The programme was: Stravinsky: Jeu de Cartes; Walton: Cello Concerto; Bach: 14 Canons (Goldberg Variations) arr F.Goldmann (UK premiere); Hindemith: Symphony ‘Mathis der Maler’
This was very clever programming – a cluster of works from the mid-century, and the Bach connecting to the Hindemith in its use of fugue-like methods and was a really interesting and enjoyable concert. I have recordings of the Walton and the Hindemith works but it’s ages since I listened to them. I might have heard the Stravinsky at the Proms almost 50 years ago (1974) but possibly not……I’ve never heard the Hindemith piece ‘live’, and the only time I’ve sat down and heard the Walton ‘Cello Concerto all the way through in a focused way was in 1970 when Adrian Boult conducted it in a memorable concert which also included the VW Tallis Fantasia and Elgar 1. As an aside, I did see Walton conduct at least once – the concert I remember was in 1968 with an assorted collection of choral societies – Huddersfield etc – when he conducted Belshazzar’s Feast and extracts from Facade, seemingly not very engaged and as though this was music he had little to do with.
The first item in the programme – the Stravinsky – I have to say I didn’t really warm to; there were the neo-classical touches later exemplified by the ‘Rake’s Progress’, and the motor rhythms of an earlier period of his work, but the piece didn’t really engage me; and, to be fair, it might have seemed different seeing it as a ballet. But the Walton piece I was very impressed by. I had rather thought that the ‘Cello Concerto was a pale after-thought compared to the Violin and Viola Concerto of the 30’s (the Cello Concerto was premiered in 1956) but listening to it again, I thought it was a wonderful work, full of something ‘rich and strange’, to quote Ariel, with a special sound world – maybe a bit like the 2nd Symphony. I loved the opening – maybe something a little like Prokofiev – ticking accompaniment to the melody played by the cello, and indeed it is a wonderfully tuneful work throughout (again, the Prokofiev comparison seems apt). There is also the sharpness and snappiness of the 30’s Walton in the second and parts of the last movement, and I enjoyed the soliloquies given to the cello in that movement too, and the way the opening theme comes back in the closing moments of the work. I was a bit off centre seat-wise so Steven Isserlis sometimes sounded a bit distant, but he was playing it wonderfully well, as far as I could tell. What a pity the musical establishment dismissed Walton’s works from the 50’s, like this and Troilus and Cressida (I have just bought Mirga/CBSO’s account of the symphonic suite from that opera – I must remember to hear it, I would love to see it live). I remember Andre Previn in the 70’s trying to persuade Walton to write a Third Symphony, but he was , I think, too disheartened to really take this up.
The Bach was an oddity – 14 canons discovered 50 years ago, authentically deemed to be written by Bach, which used the ‘Goldberg’ theme, but not used in the Goldberg Variations, and then orchestrated by a German conductor/composer. The orchestration, I felt, really didn’t work – it almost trivialised music which would have sounded sonorous and impressive on a keyboard. Hearing a trombone and a trumpet play a Bach canon is not at all the same thing…..
The Hindemith again was a bit of a revelation. A problem with MP3 downloading is that you often have no sleeve or CD notes to refer to, so I had only a sketchy idea of what the work was about or its place in German musical history. I had assumed that Hindemith’s music had been from 1933 outlawed by the Nazis as a ‘decadent’ and hadn’t realised that Furtwangler on behalf of the Berlin Phil had actually commissioned this work (ie a symphony based upon music from the opera), which was performed in March 1934, and was heard by many, in its blazing conclusion, as a statement asserting artists’ right to independence and affirming the power of art against political interference. I had always also thought that Hindemith was a bit of a note-spinner – too many notes, too much chugging along without much happening, too much, in a sense, fertility. Actually sitting down to listen to this music, with a programme book in front of me, made me recognise what a life-affirming and strong work this was. I loved the first movement’s energy and the final statement of its main theme with full orchestra including glockenspiel was thrilling. The anguish of the first part of the third movement – given the political context – was very moving, as was the quiet violin trills leading to a new affirmative theme, which is blazed out at the end by the full orchestra like a chorale, after more fugal turmoil (or was it the first movement’s theme being proclaimed?). I felt very privileged to get to know this work fully for the first time.
Throughout the LPO and Jurowski performed wonderfully well. The LPO made a glorious expansive sound, with outstanding solo work from the woodwind and brass, and, as a whole, just sounded more glowing and emphatically together than some of the orchestras I heard last week. It is sad Jurowski is leaving London as a chief conductor; his programming has always been interesting and he has brought many neglected works to London. The Royal Philharmonic Society gave him a medal after the concert, which was thoroughly deserved.
John's musical journey 