Halle Orchestra – Lera Auerbach, Icarus; Walton, Cello Concerto; Copland, Symphony No.3 Gemma New conductor • Laura van der Heijden cello
I hadn’t come across the name of Lera Auerbach before. She’s a prolific Russian/American artist, not only a composer but also a conductor, pianist, a published poet and an exhibited visual artist. Her short piece, ‘Icarus’, which started the concert, I found very attractive – there were understandable melodic fragments depicting Icarus, the earth he leaves, his ascent and descent, and the emotional journey – as in the story – was vividly portrayed with lots of shimmering colour (including, in the splendid sounds of the very large orchestra, the remarkable theremin, the first time I think I have heard this live, which captured some of the unearthly elements of Icarus’ story). The huge orchestra was handled by Auerbach with delicacy and imagination. I’ll look out for her name in future.
Jumping to the last work, the Copland Symphony No 3 is a work I think I’ve heard once but never live. To my mind it is frankly not very good. Its melodic content is uninteresting, it relies on excessive noise to make its not very understandable points and meanders between arbitrary climaxes. There’s little sense of either an emotional journey as with the Icarus piece or the sort of logical concision of a Beethoven or Schoenberg. The only memorable theme, the Fanfare for the Common Man, is bolted on to the symphony from an earlier work. When you compare this work with contemporary symphonies of the mid 1940’s – Shostakovich 8, Prokofiev 5, Vaughan Williams 6,, it is a pretty paltry specimen of a symphony, in my view. Looking at it say alongside Malcom Arnold’s 5th Symphony of a few years later, the latter seems a positively blazing masterpiece! The Halle made the best possible case for the Copland – some spectacular trumpet and flute playing. Gemma New made the best of a bad job…..I think I shall ignore this work in future. I should add that the RNCM and Cheetham students in the audience were very impressed by the sheer earth-trembling conclusion…..
And what a contrast there is between the bludgeoning, meandering Copland and the Walton Cello concerto, which I was hearing for the second time in 3 months. The Walton piece by contrast is complex emotionally, melodically much more memorable (eg those stealthy steps at the beginning, concise – a bitter-sweet journey that constantly holds your attention. I thought this was a lovely performance – less showy than the one by Stephen Isserlis which I’d heard in August, but Laura van der Heijden brought out the subtleties of the cello part.
Altogether good to hear relatively unfamiliar music and the Halle played extremely well throughout
John's musical journey 