Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Ravel Piano Concerto in G; Thea Musgrave Song of the Enchanter; Sibelius Symphony No.2 – Sir Mark Elder conductor, Benjamin Grosvenor piano, Halle Orchestra.
This was another great concert. It was a joy to hear an orchestra in the Bridgewater Hall so soon after being in the Barbican – I was reminded how much better the acoustics were in the former, for classical music at least. Although this was the first of three performances with the same programme, the hall was impressively full and non-socially distanced too, though probably a majority were wearing facemasks. What with coaches queuing outside the BH bringing folk from out of town, it all felt like a return to near-normal. And the orchestra was back to its normal unsocially-distanced space, and was more or less up to its pre-pandemic strength (maybe 3-4 strings less than normal?) – interestingly not wearing face masks, unlike the LSO.
This was a programme, in a sense, of oddities – works which must have struck their first audiences as strange and unconventional. Compared to the portliness of Parry and Stanford, or the early Elgar (and when Elgar did become less conventional, he turned to R. Strauss – eg the start of the 2nd Symphony), the Vaughan Williams piece in its spareness and solemnity sounds a world away. The Ravel’s jazziness might not have been what Parisian audiences were expecting, even in the late 20’s. Thea Musgrave’s work again sounds unconventionally tonal and unspikey compared to the modernists of the time. The Sibelius piece is again far removed from Tchaikovsky, who is probably his nearest model.
The dynamic range of the orchestra in the Tallis was impressive – it was a more introspective reading than the one I heard a month and a half ago at the Proms from Petrenko and the RPO – the chamber group sounded more mysterious and organ-like.
In the Ravel, there was precise articulation and a sense of fun from both the orchestra and Benjamin Grosvenor, but I felt (and I was sitting in a very good seat, so it wasn’t a matter of acoustics) the pianist sounded a bit small in tone – delicate and graceful playing, but not a sense of a massive personality
Thea Musgrave piece was more or less tonal – wisps of sound honouring Sibelius. And it did sound very Sibelian – it was subtle and, attractive though the rather obvious quote from Sibelius 5 irritated me, slightly
The Sibelius 2 I thought was very fine. I have never heard this performed live, as far as I can recall, and it is many years since I last sat down and listened to it – until the Proms first night this year, when it was featured on TV! That was a jagged nervous performance which I liked tremendously. This performance was less – in a good sense – nerve-wracking but still very powerful. What an odd work it is – particularly the second movement, full of turmoil, stops and starts, sudden silences, and desperate loneliness. The third movement bounds off with restless energy but then again there is stillness and melancholy at its heart. As I listened I realised the ‘big tune’ of the last movement, the one part that does sound very Tchaikovskyian, on its first appearance almost feels like a song sung into eternal darkness. It is only after the trudging second theme, a determined restatement of the big tune, and the final peroration, that some sort of resolution is achieved. The highlight of that performance for me, as it should be, was that final peroration, transfiguring the opening, questing theme of the first movement into something glorious – and very powerfully performed, with a more than triple-f sound and superb trumpet and trombone playing. Overall, the strings sounded sumptuous when they needed to be, and the woodwind were expressive and clear. The Halle, in short, sounded wonderful, and it does make a difference to their sound for them not to be socially distanced anymore
John's musical journey 