The BBC splash out on some big hitters to play at the last week of the Proms. This year it is the Staatskapelle Berlin and their conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Dresden, under Christian Thielemann.
By the way, and I’m sure you know this, “Staatskapelle” means State chapel which gives a clue to their long histories. The Berlin one was founded in 1570 and Dresden in 1548 but even older is Det Kongelige Kapel (The Royal Danish Orchestra) founded in 1448. The best the UK can do is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, going back to 1853. This is disputed by Manchester’s Hallé, founded in 1858. It’s chief executive in an interview in The Guardian gave a well-thought out rejection of Liverpool’s claim: “what Liverpool is saying is bollocks”.
However, let’s get back on track. Come with me to Wednesday evening’s Prom with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Russian pianist, Daniil Trifonov, played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. Gosh, sorry, I must digress. When I was at school there was a sponsored walk. I realised too late that I was ineligible to participate as I hadn’t got any sponsors. However, I had a stroke of luck. A boy in my House was sponsored to the hilt but then didn’t want to do the walk so I stood-in for him. I still remember how tired I was after twenty-five miles but not too tired to go to the Film Soc. in the evening to see Elvira Madigan. The slow movement of the concerto features throughout the film and the two are inextricably intertwined after that summer evening’s screening when I felt so agreeably exhausted.
It had not been played at the Proms since 1984 and Daniil Trifonov played with panache, especially in the final movement, allegro vivace assai, with cadenzas of his own invention. I had no idea that it was permitted to add this sort of syncopated icing to Mozart’s Sachertorte. It sent us off to the bar for an Interval drink in good spirits.
Then it was Bruckner’s Third Symphony. In theory I could just as well have listened to this Prom at home on Radio 3. In fact the sound quality at the Albert Hall is quite different (in a good way) and – more importantly – there is the opportunity to concentrate on the music and become immersed without any distraction. Well, one Prommer did faint and had to be stretchered out in the Mozart. If you did listen to this top-notch Prom on the wireless, you will not have noticed the remarkable resemblance between Christian Thielemann and Ed Balls. In this picture Thielemann has a small piece of bread impaled on his baton. Incidentally, he conducted the Bruckner without a score.
So it’s goodbye to the Proms but Daniil Trifonov will be at the Barbican in January next year playing a programme of Schumann, Shostakovich and Stravinsky.
https://youtu.be/rKZr3ExeXUc