Stravinsky – Funeral Song; Shostakovich – Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings; Mahler – Symphony No.1. Conductor, Carlo Rizzi; Sofya Gulyak, piano; Gareth Small, trumpet
This was a very enjoyable concert, based around the early works of three great masters. I think I heard the Stravinsky a few years ago at the Proms – it had been stuffed behind a cupboard at the St Petersburg Conservatoire at some point after its first performance in 1909 and lost for a century till rediscovered in 2015. Stravinsky’s tribute to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov is a sombre affair, and, given how near it is in timing to the Firebird Suite, remarkably unlike the early ballets – far less flashy, far less folk-Russian, far less of a focus on rhythm. It sounded more like Scriabin or the Rachmaninov of the ‘Isle of the Dead’, and, I guess, indicates a ‘road not taken’ by Stravinsky.
I thought I knew the Shostakovich piece, but I think I was confusing it with the second concerto, and apart from the final riotous gallop, I hadn’t remembered much about it. I enjoyed this performance very much, though maybe it missed the last degree of mordant humour or crazy lack of restraint – maybe Ms Gulyak might have provided slightly more characterisation at points….But it was very good – the bite of the ‘romantic’ tunes, the underlying sardonic humour was well conveyed.
The Mahler symphony is one I have known since I was a teenager. Curiously I haven’t been to live performances of it very often – the best I can remember was by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Phil at the Proms in about 2016. This performance wasn’t in that league but was very good – the Halle brass again sounding very fine, as they did in the Mahler 3 a few weeks earlier, the woodwind providing very effective contributions in the first and third movements and the strings sounding deep and rich in the slow theme in the finale. It is in many ways an odd, lop-sided work – the frenzy of the two huge climaxes in the finale, the blast of brass, the triumphant sweep of the ending isn’t quite justified by what we’ve heard in the first three movements. However the performance swept away the doubts and I just accepted it for what it was – a great old friend from whom I have received much comfort and solace. Mr Rizzi’s conducting seemed to me to set excellent tempi for the first, third and fourth movements, but I thought the scherzo was too fast – it didn’t quite have the clod-hopping tendencies it should have, and just sounded busy. On the other hand, the gradation of climaxes in the finale, so that the first announcement of triumphal brass leaves sufficient extra volume for the second to be as powerful as it needs to be, was extremely well-handled. by Mr Rizzi and the orchestra A gratifyingly full (and this was the last of 3 performances) hall was very happy with the performance, as was I……..
John's musical journey 