Category Archives: Choral

In concert – Dame Sarah Connolly, CBSO Choruses, CBSO / Sofi Jeannin: The Music Makers

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Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), CBSO Children’s Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus, CBSO Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sofi Jeannin

Weir Music, Untangled (1992)
Muhly Friday Afternoons (2015, orch. 2019) [UK Premiere]
Britten The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Op.34 (1945)
Elgar The Music Makers Op.69 (1912)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 20 November 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Pictures (c) Andrew Crowley (Dame Sarah Connolly), (c) Radio France / Christophe Abramowitz (Sofi Jeannin)

Under the capable direction of Swedish-born Sofi Jeannin (below), the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra tonight took on a varied if cohesive programme featuring two composers with direct links to the city, one of whose works had been performed for the first time here 112 years ago.

Although he might not be so associated with Birmingham, Nico Muhly is hardly an unknown quantity. Friday Afternoons proved a diverting and enjoyable traversal across eight traditional poems – directly yet unaffectedly recalling Britten in their simplicity of choral writing with, in this instance, a resourceful and often evocative orchestration that brought out subtle and quite unexpected nuances from these texts. Qualities that the combined CBSO Youth and Children’s Choruses responded to with alacrity, doubtless owing to the astute guidance of Julian Wilkins.

Beforehand, the orchestra made no less favourable a response in Music, Untangled by Judith Weir, former Master of the Queen’s Music and composer-in-association to the CBSO during 1995-98. Written for the Boston Symphony, this not unreasonably American-sounding piece takes extracts from melodies emanating from the Western isles of Weir’s native Scotland as the basis for a compact if eventful piece where said melodies are gradually fined down from sonic diversity to a single strand through a process of ‘less is more’ typical of this composer.

Closing the first half, what had started out as Britten’s ‘Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell’ received an engaging performance at its best in those variations highlighting specific instruments – in the course of which the excellence of the individual CBSO sections came to the fore. Presentation of the theme itself was a little on the portentous side, a quality which re -surfaced in a fugue whose clarity of texture seemed at the expense of that exuberance when Britten puts his orchestra back-together. An enjoyable take on a timeless masterpiece even so.

Despite its high-profile launch at the 1912 Triennial Festival, Elgar’s The Music Makers has struggled to find general favour – his setting of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s Ode intensifying the text’s ambivalence and introspection via a wealth of self-quotation such as renders several of his most acclaimed pieces from an unlikely or even disturbing perspective. Together with its near-contemporary work, the symphonic study Falstaff, this is Elgar at his most searching as well as confessional – qualities such as the encroaching ‘Great War’ would duly exacerbate.

Despite its modest (35-minute) duration, The Music Makers is a difficult work to pace and to make cohere and, while Jeannin (an experienced choral conductor) did not wholly succeed in these respects, there was no doubt as to her insight into its content or defining of its emotions. Prepared by Simon Halsey (who first ‘gave’ this work with Simon Rattle some 40 years ago), the CBSO Chorus lacked little in conviction or finesse – and, if Dame Sarah Connolly was not quite at her most assured, the sheer eloquence and conviction of her singing could never be denied.

A fine account, then, of a work still in need of such advocacy for its inherent greatness to be acknowledged. Interesting also that audience response was warm if undeniably muted – as if to confirm, on this occasion at least, the music’s ‘message’ had got through to those listening.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about soloist Dame Sarah Connolly, conductor Sofi Jeannin and composers Nico Muhly and Dame Judith Weir

Published post no.2,372 – Sunday 24 November 2024

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 50: Mao Fujita, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša – Dvořák Piano Concerto, Kaprálová & Janáček Glagolitic Mass

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Kaprálová Military Sinfonietta Op.11 (1937) [Proms Premiere]
Dvořák (ed. Kurz) Piano Concerto in G minor Op.33 (1876)
Janáček Glagolitic Mass (1926-8)

Mao Fujita (piano); Corinne Winters (soprano), Vella Adamova (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor), Brindley Sharratt (bass), Christian Schmitt (organ), Prague Philharmonic Choir (choir-master Lukáš Vasilek), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša

Royal Albert Hall, London
Wednesday 28 August 2024

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Andy Paradise

Their previous Prom having set the bar high as regards playing or interpretation, Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra equalled and maybe even exceeded it with a programme which once more ranged widely over what might be thought the ‘golden age’ of Czech music.

