The programme was: – Anthony Payne: Spring’s Shining Wake; Berlioz: Les nuits d’été; and Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ symphony. It was originally to be conducted by Sir Andrew David, but sadly he was in mourning for his late wife, and Martyn Brabbins took over instead.
To me, this concert seemed to be a tale of two halves. The first half frankly left me a bit restless. Anthony Payne, who died recently, to me is always going to be associated with his wonderful performing version of Elgar’s Third Symphony, and all praise and honour to him for that, but he was also, of course, a quite widely performed composer in his own right. In ‘Spring’s Shining Wake’ , now about 30 years old, I understood what he was trying to do – to achieve a contemporary equivalent to Delius’ ‘In a Summer Garden’ and I could appreciate the cleverness of the textures – but , my goodness, it was tedious, and seemed to go round and round in circles to no great effect. Sorry, but….
Les nuits d’été is one of those works I always feel I should like more than I actually do. I have been able to listen live in concert to several very, very good performances, probably the best being the one sung by Janet Baker and conducted by Pierre Boulez in August 1971 at the Proms, the concert also including Mahler’s 9th. Those were the days…..And this was another excellent performance, with Sarah Connolly’s singing being quite beautiful and also sensitive to the nuances of the poetry. But I find the combination of the over-ripe almost exaggerated Romantic verse, and the fact that Berlioz’s songs are not that strong – as I hear them – in melodic content, means that I find myself getting bored or just dropping off to sleep. This is my problem, I know – just saying……But it – to stress- was a VERY good performance
Suddenly, and rather surprisingly, thing perked up in the second half. I was feeling a bit despondent and not thinking the Beethoven would be all that special. But it was! Maybe just as a reaction to the first half, maybe because of where I sat (close to the strings, almost in the bowels of the orchestra in the Side Stalls) but I felt this was an extremely well-balanced and well-played performance that kept me engaged throughout. My complaint with all the live performances I’ve heard of this work, and many of the recorded ones (maybe only Furtwanger, Cluytens and C.Kleiber on record would not be in this category) is that they’ve been too fast, particularly in the 2nd and last movements. I remember being particularly irritated hearing Karajan and the BPO perform the work live in 1972 and reacting to their speeds – and also with Colin Davis, whom I heard conduct this piece several times. So, it was remarkable that I felt Brabbins’ performance was absolutely right, and indeed this was probably the best live Beethoven 6 I have ever heard. There were several reasons for this – extremely fine orchestral playing, including some beautiful work from the oboes, clarinet and flutes; well-judged tempi that allowed the melodies to be enjoyed but Not over-savoured; the orchestra was extremely well-balanced and the climaxes were very well-judged (a very wide sonic range). Somehow, for once, the speed of the 2nd and last movement didn’t matter, and the orchestra really seemed to enjoy Brabbins’ unobtrusive, careful, attentive and supportive conducting. A fine performance that, as I thought it should, got an extremely favourable audience response at the end.
John's musical journey 