sat 02/11/2024

BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Honeck | reviews, news & interviews

BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Honeck

BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Honeck

Too much passion at the Proms proves hard to digest

Hélène Grimaud: power more often in the fire than the still, small voice

In a week that sees Proms visits from two major American orchestras, it fell to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise the curtain for their blue-blooded “Big Five” colleagues the Philadelphia Orchestra. With Tchaikovsky featuring large in both programmes comparisons are only natural, and it will be interesting to see what response Thursday night offers to an energetic but at times rather unsubtle evening of music from Pennsylvania’s “other” orchestra.

In a week that sees Proms visits from two major American orchestras, it fell to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise the curtain for their blue-blooded “Big Five” colleagues the Philadelphia Orchestra. With Tchaikovsky featuring large in both programmes comparisons are only natural, and it will be interesting to see what response Thursday night offers to an energetic but at times rather unsubtle evening of music from Pennsylvania’s “other” orchestra.

Comments

The first encore was Ravel's Pavane. Does anyone know what was the second one? It is a shame that Alexandra Coghlan did not bother finding out. S

The second encore was the Galop by Khachaturian.

The first encore was not Ravel's Pavane but the prelude to Act 3 of Bizet's Carmen

Whoops! And any slight resemblance between that and a Pavane would be with Faure's, not Ravel's...

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