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Prom 46: London Symphony Orchestra
- Date Wednesday 20 August 2008
- Time 7.00pm - c10.30pm
- Venue Royal Albert Hall
- Tickets £7-£44 price band B or Prom for £5
- Broadcast Live on BBC Radio 3. Available as audio on demand for the following week.
Valery Gergiev comes to the Proms with music from his native Russia - music with more than a whiff of the greasepaint that brings out the best in this charismatic maestro.
The Sleeping Beauty is one of Tchaikovsky's most delicate and melodically rich ballet scores - a perennial favourite that tells the story of a handsome prince awakening a beautiful princess, Aurora, thereby breaking the spell of the wicked fairy Carabosse.
- Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty (c177 mins)
There will be one interval
London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conductor
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Malcolm Bennett
I agree with all the comments of the other reviewers. One of the finest orchestras in the world; a great conductor; a wonderful score and one presumably that was new and fresh to the orchestra. How wonderful to have the Sleeping Beauty without an audience chattering whenever the dancers are not on stage clapping and cheering when the music is still being played and at speeds not dictated by the needs of the dancers. this familiar score (plus items usually cut) was revealed in all its glory.
Catherine Moore
An inspired idea to play a ballet score with a full orchestra. The Rose Adagio would have been way too fast for a prima ballerina en pointe, but this was a concert performance. The exhilarating speed and passion with which it was conducted merited the spontaneous applause at its end. Please could we have the full 'Swan Lake' (very symphonic!) and 'Nutcracker' in future Proms?
Wonderful to hear a great ballet score played absolutely complete and with an orchestra close to the size Tchaikovsky specified. I would not have wanted to dance at some of the tempos that Gergiev set but when the orchestral playing is as exciting and precise as this who cares?
A great evening further spiced by a jaw dropping overheard conversation: "The music isn't that great, is it?" "Oh, well it's ballet music isn't it? That's never that good! I do like Tchaikovsky though. I've never seen Onegin but I love "The Ace of Spades"(!) Hmmm...
Peter Ludbrook
This was magnificent. It was wonderful to hear this great score in its entirety liberated from the confines of the theatre pit and allowed to glow and glitter in the Albert Hall. The playing of the LSO was superb with ravishing woodwind playing and beautiful pianissimos from the strings. Plenty of thrills from the brass! Gergiev (who I have mixed feelings about) was absolutely in his element and characterised the music wonderfully. It was a long concert and hats off to the orchestra and conductor for giving their all right to the last minute. A 5 star triumph!