Intermezzo

Prom 32: tickling the ivories

Prom 32: Britten Sinfonia / Ludovic Morlot / Katia and Marielle Labèque / Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips / Lidija and Sanja Bizjak - Royal Albert Hall, 9 August 2009

the world's best-behaved queue?

Fauré, orch. Rabaud Dolly (suite)   Mozart Concerto in E flat major for two pianos, K365   Anna Meredith Left Light   Lutoslawski Variations on a Theme by Paganini for two pianos   Saint-Saëns The Carnival of the Animals

The first concert on Sunday – Multiple Pianos Day at the Proms – could only summon up two pianos, but six pianists to play them alongside the Britten Sinfonia.

The highlight of the afternoon was the high-voltage hair-tossing panache of Katia (white jacket, black shirt) and Marielle (black tux, scary bondage top) Labèque ripping through Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations to begin the second half.

Katia and Marielle Labèque 

It more than compensated for some woolly and imprecise playing in their first half Mozart two-piano concerto. This was (oddly but effectively) bookended with Fauré’s Dolly suite in the glutinously orchestrated version, and a new work by Anna Meredith.

Left Light – the title refers not to poetically-evoked dusk, but a traffic indicator of all things – began with the unpromising cliché of two blokes (Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips) rummaging through the guts of their respective pianos. Widely-spaced chords land like slow fat raindrops, then gradually gather pace and volume and instruments, speeding to a final wash of sound. It’s an idea Anna Meredith has used more creatively in the past. Here, the orchestration sounded raw, and if there were any finer details they were lost in the Royal Albert Hall’s punishing acoustic. Worst of all, the elderly traditionalist standing next to me, primed for aural offence by “noisy modern nonsense” pronounced it “a bit dull really”. Quite.

Anna Meredith

Snapping at the Labèque heels are another pair of piano-playing sisters, the Belgrade born and Paris resident Lidija and Sanja Bizjak. Their dexterity and delicacy enhanced Ludovic Morlot’s charming reading of Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. It's not a work I would ever search out, but in occasional doses, and performed with the light touch and unforced humour it received here, it's the perfect end to a Sunday afternoon.

Ludovic Morlot and Britten Sinfonia 

Moondog music at the Barbican

The Music of Moondog - Barbican, 30 May 2009

What has provoked the recent outbreak of male menopausal grumpiness in the nation's press? Could it be the warm weather?

First the Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen had a go at opera-loving kids, who, lured by the offer of 1,200 free children's tickets, are apparently "dragged along by their well-intentioned parents" to Opera Holland Park, thus depriving grouchy middle aged men of their rightful seats in the stalls. Rupert, who perhaps skipped GCSE maths in his own distant youth, may have neglected to calculate that 1,200 freebies spread out over 45 shows (generous though it is) averages a mere 27 unwanted children per performance - barely earth-shattering.

And now the FT's Andrew Clark accuses classical music itself of "trying to be fashionable, relevant to the internet generation*". "Should we be alarmed?" he asks "Will everything we value and respect start to crumble?" "Is there a vacancy at the Daily Mail?"

(*a clever FT code for 'young people')

Both might have been even further peeved by Saturday night at the Barbican. A distinctly youngish audience sat in respectful silence while the Britten Sinfonia played their hearts out for over an hour of orchestral music. And as soon as the music stopped they applauded every note heartily.

OK, so the music of Moondog, with its jazz, folk and street sound influences, barely scrapes under the heading 'classical', but it's as good as any other label. Moondog's own description was "the art of concealing art: maximum effect but with minimum means".

It has to be said though that some of the means were rather too minimum to sustain interest over a full work. I'm thinking particularly of the Salzburg Symphony (one of over 800 symphonies Moondog wrote), a charming but exceedingly slight pop Mozart pastiche here given its world premiere. But the crisp educational beats of the opening Moondog Theme, the hillbilly Bach of Chaconne in G major and the twinkling Marimba Mondo made up for it.

And that was just the second half. The massed saxophones of London Saxophonic, joined by some excellent percussionists, filled most of the first with some of Moondog's joyful, upbeat brass compositions. An all-too-brief piano solo from Liam Noble was welcome, the protracted stage reset that preceded Clinic's two short rock numbers less so.

Some videos with original Moondog recordings - all of these were performed (in different arrangements) by the Britten Sinfonia:

Moondog'sTheme

Bird's Lament

Viking 1/Marimba Mondo

Chaconne in G major