CLASSICAL SOURCE
Allocating this critic a seat in the Gallery of Cadogan Hall for a concert of music by Sibelius and Prokofiev, to be greeted by a leaflet headed “Octava – Enriching your concert experience” by means of using your mobile phone to read the programme note – while the music is being played – is rather like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
DAILY EXPRESS ★★★★
THE Royal Phil is currently showing off its New Year wares in its Sloane Square home with a diet of “richly satisfying sandwiches”, as conductor Shelley put it, chatting away to us from his podium.
Who can resist Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, his first? Just to prove that anything revered Austrian classicist Joseph Haydn could do he could do better, Prokofiev produced his first symphony aged 26 in 1917.
SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
This was the second concert in the series ‘Symphonic Soundscapes: The Music of Prokofiev and Sibelius‘ being presented by Alexander Shelley and the RPO at Cadogan Hall. As in the previous concert (review) Shelley introduced the works from the stage and drew attention to the role Prokofiev and Sibelius had in helping to forge the national identities of their respective countries following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
BACHTRACK
As I was doing the recycling the other day, my mind turned briefly to the different ways in which composers sometimes recycle, revise or reuse music. Taking the pieces in this programme by Alexander Shelley and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as examples. Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor was written in 1904 but was revised heavily in 1905, the third movement of Prokofiev's Symphony no. 1 in D major "Classical" was also used in his ballet Romeo and Juliet, and his Symphony no. 3 in C minor used music from an unperformed opera.
