Sunlit Brahms and fizzy Haydn on the south coast

Stephen Hough, Mark Wigglesworth & the BSO
© Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Stephen Hough (piano)
Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Wednesday 21 October, 7.30pm

Lighthouse, Poole

(reviewed from BSO@Home online stream)

★★★★

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No. 99 in E flat major

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83

© Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Haydn:

'Playfulness continued into the Menuet and Trio, taken at a steady pace, but full of fun and energy. That energy then broke free in the skittish Finale'.

'The woodwind players in particular demonstrated impressive articulation, while string ensemble was once again tight, with the fugal passages given great intensity and bite'. 

Brahms:

Hough certainly delivered the requisite weight, yet never at the expense of clarity of articulation, or warmth of interpretation.

'Full orchestral tuttis again had power and particularly rich brass, but almost no detail was missed by Wigglesworth'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

CD Reviews - September 2019

Violinist Tasmin Little is joined by pianist John Lenehan for a glorious programme of works by Amy Beach (1867-1944), Clara Schumann (1819-1896) and Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944). They open with Beach’s wonderful Sonata, Op. 34. Beach was an accomplished pianist, debuting at the age of seven, but curtailed her highly successful performing career at the request of her husband, who preferred that she concentrate only on composition.  Her Sonata is full of lyricism and great virtuosity in the violin part, but, understandably given her pianism, the piano part is no slouch. Little and Lenehan clearly relish the beauty of Beach’s lush writing, as well as enjoying the virtuosity and playfulness, particularly in the quixotic Scherzo. There is as ever a warmth in Little’s tone that is ideally suited to this expansive music, and the flourish they both bring to the fiery finale is glorious. Clara Schumann was another piano virtuoso, but interestingly she had the opposite experience to Beach, her composing more or less coming to an end following her marriage.  Her Three Romances, Op. 22 were her final chamber composition, and these three short movements are full of rich melodic invention, with rippling piano accompaniments, particularly in the lightly playful third Romance. Dame Ethel Smyth was active in the woman’s suffrage movement, and her composition career was relatively successful (Clara Schumann was in fact one of her greatest supporters), although she faced much prejudice, her music being either deemed ‘too masculine’ or ‘too feminine’, depending on whether it was dramatic, rhythmic and powerful, or lyrical and melodic. In fact her Sonata Op. 7 contains both, with a dancing Scherzo and a beautiful, lilting slow movement, flanked by a richly inventive Allegro moderato, and a fabulously unapologetic Finale. Little and Lenehan perform with pace throughout, never allowing the more lyrical moments to become over indulgent, yet the pianissimo conclusion to the slow movement has beautiful delicacy. The finale is full of spirit, yet there is subtlety in Smyth’s writing here, so this is not just a throwaway finish. Little and Lenehan respect this with great attention to detail, but do allow proceedings to build to thrilling finish. To close the disc, we’re treated to two more short works by Beach, firstly a beautifully expressive Romance, Op. 23, with its heart definitely on its sleeve, followed by Invocation, Op. 55, equally romantic, but a little more introspective. Both receive heartfelt performances from Little and Lenehan here. With Little announcing her retirement from live performance earlier this year, her vast recording output becomes all the more precious, and this is definitely one to treasure.

Various. 2019. Tasmin Little plays Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth, Amy Beach. Tasmin Little, John Lenehan. Compact Disc. Chandos Records CHAN 20030.