The career of Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-40) represents one of those great ‘what ifs’ in 20th century music and works such as Military Sinfonietta confirm her already distinctive idiom. Despite involvement with Martinů, this is redolent more of interwar French music – notably Roussel – in its alternating between the extrovert and the ruminative; relative extremes held in check by ingenious adaptation of the four-movements-in-one design that draws maximum variety from its material while sustaining a cumulative momentum through to a return of the main theme for a powerful but never bombastic apotheosis. The CPO certainly relished these strongly drawn expressive contrasts, and Hrůša kept it on a tight though never inflexible rein with the sizable groups of woodwind and brass duly given their collective head at the close.

Although it has come in from cold over recent decades, Dvořák’s Piano Concerto remains an anomaly – akin to one Mendelssohn or Chopin might have written had they lived into the mid -Romantic era. Numerous pianists have returned to the demanding if unidiomatic solo part as its composer left it, but Mao Fujita (above) opted for that edited by pianist Vilém Kurz which enjoyed favour across much of the last century. Musically the piece remains much the same – opening with an extensive Allegro trenchant and yielding, but with surprisingly little of a Czech tinge to its melodic or rhythmic content. Fujita delivered a confident traversal, then brought limpid poetry to the Andante with Hrůša’s accompaniment of the subtlest. They duly made the most of the final Allegro’s driving impetus and soulful poise, prior to its lively and decisive close.

Despite early advocacy from Henry Wood, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass only established itself at the Proms half a century after the composer’s death. Recent seasons have brought varying versions of what Janáček (might have) intended, but Hrůša chose the standard edition with a reading of blazing conviction right from the stentorian brass of its ‘Introduction’. Compact in size but forthright in tone, the Prague Philharmonic Choir brought pathos to the ‘Kyrie’ then fervency to the ‘Gloria’ with Corinne Winters and David Butt Philip fearless in their response.

More than usually a fulcrum around which this work revolves, the ‘Credo’ evinced an almost narrative dimension in its journey via speculation and ambiguity to a conclusion – typified by Brindley Sherratt’s eloquence – of radiant certainty. This carried over into the ‘Sanctus’ both sensuous and capricious, Bella Adamova making the most of her ensemble contribution here then in the ‘Agnus Dei’ whose intimation of doubt is brusquely denied by the ‘Postludium’ – a vigorous workout for solo organ in which Christian Schmitt (above) decisively assumed the limelight.

It remained for the ‘Intrada’ to round off proceedings with its pounding timpani and exultant trumpets – so setting the seal on a memorable concert which, as with its predecessor, is likely to prove a highlight of this Proms season: music-making as it can and should be experienced.

You can get details about this year’s season at the BBC Proms website – and you can click on the names to read more about pianist Mao Fujita, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jakub Hrůša

Published post no.2,285 – Friday 30 August 2024

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 23: Benjamin Grosvenor, Rodolfus Choir, London Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra / Edward Gardner – Busoni & Rachmaninoff

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Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances Op.45 (1940)
Busoni Piano Concerto in C major Op. XXXIX (1902-4)

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), The Rodolfus Choir (men’s voices), London Philharmonic Choir (men’s voices), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 5 August 2024

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Andy Paradise

This centenary of Busoni’s death has not thus far seen a great deal of activity in the UK, so it was gratifying to find the Proms scheduling his most (in)famous work – the Piano Concerto tonight receiving its second performance at these concerts, 36 years to the day after its previous outing.

Back then, the first half featured Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and a more apposite coupling than Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Now firmly ensconced in the orchestral repertoire, it remains a stern test the London Philharmonic Orchestra did not quite meet on this occasion – despite such felicities as Martin Robertson’s eloquent alto sax in the first movement and Edward Gardner’s conjuring of a tangible malevolence in its successor. Impulsive but erratic in its outer sections, the finale’s evocative central span had a superficial quality typical of this performance overall.

