Prom 50: Inspiration versus Application

I was wondering whether to write anything about Prom 50. Firstly, because I live in the middle of Carnival where the sound stages get so loud it's near-impossible to concentrate on anything but strategems and devices to stop the windows rattling and the doors vibrating.

But secondly, having been to the RAH listening to the Dvorak Cello Concerto last night, for fear I would be accused of being curmudgeonly and not liking anything this season.

Especially of being too sceptical of the true value of young 'stars'. In an interview (one of the current series where the BBC seems to be furiously plugging 'new stars—in the absence of real ones?) Alisa Weilerstein said:

"It's arguably the best-written major work for cello, it's completely epic and symphonic in scope. It has every range of emotion you could ask for," she says. "It's like reading a really great novel and having every character incredibly developed."

And she says, from the point of view of the performer, it's a piece that sits well on the instrument. "It slides beautifully in the hands, even though it's quite challenging and very virtuosic. But most importantly I think it's just an incredibly touching, moving work."

All that is certainly true. But knowing that is one thing, transmitting it to an audience is another, and it 'read' more like one of those sc-fi novels where you get several pages of brief bios of the characters in alphabetical order so you can get some idea of them that you couldn't while you were actually reading it.

Technically (I do seem to say this a lot) Weilerstein's playing was extremely capable; but I still only got a list of characters and not much depth of characterisation; nor did I get much sense of emotion. I want more from a musical performance (especially of this Dvorak of all things) than to admire from afar technical and deliberated aspects of bowing and fingering that would have delighted a TV director had the cameras been there.

I weary rather of being increasingly asked to admire an 'interpretation' for its own sake, regardless of its musical propriety, absolute validity, or otherwise. This did nothing much to increase (or diminish!) my appreciation of the Concerto; and I fear—actually, I know—by the end of tomorrow I will have entirely forgotten it.

Soloist and orchestra did not really seem to gel, which is odd, since they collaborated in a recording. I wondered whether there had been sufficient rehearsal or discussion before Prom 50, or had Weilerstein been relying on repeating a studio performance live? That's something that doesn't—can't—work in a venue like the Royal Albert Hall.

Her encore (a Bach Sarabande) too, lacked emotional colour and variety of tone; it was, frankly, somewhat drawn out and uninspiring. I spent most of it playing alternatives in my head, imagining how some other cellist would have played it.

The Janacek House of the Dead overture was nice and lively, though also in some respects a bit ruahed and untidy. The Beethoven Seventh was played—relatively—'safe' but with an interesting variation. Belohlavek had placed the double basses at the back just below where the choir sits, high above the rest of the orchestra. It made their parts in the Beethoven Seventh stand out in a way you don't normally hear except in early-instrument performances, which is presumably why he did it.

Behlolavek had a bit of an unhappy history with the Czech Phil. A couple of years ago, he said in an interview:

"In purely professional terms, the orchestra has always delivered high-quality performances, yet many a time it did not radiate a real and ardent enthusiasm for artistic creation. Ardour, the spark in performance and forcibility of expression are qualities that cannot be feigned, they must appear as an additional product, as a result of an intellectual and emotional unification and consonance within the ensemble. Only then do they really impress the audience."

He seemed a little anxious about his future relations with the orchestra; and I wondered last night whether there are signs of strain. The potentiality for that "intellectual and emotional unification and consonance" was there, but given his history with BBCSO I had expected it to be stronger last night.