Sir Mark Elder conductor | Baiba Skride violin: Wagner, Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I; Sofia Gubaidulina, Offertorium; Elgar, Symphony No.1
This time at the Bridgewater Hall the Halle orchestra seemed to have a ‘normal’ full orchestra on stage – 10 cellos. 8 double basses. The Halle made a glorious sound in the Elgar, and the Gubaidulina piece was very well played – though admittedly I was sitting in what was probably the best seat in the house (M20 Stalls, for future self-reference!)
The Wagner was slow and the climax well crafted – maybe the strings were a bit too loud at the beginning? The Gubaidulina piece, played in honour of her 90th birthday, was tough but rewarding – a violin concerto that portrayed a sort of darkness-into-light journey, based around the theme Bach worked on In the Musical Offering and variations on that theme. It was difficult to disentangle (and maybe that is the point) the logical progress of the variations from a sense of mounting violence and a portrait of relentlessly dark forces. After the last of various huge climaxes there is a beautiful 5 minutes or so that sounds like an Orthodox hymn near the end, or something out of Arvo Part. Maybe – given that this was written when the Soviet system still had 10 years to go, and religious expression was still regarded with suspicion – the violin is something like an individual struggling against orchestra-as-system?. Anyway the work, though spikey, was always absorbing. The soloist, Baiba Skrida, was excellent. Maybe the work still is slightly in need of further cutting (I believe its current length is itself a reduction on the first version) in the earlier variations?
Elgar 1 followed after the interval. I have heard the Halle and Elder do this at least two times before, and it was as good as I’ve ever heard live. Elder, who tends to favour quite broad speeds in Elgar, produced a 2nd movement which was quite driven and fast – maybe a bit too fast for that theme representing ‘something you hear by the river’, as Elgar said almost to himself at one rehearsal. The finale was exciting too – sometimes I’ve felt listening to performances of this work that at points Elgar is going through the motions in the final movement, developing themes a bit mechanically but here everything was taut and gripping. The late Michael Kennedy in his programme notes mentioned something I remember reading but had forgotten – the main theme of the slow movement was that of the second at a greatly reduced speed; likewise, the main theme of the second movement is the motto March theme reversed. Elder’s conducting emphasised the underlying musical logic of this symphony, and the dynamics were finely tuned. And what a complex work its is , wonderfully orchestrated – how could anyone ever have thought of Elgar as a representative of a complacent and self-satisfied age? I’ve just read W.H (Billy) Reed’s book about Elgar, which reminds me what a very complicated person he was.
As I’ve said, the Halle sounded wonderful – the split of the first and second violins on either side of the conductor really adds something in a work like this and gives an amplitude to the sound which really enhances the textures. The ending of the slow movement featured the best clarinet playing here I’ve ever heard, better than Jack Brymer in 1969, and there were appropriately soaring strings in the slow movement
I hope the concert covered its costs – when I looked at the booking page they hadn’t sold a massive number of tickets, though at the actual events there seemed to be masses of students, presumably there at little or no expense. It was great to hear the enthusiasm for the Elgar after the concert from all the young people around me. The concert was also filmed for streaming
John's musical journey 