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Posted by John Quinn
on August 3, 2008, 11:51 am
90.195.13.28
I missed hearing the Halle Prom live on BBC Radio 3 but caught up with it via the BBC 2 TV recording yesterday (Saturday) evening. I've since read Bob Briggs' excellent review and find that I agree with him on every count - most particularly about the gross miscalculation that led to the inclusion of totally misconceived readings of some of A E Housman's poems before and after Butterworth's Rhapsody, A Shroprshire Lad - to judge by the way in which they "performed" the poems I can't believe the actors concerned have ever heard the musical settings of the poems in question by Butterworth himself or by Vaughan Williams. Bob is quite right to say that the Halle now has its best MD since Barbirolli - and like him I also caught the tail end of JB's tenure at a few concerts in Bradford.
Unfortunately I don't know whether I would have agreed with his views on the performance of RVW's 8th symphony for this was cut from the television relay. Had there been much less presenter chatter during the broadcast, which would have been a very good thing, there would have been sufficient time for the music. Instead, from a Prom designed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Halle was cut a symphony dedicated to Barbirolli and first performed by the Halle under his baton. How ironic! I wonder if anyone at today's BBC realised that - or cared.
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