Stravinsky began and ended the evening. His striking and substantial theatre piece, The Soldier’s Tale formed the second half of tonight’s concert. But proceedings opened with something altogether more playful, his brief Ebony Concerto, written for Woody Herman and his band. As Sian Edwards pointed out in one of her brief informative chats with Joanna MacGregor during stage resets, the works on tonight’s programme are somewhat rarities on the concert platform, mainly due to their unusual scorings, mostly for wind and brass. The clarinet features most in the final of the Concerto’s three short movements, and Fiona Cross’ virtuosity and ease with the idiom here (as throughout the whole concert programme) was impressive. The mournful central movement had a suitably bluesy feel, although the saxophones were a little jagged in places, although the virtuosic perpetual motion set up by a saxophone in the finale was smoothly secure, and the ringing final chords set up an appropriately jazzy feel for the evening.
Milhaud first heard American jazz in London, but soon after headed off to New York to explore jazz music in Harlem, and then emersed himself in the jazz bars of Paris, embracing what he referred to as the ‘jazz idiom’ in his compositions. La Création du monde, a short ballet work written for the Ballet Suédois in Paris, is a case in point. Written for solo strings (although no viola – this part being replaced by the alto saxophone) and woodwind, brass and percussion, it is a gloriously atmospheric piece, with an African creation myth as its scenario. The original ballet wasn’t a huge success, but the music stands alone as an inventive concert piece. The BPO players relished the opportunity for ample solo spotlights with the complex textures, although some appeared more at home in that ‘jazz idiom’ than others. A few tutti moments felt a little over counted, with some rhythms rocking as players interpreted the degree of swing differently, the percussion in particular pushing ahead once or twice. I expect all are still getting used to the newly, beautifully refurbished Corn Exchange’s acoustic, with some balance issues needing to be ironed out, such as cello and percussion significantly louder in the mix, as opposed to rather muffled flutes at the back of the stage. However, Edwards steered them all safely through, and the central joyful riot of creation and desire came across well, as well as the springtime return to calm, with slinky horn and oboe and buzzing flutes and muted trumpets to finish.
Weill’s Kleine Dreigrochenmusik takes us from the Paris jazz bars to Berlin’s cabaret scene, bringing some of the music from his opera with Bertolt Brecht to the concert hall. Set in Victorian London, the opera cast a harsh satirical eye on Weimar Germany of the 1920s, with its array of antiheros, led by Mack the Knife, and was a huge success at home, as well as spreading around Europe and to the USA. The Suite includes ‘hits’ such as the Ballad of Mack the Knife, and Polly’s Song, as well as the sensual Tango-Ballade and the dark Kanonen-Song, and is scored for wind, brass, percussion and piano, with banjo and guitar. The BPO players were strongest in the march-like sections, with strong rhythmic drive provided by Joanna MacGregor on the piano, although the darker sections could have taken more force from all to accentuate the dark satirical mood. Edwards had a challenge to bridge the distance on stage between the piano and percussion at either side, and the final accelerando into the chorale was in danger of coming loose, but enthusiastic energy carried things along, with some strong moments from the swirling clarinet and sultry saxophone, and a particularly chilling chorale over the tolling bells to finish.
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Alistair McGowan, Max Keeble, Jo Castleton,
Claire Guntrip, Sian Edwards & the BPO |
And so to Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. This is a curious piece, part theatre, part chamber work, with even some dance thrown into the mix, and it feels somewhat of its time. That said, the music is full of vivid colour, and the darkly comedic tale of a soldier being duped by the devil is entertaining and succinctly told with humour in the libretto by Stravinsky’s friend C F Ramuz (here translated from the original French). There are three readers, with the Devil, in a variety of guises, played here by Alistair McGowan, with understated humour and an impressive array of accents. The Narrator, who drives the story along as well as providing snappy interactions with the cast to liven things up was delivered with commanding ease by Jo Castleton, and the bumbling soldier was charmingly played by Max Keeble. Richard Williams’ direction was light and unfussy, with simple staging elements not getting in the way of the musical performance, yet using the space on stage effectively. Dancer Claire Guntrip brought elegance to the non-speaking role of Princess, and the sequence of persuading and teaching the initially clumsy soldier to dance worked well with the music’s sequence of Tango, Waltz and Ragtime dances. As the soldier’s fiddle is central to the tale, there is lots for the first violin to do here, and Ruth Rogers’ devilish dances had real spark and flourish. The Royal March heralding the Princess’ entrance and the final Triumphant March of the Devil had great energy and solid ensemble from the full band, perhaps the tightest formation of players of the evening. Ultimately, a curio of the repertoire not destined for frequent performance, but given a persuasive performance here tonight by all.
Once again, Joanna MacGregor and friends have demonstrated a real creative approach to bringing varied programmes to BPO audiences, and it was great to see the new Corn Exchange full for such an eclectic mix of rarely performed works.