This was not the case in the Busoni. Benjamin Grosvenor (above) might not the first name who comes to mind for this concerto but, having already given performances in Reykjavik and Berlin, he was audibly attuned to an idiom not as elusive as often supposed in its canny amalgam of the Germanic and Italianate, while his playing was fully equal to its technical demands. That he is not a pianist looking to confront the orchestra head on ensured a more than usually close-knit coordination with players and conductor, which was almost always to the benefit of this piece.

Not least in Prologo e Introito, its orchestral introduction enticingly shaded by Gardner with Grosvenor integrating his unequivocal entry into what are essentially variations on the theme at the outset. Few pianists have weighted Busoni’s complex chords or his intricate harmonies with such translucency, not least the end of this movement where piano and orchestra melded to spellbinding effect. Straight into Pezzo giocoso, its capricious outer sections framing one of stealthy ambivalence as perceptively rendered as was that spectral angularity near its close.

Grosvenor managed the rare trick of making Pezzo serioso simultaneously cumulative and cohesive. He duly channelled the slow-burning momentum of its introduction into the rolled chords of its barcarolle-like first part – Gardner sustaining impetus across its successor to an imperious climax, during which the soloist never risked being obliterated. The lead-in to its third part had a poise equal to that at the end, where subtle rhythmic contrasts between piano and timpani against undulating strings had an enfolding calm to diffuse any lingering tension.

A general pause for retuning, then All’italiana burst forth – the underlying tarantella rhythm a springboard for its motley succession of vernacular elements initially humorous and latterly uproarious, held in check by the scintillating give-and-take of soloist and orchestra. Grosvenor almost topped these shenanigans with his electrifying cadenza – after which, Gardner prepared admirably for Cantico in which male voices (above) hymned Allah’s praises with mounting fervour; Grosvenor a largely passive observer until he belatedly returned for the headlong signing-off.

Quite a performance, then, that will hopefully be released commercially. Did Busoni offer an encore at that Berlin premiere? It could not have been more suitable than J.S. Bach’s Prelude in E minor BWV855, transposed and arranged by Alexander Siloti – three minutes of balm bringing us gently down to earth.

For more on this year’s festival, visit the BBC Proms website – and to read more on the artists involved, click on the names: Benjamin Grosvenor, Edward Gardner, The Rodolfus Choir, London Philharmonic Choir and the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Published post no.2,264 – Thursday 5 August 2024

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 23: Thoughts on Busoni’s Piano Concerto

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Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), The Rodolfus Choir, London Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 5 August 2024

by Ben Hogwood Photo (c) Andy Paradise

A full review of Prom 23 will follow from Richard Whitehouse, but I wanted to register some thoughts on my first live encounter with one of the most extraordinary piano concertos you could ever hope to hear.

In the last few months pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has taken Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto on something of a concert tour, and has written of his love and admiration for the piece in a Guardian article, which proves a helpful guide for anyone not fully attuned to the piece.

The centenary of Busoni’s death falls this year, hence the first appearance of this piece at the Proms in 36 years, since a memorable occasion when Peter Donohoe squared up to the solo part in the company of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Mark Elder. Oh, and the BBC Singers – for this work, unbelievably, has a male chorus in the finale, singing “Lift up your hearts to the Power Eternal”, a hymn to Allah from Adam Oehlenschläger’s Aladdin. Busoni’s quote in the score at this point is that “The Pillars of Rock begin to make soft and gentle music.”

Yet even before we got to that fifth movement the extraordinary power and individuality of Busoni’s music was shining through. The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner had a big part to play here, setting the scene in the Prologo e introito as though we were standing in a cathedral, awestruck at the architecture but still taking in a new sight with each about turn.

