of August that year but for sure was back by the end of the month when we saw the Merchant Of Venice:

The Merchant Of Venice by William Shakespeare, Phoenix Theatre, 29 August 1989

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this prom. This is what we heard:

  • Benjamin Britten – Sinfonia da Requiem
  • Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 7 in E minor

Anthony Payne in the Independent thinks Mahler’s 7th is a tough work and that the CBSO under Rattle did a good job with it:

Rattle Prom Payne IndyRattle Prom Payne Indy 05 Sep 1989, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Robert Henderson in the Telegraph thought the pairing of these two works ingenious while expressing his own doubts about Mahler’s 7th:

Rattle Prom Henderson TelegraphRattle Prom Henderson Telegraph 05 Sep 1989, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Want to judge for yourself? Here is Thomas Adès conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Sinfonia da Requiem at the Proms in 2013…

…and here is Claudio Abbado with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra doing Mahler’s 7th.