{"id":5447,"date":"2019-08-27T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T17:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=5447"},"modified":"2019-08-27T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T17:37:07","slug":"prom-47-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=5447","title":{"rendered":"Prom 47"},"content":{"rendered":"

Royal Albert Hall\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 23rd<\/sup> August 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

This Prom highlighted various musical connections between Bruckner and the organ. Not only was he a keen organist but he specifically gave recitals at both the Royal Albert Hall and the Gewandhaus. The music of Bach was very important to him.<\/p>\n

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The first section of the programme was given over to a short Bach recital performed by the current Gewandhaus organist, Michael Schonheit. The opening Fantasia in G minor<\/em> was a stirring introduction to the evening. A transcription of Cantata No 147, popularly known as \u00a0Jesu, joy of man\u2019s desiring<\/em>, followed. Although undoubtedly well-received by a large number of people in the hall some listeners may have detected some unevenness in this performance, compared to the clean and controlled opening Fantasia<\/em>. The remainder of this recital was taken up by a magisterial rendition of Prelude & Fugue in E flat major (St Anne)<\/em>. Michael Schonheit here chose to insert the chorale prelude, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme<\/em> in between the two movements, reflecting the layout of Bach\u2019s publication. I would have preferred a slightly slower tempo for this, but that is just personal taste.<\/p>\n

The selection of these familiar pieces provided a good overview of Bach\u2019s organ writing, with contrasting styles and registration. I spoke to a number of people in the interval who had really enjoyed the programme.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the evening was given over to Bruckner\u2019s own revised version of Symphony 8<\/em> in C minor<\/em>. This gargantuan piece has four movements. Everything is on a grand scale and the piece lasts around 80 minutes. From the outset the Gewandhaus Orchestra gave a totally committed performance, whether playing furiously at full volume or producing the most focused delicate timbres. Andris Nelsons has placed an emphasis on Bruckner\u2019s music since taking up his role with the orchestra and it was clear that he was totally in command.<\/p>\n

The reasoning behind this evening\u2019s programme was very interesting but I can\u2019t help feeling some disappointment that the opportunity wasn\u2019t taken to include a work for the combined forces of this excellent organist and orchestra.<\/p>\n

Stephen Page<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Royal Albert Hall\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 23rd August 2019 This Prom highlighted various musical connections between Bruckner and the organ. Not only was he a keen organist but he specifically gave recitals at both the Royal Albert Hall and the Gewandhaus. The music … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5450,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5447\/revisions\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}