Intermezzo

Sshhh - top secret - LSO play 21st c music

LSO/Davis - Barbican - 18 December 2007

Is the LSO ashamed of new music? Tonight's concert started with a short new commission by Martin Suckling, one of an occasional series. As with previous commissions in the series, no mention of it on the Barbican website or in the programme. Perhaps they think some of the audience would be put off -- and perhaps they would, but isn't that a decision the audience should be allowed to make for themselves? No need to sneak it in like cabbage under the mashed potatoes on a toddler's dinner plate. And budding composers need all the publicity they can get. At the very least, the audience need to have a rough idea of a concert's end-time so that they can arrange to get home. There were mutterings on the way out about being released at nearly 10 after the programme indicated a 9.30 finish - is that really what the LSO want people's final impression of their concerts to be?

Anyway, the piece itself was appealing and unscary, if rather unfinished-sounding. The most interesting part was a central section where mating oboes sighed over a rumbling bass. An individual touch was not so clearly established in the choppy string opening or the expansive songlike ending.

The follow up was on safe ground -- Elgar's Enigma Variations, an LSO mainstay, last programmed I think only a few months ago. Sir Colin gave a characteristically lucid and intense reading, and there was some fine work especially from the brass section.

The second half of the evening was occupied by Tippett's A Child of Our Time, recorded for future CD release. This piece needs bags of emotional commitment to work, and it got plenty from the soprano soloist Indra Thomas, rather bare on her top notes but florid and affecting otherwise. Mezzo Mihoko Fujimura brought a more intellectual brand of intensity - singing beautifully, but, buried in her score all evening, barely communicating. Tenor Steve Davislim had the right light and pleasant voice, though he sometimes failed to carry over the orchestra. Bass Matthew Rose was technically fine, and very clear, but didn't sound particularly interested in what he was singing.

The London Symphony Choir sounded as if they'd been at the mulled wine and mince pies, a bit ragged round the edges. It was left to the LSO to pick up the baton - quite literally at one point as Sir Colin lost his grip, and leader Gordan Nikolitch had to scoop it up from the floor. Perhaps indicative of an evening that went nearly right.

TurboMozart

LSO/Davis/Kremer (Sir Colin Davis 80th birthday gala) - Barbican, 3 October 2007

Only a few days after his 80th birthday, Sir Colin Davis was back at work again, playing at another one of the several musical birthday parties the LSO have lined up for him. Amongst the sellout audience were two of his recent concert collaborators, Evgeny Kissin (hmmm, tiny feet I notice) and Mitsuko Uchida (cerebrally elegant in Issey). It's a measure of his musical generosity that he draws the best from both of these very diverse talents.

Sir Colin took a bold and expansive route into the opening Elgar Violin Concerto, conducting in broad painterly sweeps of the baton. Soloist Gidon Kremer's spirited reading was matched by a lively and muscular LSO, led by Gordan Nikolitch, straining at the leash. Even the central andante had a sublimated energy, ready to explode into the flamboyance of the final movement.

And the pace didn't flag for the second half. Setting off in top gear, Sir Colin drove in controversially but unashamedly grand style through Mozart's Requiem. Despite the odd nod to period practice, this reading wore a traditionalist heart on its sleeve. Ever the peerless choral conductor, Sir Colin directed much of his effort to the London Symphony Chorus, mouthing the words, signalling every cue. They rewarded him with a performance of almost shocking power -- the opening of the Rex Tremendae alone had me nearly jumping out of my seat.

The fine soloists -- Marie Arnet, Anna Stephany, Andrew Kennedy and Darren Jeffery -- shared the intensity of vision. Andrew Kennedy's expressively rounded tenor might have sounded out of place in any other Mozart Requiem, but not in the dramatic sweep of this one. And Darren Jeffery brought an profoundly musical connection with the text.

A colossal performance on every level.

 

 

More Padmore please (and more Venezuelan brass while you're at it)

Prom 46: Mark Padmore/The English Concert - Cadogan Hall
Prom 47: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - Royal Albert Hall
Prom 48: LSO with Alina Ibragimova/Venezuelan Brass Ensemble - Royal Albert Hall, 18 August 2007

If you had Wayne Rooney on your team, would you take him off at half time? It seemed odd to fill the second half of the English Concert's programme with Handel's overexposed Water Music when Mark Padmore (a mere six songs in the first half) was on such winning form.

Not that there was anything wrong with the English Concert's instrumental pieces, all pulled together with a freshness and vitality that even some dodgy horn playing didn't mar. Laurence Cummings' direction from the harpsichord, largely restricted to key moments like rests and rits, was minimal but effective.

But it was Mark Padmore's few contributions that really made this concert. He miraculously managed to present the quaint humour in three Arne settings of Shakespeare in an entirely non-excruciating way. And in his three Handel arias - a strongly theatricalised Total eclipse, His mighty arm and Waft her, angels - he thoroughly inhabited each character. Padmore's Handel is secure and precise, each syllable individually considered and perfectly coloured. At least there was the small consolation of an encore of Tune your harps, beautifully arranged for pizzicato strings and stunning oboe from Marcel Ponseele.

Talking of colour, the English Concert's choice of stage wear, individually selected but all in harmonious shades of purple, is a most effective compromise between the fussiness of full frack and the sloppy casual:

Over at the Albert Hall, despite the fine Jesus of Alan Opie and Mary Magdalene of Catherine Wyn-Rogers (left), I found the CBSO's performance of Elgar's The Apostles severely hard going.

It's a flawed and over-long work that wasn't helped by conductor Oramo's even-handedness of dynamics and tempo. Only in the final Ascension movement was there any real propulsive energy.

The late night prom which followed, a double header of the LSO followed by the Venezuelan Brass Ensemble, replacing the advertised Vengerov programme, was far more lively.

Conducted by a hyperactive François-Xavier Roth, the LSO positively motored through two short Piazzolla pieces and a couple of Coplands. Who knew they had hot tamale souce in their veins? Alina Ibragimova's solos in Piazzolla's La Mufa and Todo Buenos Aires were deft and sensitive, despite a mere four days preparation. 

The LSO made way for the Venezuelan Brass Ensemble, a band of about 50 drawn from the ranks of the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, who are performing tomorrow night. In a variety of configurations, sometimes switching to percussion instruments, they displayed great balance and teamwork. They started with rather more slow and sombre work than I felt like hearing after the LSO's earlier programme, but always with an impressive precision. They really blossomed when they upped the tempo for pieces like Tico Tico.

They packed extra energy into the couple of pieces that were composed by ensemble members. These surprisingly made more of an impression than some of the better known works.

There's absolutely no need to make any allowance for the fact that all of the musicians are under 20 - any full-time, adult, professional band would be thrilled to play as well as this. Their blistering, uninhibited finale of I Got Rhythm got them a completely deserved standing ovation, rewarded with an immediate encore.

One thing puzzled me - the ensemble is reportedly open to all, but I only noticed a couple of girls there. That's fewer than the LSO have, fewer even than male bastions like the Berlin Phil - I wonder why?