During his tenure as composer in residence for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Stephen McNeff (b.1951) wrote a number of works for the orchestra, and for Kokoro, the orchestra’s new music ensemble. He has also written music for Ensemble 10/10, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s contemporary music ensemble. A selection of these works has been recorded by Kokoro, and their disc opens with Counting (Two), scored for an ensemble of solo wind, strings, piano and percussion. The rhythms are spiky and insistent, and there is a constant sense of energy in the fragments of virtuosic material passed between instruments. The central movement has a different feel, inspired by ‘an altogether different sort of ordered counting’, following a visit by McNeff to a war cemetery in Italy, and it opens and closes with a mournful, repetitive lament. Growing intensity builds to an outburst from the horn, before the lament returns. The rushing third movement brushes the sadness aside, concluding the work with a procession of winding material and persistent percussion. The Four Van Gogh Chalks are for a smaller ensemble, and open with a thoughtful, atmospheric impression, Mademoiselle Gachet at the Piano, with high violin, tinkling percussion and rippling piano and wind. Venus in a Top Hat is a quirky, slightly frenzied scherzo, and L’Écorché is darkly atmospheric. The collection ends with Couple Dancing, although their dancing is unsettlingly off-kilter, and ultimately collapses into nothing, the couple presumably exhausted from their efforts. The four pieces form a great miniature suite, performed here with great energy and precision by the Kokoro players. Next on the disc comes Strip Jack Naked, a vehicle for mezzo-soprano Lore Lixenberg. McNeff has written a considerable amount for opera and music theatre, and this is described as a ‘burlesque tragedy’ and a ‘contemporary comic opera’. The story, told in a libretto by comedy actor and writer Vicki Pepperdine, basically tells of a woman waking on her birthday and realising that people don’t like the way she now looks – so she embarks on a drastic course of cosmetic surgery, which goes horribly wrong with dark consequences. Lixenberg delivers the highly challenging mix of virtuosic singing, cutting speech and ‘Sprechstimme’ with startling command. The full work was performed on stage in 2007, and McNeff has produced a Song Suite, containing most of the songs, for this recording. The small instrumental ensemble adds moments of jazzy counterpoint and percussive emphasis, with some occasional chilling sound effects too, and despite obviously being a stage piece, this works remarkably well on disc, a testament to McNeff and Lixenberg’s impressive ability to communicate the chilling story. The final work here is Lux, for octet. McNeff explores light, how it changes and shifts, through eight sections that follow without break. The music has a spooky, ephemeral feel, fleeting and hard to pin down, like shifting shafts of light, and the faster sections have a strong sense of energy, assisted once again by driving percussion rhythms. The Kokoro players perform all this music with impressive virtuosity and clarity, and the rather dry recorded sound actually helps articulate McNeff’s complex writing, making this a fascinating exploration of his striking music.

McNeff, S. 2019. Strip Jack Naked - Ensemble works by Stephen McNeff. Kokoro. Compact Disc. Prima Facie PFCD106.

Finally, in brief, another great recording from Edward Gardner, recently announced as new Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Here he is with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performing three Symphonies by Schubert (1797-1828), Nos. 3, 5 and 8, the ‘Unfinished’. Gardner’s Schubert is quick-paced but never rushed, and there is a lightness of touch throughout. No. 3 has charm and Haydn-esque spirit, with a blistering finale. No. 5 is more Mozartian, and here Gardner infuses the ‘little’ symphony, scored for smaller orchestra, with grace and elegance, particularly in the slow movement, yet he gives the rather straightforward Menuetto a much needed edge, and the finale rattles by in a whirl of energy. No. 8 starts whisperingly quietly, and the woodwind melody emerges out of nothing. This is a fine performance, expertly paced, never feeling rushed, but equally never wallowing in Schubert’s tempting lyrical melodies, thereby preserving the crucial arc of momentum many performances lose, and the impact of the development section’s dramatic outburst is consequently all the more effective. The seemingly calm second movement has always a sense of underlying tension, which bubbles to the surface in the second theme, over a gently pulsing off-beat rhythm, which then bursts out in a full-on tutti explosion. The contrasts here are the key, and Gardner’s dynamic range is impressive. A great opening volume, I look forward to more.  

Schubert, F. 2019. Symphonies Vol. 1: Nos. 3, 5 and 8. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos Records CHSA 5234. 

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, September 2019)

Karabits and the BSO journey beyond the moon in a fast machine - BBC Prom 4

Kiril Karabits
© Chris Christodoulou

Nemanja Radoluvić (violin)
Trinity Boys Choir
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Kiril Karabits (conductor)

Sunday 21 July, 7.30 pm

BBC Prom 4

Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★★




Adams, John (b.1947): Short Ride in a Fast Machine - fanfare for orchestra

Barber, Samuel (1910-81): Violin Concerto, Op.14

Encore:
Traditional: Pašona kolo

Holst, Gustav (1874-1934): The Planets, Op. 32

Adams:
'The BSO were on top of the complexities, the woodwind fizzing and the brass soaring'.

Radoluvić:
'Great presence and involvement with the orchestra, giving Barber's generous melody warm tone, yet maintaining lightness of touch'.

Nemanja Radoluvić & Kiril Karabits
© Chris Christodoulou

Encore:
'Radulović brought the front desk strings to their feet for a blistering performance of a traditional Serbian circle dance'.

Holst:
'Karabits ... achieved a sense of awe and calm ... giving tight attention to dynamic control'.

'A Planets with considerable insight, dynamic variety and atmospheric contrasts'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

'An English Idyll' - the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Brighton Dome, Saturday 8 March, 2014

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was back in town this Saturday 8 March at the Brighton Dome for their second concert this year.  The concert had the title 'An English Idyll', and was devoted to English music by Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. 

