Enjoy twice with your family - BBC PROMS Multiple Pianos Day - No.2
<Famiry Music Intro>
Date: Sunday 9 August, 2009 13:15-14:00
Venue: Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall of the Royal College of Music
Artists: Pianocircus
Katia and Marielle Labèque
Venue: Royal Albert Hall
※Programme ( concert No.1&2)
An illustrated guide for the orchestra and the concert, made for children
The Proms on 9 August were named 'Multiple Pianos Day' and was dedicated to the piano, especially to the use of more than two pianos. The programme of the first Prom in the afternoon featured works for two pianos, including Mozart's piano concerto for two pianos, "The Carnival of the Animals", and Lutoslawski's variation. The second Prom in the evening included works for two or four pianos by 20th century composers, such as Bartok, Stravinsky and John Adams.
Royal College of Music,
the venue for the Proms Plus
The Proms Plus on this day took place twice in the hall of the Royal College of Music before each main concert. In particular, the first event was designed for children as part of the 'Family Music Intro' series, reflecting the familiarity of the musical instrument and the programme. Of course, the theme was 'Multiple Pianos.' The musicians who were in charge of the guide and performance were sextet pianists called 'Pianocircus', which was formed in 1989 and has released 10 albums and over 100 works of composition or arrangement so far.
When I entered the hall, both the ground and the first floor were packed with people. On the stage were two grand pianos and some percussion instruments, and on the floor in front of the stage were six keyboards placed in a circle. Being attracted by the rehearsal performance of six keyboards by six pianists, more than 100 children from nursery school to secondary school age gathered in front of the chairs. In total, there were about 380 people attending the event, and almost half of them were children, according to the organizer.
Pianocircus and the audience
'Do you know to which instrument today's Proms is dedicated?' one of the members of Pianocircus asked, and the children screamed 'The piano!!' When asked, 'How many of you have played a piano?' most of the children raised their hands. Clearly, those who were actually interested in the piano gathered for the event, so they were eager to answer the questions about the piano.
The members of Pianocircus started to talk in turn along the programme of the concert. Firstly, the presenter introduced the French composer, Fauré. 'Fauré was also a pianist, and one of the students of Saint-Saëns, who we will talk about later. Fauré fell in love with a woman. She had a daughter whose nickname was 'Dolly'. This was written for her. Please listen.' Two other two members started to play the first piece 'Berceuse' from the suite sitting side by side in front of a grand piano on the stage.
Having listened to the music for several bars, he said, 'Look, it doesn't seem to have enough room for the two of them. Ah oh, they have some problem...' Then, the two pianists began to push each other and scramble for the keys and pedals. 'You see? The rehearsal of a duet is not easy.' His comment provoked laughter. He continued, 'In today's concert, this piece will be played by an orchestra. What would it be like?', and a flutist and a clarinetist from that day's orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, played the same piece so that the audience could compare the two versions.
'You can play the piano as a solo, or a duet like before, or an ensemble with other instruments like flutes, or sometimes with an orchestra. A pianist has to work harder against the large number of instruments in an orchestra, right?' the presenter asked a pianist, who was waiting on the stage, flexing her muscles. When he announced, 'In the red corner, the pianist! In the blue corner, the orchestra!', 5 pianists rolled up their sleeves and got ready to play the orchestra sound on the keyboards. They played an extract from Grieg's piano concerto with a grand piano and 5 keyboards. The audience cheered at the powerful performance. The keyboard player said, 'I guess the pianist won...' and handed the microphone to the next presenter.
Introducing the next piece, the presenter said, 'Let's move on to see how two pianos work. It is said that Mozart wrote this concerto for two pianos to play with his sister Nannerl'. They played a short extract from the concerto with two pianos and a two keyboard orchestra. The programme of the day included a piece for two pianos by Lutoslawski. Having said, 'This piano work was inspired by the following violin piece,' one of the pianists took a violin and played the theme by Paganini, continuing, 'This theme inspired many composers too, Liszt, Rachmaninov, and recently Lloyd-Webber.
Finally, they explored "The Carnival of the Animals" from the main concert. 'Saint-Saëns lived 86 years, and wrote a lot of symphonies, concertos, operas and so on. One day, he wrote "The Carnival of the Animals" as a joke to amuse his friends. However, he never wanted anyone to hear it but his closest friends. Do you want to hear it?...
It consists of 14 short movements, each of which has a creature as a theme. First of all, we will meet lions.' As two pianists played the royal march of the lions, some of the children joined in the music by clapping their hands. When it came to the unison going up and down, the presenter asked the children 'What do you think the lions are doing?, and the children answered 'Roaring!' 'Yes! Are you happy with the sound?' 'I want it to be feral and angry!' Then the pianist tried to imitate it again according to their request.
The next animals were hens and cocks. C C C C C C C C G -! A piano and a violin play sharp and continuous notes in turn, and asked 'Do you have any idea of what they are doing?' Children guessed, 'Pecking!', 'Cackling!' Then whole audience was divided into two halves and attempted to imitate the sound of cocks and hens. Wild asses are strong and speedy. Two pianos expressed the animal by dashing up and down the keys in scales. When the presenter asked 'Was it fast enough?', the children replied 'More!', and the pianists tried to play faster.
All of a sudden, other members showed up on the stage with their arms around each other's shoulders, dancing the French Can-Can, and then they slowed it down. Yes, that was the fourth movement, Tortoises. In another movement, they mentioned 'You might hear something from deep in the woods...', and while they played the music, we heard the sound 'Cuckoo', but we could not see from where it came, but the second time we heard 'Cuckoo', we finally found a clarinetist who peeped out from behind a pillar on the balcony. Saying 'The next movement is about the pianist, so let us warm ourselves up... C-major!,' they started an etude loudly altogether. Hearing the deliberately awkward scales, the audience burst out laughing. At the end of the event, they played their original piece composed specially for six pianos, showing how much they can do with six pianos.
Proms 33, 4 pianos
The aim of this event was to introduce the programme and the instrument of the main Proms concert for that day to families, and they did it in only 45 minutes. To my surprise, they actually played the pieces for only 20-40 seconds each. However, that short introduction made the stories and the music link strongly together, so that, when we listened to the music in the hall afterwards, we could easily remembered the stories and paid attention to the music: 'This is the melody when they talked about that story'. 'How fast will these pianists play that passage?', 'Oh, she is the same flutist we saw today', 'Where is the clarinetist hiding to play the cuckoo sound this time?' The superbly handled balance and tempo of the music and talk kept attracting both the children and adults, and earnt huge applause.
After the event, most of the audience went straight over to the Royal Albert Hall just in front of the college. The mother of a 6-year-old girl who just started to learn to play the piano told me, 'We live a bit far from London actually. My daughter is still little, and we cannot stay until the evening concert, so we only came to this event. But it was good, especially for her age. Indeed, she was able to enjoy her Proms here!' and left with a feeling of satisfaction. About 5000 people attended the first Prom of the day later.
Family going to the concert after the event
The Proms Plus was successful again this year. If you have a chance to come to the UK to attend the Proms, why not have a look at the day's Proms Plus and enjoy some extra treats and more of the festive atmosphere? If you are not in the UK, you can still benefit from the Proms. In recent years, the BBC has offered extracts of or whole live recordings of the concerts or events for 7 days online. I am already looking forward to the Proms next year, thinking about which artists will perform which programme, and what unique ideas and themes will be devised to enable people to enjoy them!
※Broadcasts still available
・MaestroCam: You can watch the orchestra's view of conductor.
・Some of the talks of Proms Plus
・Photos and Recordings of Family Orchestra
Report: Chigusa Futako
