Falla La Vida Breve: Interlude and Dance; Bartók Violin Concerto No.2; Dobrinka Tabakova Earth Suite: Pacific; Stravinsky The Rite of Spring: Christian Reif conductor; Antje Weithaas, violin
Oddly this is only the second time I have been to the Bridgewater Hall this season – I have been to the Barbican more often……I’m not quite sure why; I guess I am doing a lot and there were several programmes I would very much like to have gone to but I was already booked to be doing something else on those days.
This was a well planned and enjoyable programme. There were several underlying connections between the 4 pieces which the evening brought out – three of them had folk elements; both the Tabakova and the Stravinsky have elements of uneasy stillness at their heart; three of them were written within twenty-five years of each other; none of them are really in any mainstream tradition.
The Falla got everything off to a lively start. But I always seem to have a problem with the Bartok piece and a lot of other works of his. I typically begin listening with enthusiasm and then lose the plot and drift away. Why this is, I’m not sure – I just don’t seem to be able to find a structure in either the first movement of this or the Viola Concerto that allows me to focus. I have similar problems with the quartets. It even happens to me with the lovely 2nd movement of this work. I am sure this is my problem – as I write this, I am listening to the work again on the old SoltI / Kyung Wha Chung recording, and I’m having the same problem – there is a memorable opening theme, lots of incidental felicities/moments to enjoy, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts. The soloist – Antje Weithaas – with the Halle is not someone I have heard of before and she was very impressive in her technical grasp of the work, and (although she seems to have been a late substitute) clearly had a good rapport with the conductor.
The Tabakova (she is a composer in residence at the Halle) piece I liked. This was another example of a new generation going back perhaps 70 to 80 years to pick up thoughts and trends before serialism became all pervasive. ‘Pacific’ was a still, attractive piece with a gradual swell of noise getting louder and softer and with a rather beautiful wandering plaintive melody on combined groups of woodwind and trumpet. I would like to hear it again.
The Stravinsky was superbly played by the Halle and was very exciting. I heard the work performed by the same forces a few years ago, with Elder conducting. This performance seemed tauter, snappier, more driven and undoubtedly more exciting. Yet at the same time there were details – particularly from the woodwind – I don’t recall hearing before, and it didn’t sound rushed. As the timpani and bass drum thwacked, and the motor rhythms got wilder and wilder, I got quite carried away……Reif’s conducting was extraordinarily precise and clear, one of the few times I have been able to work out what a conductor’s beat is actually beating!…..
Things are very quiet on who will take over from Elder at the end of the 23/24 season. They could do worse than this guy….I wonder who is in the frame for this post?
John's musical journey 