Petroc Trelawny

They also brought along a presenter, Petroc Trelawny, to introduce the pieces and briefly interview Tasmin Little and David Hill.  Some may find this populist touch intrusive or patronising, but it's a great way of engaging the audience, and Petroc struck just the right note, keeping his introductions brief and appropriate, and as a result, drawing the audience into the performance.  So often, the audience can be ignored, and concert going can feel a very passive experience, as if one is just observing the performers playing for their own enjoyment.  I've not seen the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform that many times since the days of Marin Alsop conducting, but I suspect this approach stems from her habit of turning and talking to the audience in much the same way. 

David Hill (photo: John Wood)

The concert began with Elgar's The Wand of Youth Suite No. 2.  Elgar wrote the tunes for both suites as a boy, to be used in a play that he and his young siblings planned as a protest against some strict decision by their parents.  The plot takes two bad-tempered old people to a fantasy land where they are reminded of the joys and tribulations of youth.  Evidence is mixed as to whether the play was actually ever performed, but Elgar wrote the tunes down in his notebook, and then some fifty years later, he orchestrated them, creating two orchestral suites.  The second has six short movements, characterising images such as Moths and Butterflies, The Tame Bear, and The Wild Bears.  The orchestration is light and effective, particularly in the use of the glockenspiel in The Little Bells, and the alternating string and woodwind arpeggios in the Fountain Dance.  The Wild Bears provides a lively finish, and is often performed on its own as an orchestral encore.  Some of David Hill's tempi were a little on the sluggish side, and as a result the performance took a while to get going, with a few moments of less than precise ensemble.  However, the finer subtleties of the orchestration, particularly in The Little Bells, were treated with great delicacy.

They followed this with Delius' The Walk to the Paradise Garden.  Another piece with origins outside the concert hall, Delius composed this as an interlude in his opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet.  In the opera, the two lovers, renamed as Sali and Vreli, make the journey to the Paradise Garden, before their inevitable death together in the river.  The music is sensual, and surprisingly uplifting, given what fate has in store for the young lovers.  The opening contains beautifully scored music for the woodwind, and after slight initial tentativeness, the Bournemouth players produced an appropriately tender, warm tone.  This was matched by some sensitive, rich string playing too, and overall this was an enjoyable performance.  Hill coaxed real expression from the orchestra, and deftly handled the rhapsodic nature of Delius' writing.

Tasmin Little (photo: Melanie Winner)

The first half ended with a real treat, and by now the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Hill had definitely warmed to their task.  They were joined by violinist Tasmin Little for Vaughan Williams' popular masterpiece, The Lark Ascending.  In my recent review of her new recording of the work with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis, I noted how both Little and the orchestra managed to make such a familiar work sound new and inspiring, and again here Little showed that despite the many times she must have performed this live, she can still communicate the freshness and immediacy of the piece.  She also communicated constantly with the orchestra, responding to the different sections as they took up the melodies.  Except for some less than perfect intonation from the horn section once or twice, the orchestra supported and responded to the soloist admirably, making this a most enjoyable performance all round.     

The second half of the concert was given over to Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A flat major, and here Hill finally appeared totally in command and in his stride, eliciting a magnificent performance from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.  Like many others before him, Elgar waited a long time before composing his first symphony, perhaps feeling the weight of expectation, and the great symphonists that had gone before.  Yet when it came, Elgar's Symphony No. 1 proved to be a huge success, described by Hans Richter as 'the greatest symphony of modern times', and it was performed nearly one hundred times in the first year alone.  The orchestration is rich and lavish, yet Elgar uses great contrasts in texture too.  The opening noble theme sets us off perhaps expecting Elgar in Pomp and Circumstance mode, but the jump from A flat to D minor for the restless Allegro shocks us out of this very quickly.  The Scherzo is also turbulent, even sinister, and we've now travelled to F sharp minor, with a B flat major Trio, with its Mahlerian violin solo.  The beautiful Adagio, which follows directly after the Scherzo without a break, prompted a standing ovation at the first performance.  The final movement has incredibly full string textures, with the string sections subdivided several times, and the triumphant return of the opening noble theme returns with a blaze of trumpets for a rousing finish.  David Hill judged the changes in tempo, texture and mood brilliantly throughout, and the string players in particular excelled, conquering the somewhat dry acoustic of Brighton Dome with great depth of tone.  Gone was any sense of tentativeness or unsure ensemble from earlier in the evening, and this was a thoroughly engaging and lively performance of this great symphony.