Gipps Death on the Pale Horse; Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor; Bliss The Beatitudes. Elizabeth Watts soprano, Laurence Kilsby tenor, Lukas Sternath piano, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo conductor
The programming intent with this concert was fairly obvious. Put down an evergreen favourite to draw the crowds with an up and coming young pianist, add a brief work by a neglected British female composer (but short so as not to frighten the horses) and hope that people will cope with the Bliss, or be interested to come along. For me, I saw it as an obligation to at least give it a try – and, I said to myself, it surely couldn’t be a more dismal experience than Delius’ Mass of Life (see blog from a few weeks back). And maybe it would be a sensational neglected masterpiece……..
Whenever I hear the BBC Symphony play, I am always struck by how good they sound nowadays – and all credit to Sakari Oramo for encouraging and guiding the players to be the best they can be. In fact this Sunday 7/9 I’ve heard two great orchestral trainers – Oramo and Petrenko – who have spent time with UK ‘provincial’ orchestras (RLPO and CBSO), honing their skills. The BBC Symphony played superbly in this concert.
First up was Ruth Gipps, whose Death on the Pale Horse (a drawing by William Blake) sounded much the same as other short works I have heard by her – pleasing on the ear, vaguely ‘English’ sounding, clearly very competently orchestrated and not very memorable. The young player (24) of the Grieg concerto, Lukas Sternath, is Austrian, a BBC New Generation artist, being taught currently by Igor Levit and Paul Lewis (a pretty fine bunch of teachers) and clearly an up-and-coming star pianist. I liked his performance of the Grieg very much – it was crisp and clear (perhaps a bit like Paul Lewis’ playing) and he chose tempi that didn’t focus so much on display as on articulation and poetry. There was also the heft to give the piano an almighty thumping in the closing bars. He played some of the quieter moments particularly well – the magical first appearance of the slow movement’s main theme, and the ‘big tune’ in the finale, for instance. Oramo and the orchestra never overwhelmed Sternath in what was a subtle performance.
And so, teeth grated, on to the Bliss. I saw Arthur Bliss conduct at least once at the Proms, in 1969, when he was in his late 70’s, with a rather epic programme that involved lots of British classics and which also featured Malcolm Arnold as a conductor. Bliss conducted his piano concerto for 3 hands. I have zero memory of the concerto and have never really sat down to listen to any of his other scores – the Colour Symphony, and the ballets – but I have a vague recollection of someone who seemed a nice old buffer, much more likeable on the podium than the austere almost regal Sir Adrian Boult. As an example of that amiability, and contrary to what I am sure I read somewhere, Bliss was (according to the programme notes) not upset particularly by the treatment of ‘The Beatitudes when it was premiered in 1962 (it was commissioned alongside Britten’s War Requiem for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, but shunted off to a theatre for the first performance giving pride of place to the Britten in the Cathedral) – he knew Britten was the better composer and accepted the (apparently not very effective) first performance with equanimity. The work has been given one outing at the Proms before (1966) and then seemingly totally ignored (I had never heard of the piece before this year) by everyone.
So…….is it a neglected masterpiece? Not really – but much more enjoyable than the Mass of Life! I think I would describe it as workmanlike, with some beautiful moments. There are a couple of general problems: one is (and he must surely have realised that they would be compared) that Bliss sets some of the same George Herbert texts as Vaughan Williams does in the 5 Mystical Songs, which are simply much more memorable pieces of music. The other concerns structure – the piece contrasts statements in turn of the 9 Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel with various mainly 17th century poems/prose and a few Biblical texts. However, the poems/texts chosen don’t always seem to relate to the Beatitude in question – e.g. it’s not clear what ‘Blessed are the meek’ has to do with Herbert’s poem, The Call. But there are some lovely moments – all the statements of the Beatitudes are very moving, with a fine repeated melody beautifully introduced by the soprano. Despite the Vaughan William’s comparison, The Call is a memorable setting, more complex than RVW’s (but Herbert after all is a Metaphysical poet) but touching. A lot of the choral writing is in the very best English Cathedral/Choral tradition, and the Dylan Thomas setting ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ stands well beside say Elgar’s choral devils in ‘Gerontius’. The BBC Chorus and Singers, and the orchestra, gave the work the best possible rendition. I am glad I went to hear it.
John's musical journey 