BBC Proms 2012

[Michael]

Our favourite composer seems to be heading the list this year. All of the symphonies are being performed with at least five nights devoted almost totally to Beethoven.
They even have his picture on the Proms logo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/...0-2c5373b7eac9

The performance of the Ninth will coincide with the opening of the Olympic games.

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...hoven-9th.html



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[Enrique]

In the second link I see the cellos are in the center of the orchestra instead of being on one side. I had never seen this distribution.

[Michael]

In the second link I see the cellos are in the center of the orchestra instead of being on one side. I had never seen this distribution.

Something to do with the East West layout?

[Enrique]

I don't know. I know I have seen the cellos at the conductor's left hand and the first violins at his right when playing opera in the place under the stage (do not know its name in English). But never this disposition.

[Chris]

They were moved over so the first violins would be on the left and the second violins would be on the right. This is how orchestras used to be arranged until more modern times. Sometimes passages were written with stereo effects in mind for the violins, and unless the second violins are placed there, the effect is lost. This arrangement is becoming more common again.

[Enrique]

Unbelievable. I remember how nice it was watching the cellos play in the Danses des adolescentes in the Sacre, the bows always pulling, Now they would be difficult to see. One could also observe some details of the fingering.

[Roehre]

They were moved over so the first violins would be on the left and the second violins would be on the right. This is how orchestras used to be arranged until more modern times. Sometimes passages were written with stereo effects in mind for the violins, and unless the second violins are placed there, the effect is lost. This arrangement is becoming more common again.

Eroica !

[Michael]

And the Seventh?

[Roehre]

And the Seventh?

Too. But the Eroica is the first symphony in which Beethoven applies this "trick". I write specifically "symphony", as I seem to recall some similar scoring can be found in the Prometheus-score (which I haven't at hand at the moment, unfortunately)

[Michael]

Talking of stereo, there is a fine effect near the start of the Leonora Overture No. 1 (the ugly duckling) where the theme pans across the orchestra.

[Enrique]

Too. But the Eroica is the first symphony in which Beethoven applies this "trick".

Which is this trick, please?

[Roehre]

Which is this trick, please?

They were moved over so the first violins would be on the left and the second violins would be on the right. This is how orchestras used to be arranged until more modern times. Sometimes passages were written with stereo effects in mind for the violins, and unless the second violins are placed there, the effect is lost. This arrangement is becoming more common again.

That's the trick STF92

[Enrique]

But can you quote a passage in the Eroica where this stereo effect between 1st and 2nd violins is noticeable?

[Michael]

To revert to the original topic for a moment, here are some interesting facts about the Proms (which may have been posted some years ago):

· Wagner is the most performed composer at the Proms (with 5,892 performances of his music). Beethoven is second with only 2,818

· Wagner's Tannhäuser is the most performed work, with excerpts from the opera performed 740 times

· Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 has been performed 151 times, Rossini's Overture to William Tell 173 times and Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (Land Of Hope And Glory) on 146 occasions – placing them among the most popular single works


· Prokofiev has had the most pieces performed in recent years (1995-2009), closely followed by Mozart, Stravinsky and JS Bach. In the equivalent period 100 years ago (1895-1909), Wagner, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Sullivan were leading this field


· Great international composers such as Bernstein, Copland, Hindemith and Poulenc have all appeared as performers as well as composers at the Proms


· Mahler's music was performed on only 21 occasions between 1903 and 1950. Since 1951, there have been more than 222 performances. By contrast, other composers are shown vividly to have fallen out of favour: Edward German, Charles Gounod and Arthur Sullivan were among the top seven composers in the first decade of the 20th century (with more than 750 works performed between them), while, in this decade, there have been fewer than 15 performances of their music


· Sir Henry Wood – the Proms co-founder and first conductor – conducted more than 23,000 pieces, more than 20,000 more than the next most prominent conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent

[Peter]

But can you quote a passage in the Eroica where this stereo effect between 1st and 2nd violins is noticeable?

Not what you're asking exactly, but one of the most remarkable passages where the 1st and 2nds interlock occurs in the finale of Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony - if each part is played separately it is unrecognisable.