Prom 16

Elgar, Bantock, Walton.... and Tchaikovsky...

BBC NOW, with Jac van Steen

Who would you rather have a drink with? Falstaff? Or Hamlet? Am I being picky when I think "Neither, thanks"? Falstaff, a drunken, sly, cozening liar... or the depressive Hamlet... Nope, sorry: I'll drink alone.  The Elgar was - well - very Elgar. A vivid image of the old buffoon was fondly created.

Bantock...every year, the cry goes up from a certain hard-core group: "Give us Bantock!" And, in dribs & drabs, they do. What to say? Well, there's a reason he's not played regularly. He's of his time; and Elgar & RVW did it much better. Sapphic Poems brought on Raphael Wallfisch, who duly obliged with the romantic swoops of scale - but it didn't do justice to this man's ability to play! The encore he played made poor Bantock shrink into insignificance...

http://www.raphaelwallfisch.com/ gives more detail on his wonderful cello

The Tchaikovsky was marred only by a bad dose of The Clap (see earlier entry); I do feel that it's up to the conductor, to a large extent, to control the audience enthusiasm. van Steen is young yet (for a conductor!), so I must hope that he learns this priceless ability in the next decade... He got a grip by the 3rd movement, though, and the pizzicato segued seamlessly to the finale.