…there’s only one piano, isn’t there?
Last night’s live blogging the Proms (specifically Prom 47 as Bernard Haitink conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Europe through Brahms 3rd Symphony and 1st Piano Concerto) was fun. A lot more fun that I expected and hoped for, so thanks to Jon Jacob for the suggestion.
As it was an experiment, both Jon and I were unsure what was going to come out of the live blog. Having seen his comments on the rehearsals this morning, that gave me something to latch on to – but once the show started it morphed into something else. You have to remember that I came into this cold. I wasn’t familiar with Brahms’ work and to be honest my touchstones with classical music are those in modern society (The Hovis advert, Torvil and Dean do Bolero, The Planets, etc).
But I do know music, and I think that blogging what I felt through the music showed that I ‘got’ what Brahms was trying to do, even if I didn’t know how to articulate it in academic language. It also threw up some interesting points. Because I was only listening on Radio 3, and wasn’t familiar with the work, I was convinced that there were two pianos on stage, taking the “high” parts and the “low” parts of the piece as two different characters. From the live blog:
Ewan:
Well, whatever the two lovers are united here. I can’t help feeling the (two pianos?) contrasts of light music and ominous bass are going to circle each other and only rarely meet, like they did there.Jon:
Can you hear two pianos?Ewan:
Yes. Or at least two sides of a coin, a light feminine piano, and a dark masculine piano that can’t love the feminine piano, so has settled for being a best friend forever, even though it’s killing him… There’s only one piano on stage, isn’t there…?Jon:
Yes.
Two emotional pieces of work, which I loved (and need find a good recording of it for my own collection, any suggestions?), a wonderful night of surprises for us both… and perhaps an idea for a new project. Two sparks from Friday have got me thinking.
The first was the only bad experience. Between the two halves of the show, Radio 3 had a documentary/discussion feature about Brahms, and quite frankly it sounded like the biggest pile of pretentious highbrow impenetrable self congratulatory collection of words I have heard in a long time. Compared to the beauty of the music, I was ready to throw my Radio 3 HD browser window across the desktop. Part of me thinks if I wasn’t live blogging I might have simply switched off.
And that’s a fundamental problem if you’re a broadcaster on a national station.
But then Jon’s comment sparked something positive:
Hearing your real time responses, is quite the loveliest way to experience a familiar and much loved work.
So you take a classical concert (which I understand Radio 3 do quite a bit of), an experienced musical host, and the
If Oz and James can do Wine on BBC 2, can Jon and Ewan do the Classics on Radio 3?
Hi Ewan,
I was at the Proms plus event and thought it was good. I thought Stephen Johnson’s contributions were particularly well put. I haven’t heard the broadcast version which was edited down from the live discussion so I don’t know how that came over. It seemed to me that they made a good stab at explaining that Brahms was a deeply damaged human being who had problems with nearly all his relationships and a very bleak view of life but who found consolation and a way to communicate with those who cared to understand him through his music.
Roddy
Roddy, thanks for leaving the comment. Johnson’s contribution was the interval piece on the Radio 3 broadcast, or the program leading in to the show?
I dipped into the later (while hassling the children to bed!), but no matter who was doing that, it was far superior to my perception of the interval discussion. The latter really destroyed my mood, and made me angry that it was so inpenetrable!