Sunny Dvořák and passionate Brahms from Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain

Yannick Nézet-Séguin
© Hans Van der Woerd

Orchestre Métropolitain

Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor)

Saturday 17 April 2021

Reviewed from online stream Friday 21 May 2021 (available until 30 May here)

Maison symphonique, Montréal

★★★★

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): Serenade for Winds, Cello & Double Bass in D minor, Op. 44

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Dvořák:

'Fluid dexterity and evident enjoyment'.

'Nézet-Séguin took the finale at a great lick, and the articulation from the wind players was impressive yet never laboured, maintaining a sense of playful fun throughout'.

Brahms:

'Nézet-Séguin still maintained an element of lightness in the driving hemiolas, even as the movement soared to its mighty conclusion'

'A Brahms 4 with passion and drama, yet never settling for sheer weight of delivery over expression and attention to detail'.

'This performance showcased a conductor and orchestra at the top of their game'. 

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Oboe chamber gems from Adrian Wilson and Ensemble 360 in Sheffield

Adrian Wilson
© Andy Brown

Ensemble 360

Adrian Wilson (oboe)

Tim Horton (piano)

Benjamin Nabarro (violin)

Claudia Ajmone-Marsan (violin)

Rachel Roberts (viola)

Gemma Rosefield (cello)

Friday 14 May, 1pm

Live-streamed performance

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival/Music in the Round

Crucible Studio, Sheffield

★★★★

Edwin York Bowen (1884-1961): Sonata for Oboe and Piano, Op. 85

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956): Interlude for Oboe and String Quartet in A minor, Op. 21

Arnold Bax (1883-1953): Oboe Quintet

Adrian Wilson
© Andy Brown

Bowen:

'Adrian Wilson’s bright yet supple tones were matched by warmth from Tim Horton on the piano'.

Finzi:

'Wilson’s wailing cadenza-like passage was answered with ... impassioned playing from the strings'.

'A warm yet suitably introspective performance'.

Bax:

'The spirit was infectious, with Wilson keeping them on the straight and narrow of the jig with precise articulation'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

CD Review - May 2021

John Mayer (1929-2004) was born in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to an Anglo-Indian father and Tamil mother. He moved to London in 1952 with a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, and worked as a violinist and composer, then co-founded the Indo-Jazz Fusions quintet in the sixties, before teaching at Birmingham Conservatoire, where he established the BMus in Indian Music. His son, Jonathan Mayer (b.1975) started on the violin, but then from the age of 16 he trained as a sitar player, and he now composes and performs. On this disc, there are works composed by father and son, two each, and Jonathan performs sitar on his own compositions, as well as playing tanpura (like a fretless sitar, providing a harmonic drone) on his father’s Violin Concerto No. 2, from 1978. The violinist here is Sasha Rozhdestvensky, and he shows phenomenal technical dexterity, particularly in the perpetual motion and breathless energy of the concerto’s second movement. The opening movement, Alap, has a pulsing orchestral background, out of which the violin emerges in winding chromatic lines, up and down. The tanpura shimmers in the background of the third movement Raga, and its improvisatory cadenza for the violin is full of birdlike fluttering. The fourth movement has dark brass and sparse woodwind chords, with lyrical moments in the violin’s response, before the final movement Gat drives with jagged rhythms to an insistent conclusion. John Mayer’s other composition here is the Concerto for the Instruments of an Orchestra, from 1975. Across its four movements, Mayer often pits orchestral sections – strings, woodwind, percussion against each other in conversation, occasionally bringing them together. The music is quite episodic, and occasionally lacks continuity, but there are imaginative effects, such as the lively coda of the first movement, and the racing strings Scherzo and spiky woodwind Trio of the third movement. The second movement is the strongest, with its drone background and the winding melody emerging from the strings, before the woodwind take over, and a solo cello and cor anglais conclude with a heartfelt lament. Jonathan Mayer’s Sitar Concerto No. 2 begins with an extended solo for the instrument, with initial unison string responses developing into a more rhythmic, almost jazzy section. The central cadenza is hypnotic, and is followed by a surging orchestral response. The second movement focuses on repeated patterns, initially a four-note figure on the sitar, with thrumming strings beneath, whereas the third movement has a driving 7 beat rhythm in a kind of offbeat march, with a whiff of Hans Zimmer’s film music. It is the most western harmonically, and the sitar gets livelier and more elaborate as the movement builds, although the ultimate conclusion is inconclusive. Jonathan Mayer’s other work here, the single movement Pranam, begins with the sitar alone, with the orchestra joining as the sitar settles into a melodic pattern. The tabla joins (here played by Shahbaz Hussain), and rhythmic interest in the orchestra grows. Mayer builds layers of texture in the orchestra, then after a hiatus, the sitar is left keening above dark, low strings, before the violins emerge with a winding upward line. Once again, the tabla helps drive the momentum, and faster rhythmic patterns crescendo, almost burying the sitar, the woodblock adding further driving repetition to an ending reminiscent of John Adams. Debashish Chaudhuri conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in strong performances of these fascinating works.

Various. 2020. John Mayer/Jonathan Mayer - Concertos. Sasha Rozhdestvensky, Jonathan Mayer, Shahbaz Hussain, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Debashish Chaudhuri. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR88.

(An edited version of this review first appeared in Scene, May 2021)

 

Spring has Sprung: a taste of live concerts to come from Paul McCreesh and the RNS

Paul McCreesh
© Royal Northern Sinfonia

Maria Włoszczowska (violin)
Royal Northern Sinfonia

Paul McCreesh (conductor)

7.30pm Friday 30 April 2021

Streamed live at sagegateshead.com

Sage One, Gateshead

★★★

Frederick Delius (1862-1934): On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

Thea Musgrave (b.1928) (arr. by Martyn Brabbins (b.1959)): Green

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): The Lark Ascending

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38, 'Spring'

Maria Włoszczowska
© Royal Northern Sinfonia

Delius:
'The clarinet’s cuckoo was not overstated, emerging naturally from the textures, and the string sound was warm without excess weight'.

Musgrave:
'From a glassy, atmospheric opening to the frenzied intense climax, the RNS string players were in their element, with strong solo work and powerful contrasts between the lyrical and the harsher effects'.

Vaughan Williams:
'Włoszczowska’s playing ... was easy and relaxed, and the winding figures rising to the first high melodic statement were natural and effortless, with a singing, pure tone at the top'.

Royal Northern Sinfonia
© Royal Northern Sinfonia

Schumann:
'The Finale was the strongest movement here, with dancing energy, (and) precise articulation and detail from the strings'.

'“Spring in full bloom” ..., with bright brass and an emphatic finish'.   

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.