BBC Proms Mahler

[Prospero]

For those interested there is some interesting Mahler at the Proms. You can access BBC Radio3 online or with an iPod/iPhone app. Performances are available for 30 days online.

Gatti and the Concertgebouw performed #4 Saturday.
Hoeneck and Pittsburg #1 today.
Harding and Vienna P #6 Thursday.

I thought the 4th was beautifully done. They did a Bruckner #9 the night before.

Best,
Tom in Vermont

[barryguerrero]

All three of those should be really good, if not great (don't know the soprano on M4, however). A friend who resides in London was really impressed with the Honeck/Pittsburgh M1

[AZContrabassoon]

These performances will sound better on the BBC website than they ever could in RAH. That place is a disgrace. Horrid acoustics - just a big cavernous barn. If you sit too far away (not hard to do) there is no presence at all. No impact. The best "seats" in the place are the standing-room only arena. I heard M4 (and a whole lot more) there a couple of years ago. The recordings I listened to on-line were much more revealing, and frankly enjoyable, than being there live. Still, it's better than many American festival venues where they have to add electronic amplification to make the music heard.

[Prospero]

Certainly the Royal Albert Hall has problems. But I have heard a few remarkable concerts there. Strangely, a very affecting Maazel Mahler 2 from the top balcony and a Rattle Mahler 9 with the Birmingham SO, and Haitink and the LPO in the Elgar Enigma and Shostakovitch 10.

They still have a remarkable range of events. Wanting a "perfect hall" does not negate either the populist approach to serious music and the often nigh quality of performance. What would you do with the Horenstein 8th?

[akiralx]

I heard a BPO/Abbado M9 there several decades ago, while sitting v high up - then the next night stood in the arena to hear them do Mussorgsky's Pictures and Tchaikovsky's The Tempest - for about $10.  Happy days...