Mozart, Prokofiev & Bartók
Royal Albert Hall
Still behind the live schedule, I'm listening to this Prom early evening on Sunday. It's been a glorious day, and I'm sitting in my garden area, with laptop, JBL mini Bluetooth speaker, and a cup of tea. There's a shower curtain in the washing machine, because I've heard you can do that [Side note: worked quite well! Could maybe just do with another run to seal the deal].
It's Mozart, it's Prokofiev, it's Bartok.
Mozart I already know (who doesn't?), Prokofiev is a name I've heard a few times over the last few years, usually on Classic FM when I've heard something and thought 'I quite like that one.' His is a name I've often heard alongside Shostakovich - looking them up online now, I understand why.
Bartok was foreign to me until earlier on in this Proms season.
The Mozart starter is perfect music; how couldn't it be? It's his 'Paris' symphony, and, as I remarked yesterday, Mozart seems to lean towards benign pomp in his music. But I like that about him!
The Prokofiev follows suit, insomuch as the music is spot on. There's a section where the strings are sharp, and by that I do not mean they are out of tune. I mean that they're presented with a timbre that rips through the other instrumentation. Sounds belter!
After the interval it's to be Bartok, and this is a Concerto for Orchestra, which I now understand [from earlier interval discussions in this Proms season] that this is something that is going to give all the instruments a moment in the spotlight.
Predictable opening to the Bartok, and I don't think it's the sort of music that lends itself to relaxation on a late-summer evening. But I do appreciate it for what it is, and it's something special for the right setting.
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