Grosvenor’s interpretation of his part was balletic, and the music really danced – swooping down from the heights or bubbling up from the depths, the pianist finding remarkable clarity in even the most complex passagework. Busoni, a formidable concert pianist himself, really tests his soloist, but retains a well-judged balance between piano and orchestra. Grosvenor and Gardner somehow found this equilibrium in the notoriously tricky acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall, where from the arena you could hear the clear communication of Busoni’s ideas. The orchestra were superb here – percussion ideally balanced, strings and wind interacting with the piano cleanly and the brass sensitively placing their chorale interventions. The clarinet and viola solos in the second movement had all the room they needed, while the orchestral colour that appears so unexpectedly and vividly in this work was richly shaded.

And what of the piece itself? In many ways it was like listening to a progressive rock album from the 1970s, which in itself is extraordinary when you think the Piano Concerto was completed in 1904. The sheer scope of Busoni’s imagination knew no bounds, then – taking on board more obvious influences from Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, while using harmonic techniques to remind us that we were now in the age of Sibelius, Elgar and even Schoenberg.

The fourth movement was perhaps the most remarkable in this performance. With the gargantuan third completed, a kind of meditation in four parts, Busoni summons even greater invention for a Tarantella of remarkable energy, the solo part whirling round in a circle and brilliantly played here by Grosvenor. Just as it seemed all possibilities had been exhausted, the appearance of the male chorus was a masterstroke, their sonorous tones floating above much of the audience in the Royal Albert Hall. They leant a whole new dimension to the work, meaning that even those who might have been struggling 55 minutes into a piece found the new impetus and energy in Busoni’s exultation.

If you have not yet encountered this extraordinary piece I encourage you to without delay – but don’t stop there, for Busoni’s solo piano output, while very different, has many riches to impart in a fraction of the time. First, though, you have to try the Piano Concerto. It will knock your socks off!

You can listen to this concert on BBC Sounds – with the Busoni Piano Concerto beginning at 1:03:55. For more on this year’s festival, visit the BBC Proms website

Published post no.2,263 – Wednesday 7 August 2024

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 19: Jess Dandy, Senja Rummukainen, BBC SO & Sakari Oramo – Holst ‘Cloud Messenger’, Harvey & Elgar

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Harvey Tranquil Abiding (1998) [Proms Premiere]
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1918-19)
Holst The Cloud Messenger, H111 (1909-10, rev. 1912) [Proms Premiere]

Jess Dandy (contralto), Senja Rummukainen (cello), BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo

Royal Albert Hall, London
Saturday 3 August 2024

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Chris Christoudoulou

Now approaching his 12th season as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo tonight gave his first Prom of the season with this typically well-balanced programme of British music framing unfamiliar pieces past or (relative) present with a classic of its genre.

First came a welcome revival for Tranquil Abiding – doubtless one of Jonathan Harvey’s most immediately appealing works and one where the rhythm of ‘breathing’ central to so much of his later output is afforded lucid expression. The degree to which its melodic content emerges out of then returns into the surrounding texture was duly conveyed by Oramo, who ensured a real sense of expectation as this music took on an almost tangible impetus towards its climax. A pity that some restless and inattentive listeners robbed the final stage of its ‘ultimate calm’.

Long before it had the eminence it now enjoys, Elgar’s Cello Concerto was a regular Proms item through advocacy from Beatrice Harrison, Anthony Pini and, latterly, Jacqueline du Pré. Senja Rummukainen (above) thus joined a distinguished roster of soloists and, in the first movement at least, seemed a little inhibited in this context. Her arresting lead-in to the scherzo brought playing of greater involvement, both here and in an Adagio whose autumnal eloquence never risked sentimentality. The relatively lengthy finale was securely rendered, its themes incisive then genial, and if the development culminated a little portentously, the reprise was tellingly subdued before a moving apotheosis and curtly inevitable coda. Rummukainen can be heard again in London in the Dvořák concerto, with the BBC Concert Orchestra, this October 4th.

In the 150th anniversary of his birth, and the 90th anniversary of his death, a major revival by Gustav Holst was almost mandatory. Setting his translation from the Sanskrit of a poem by Kālidāsa, The Cloud Messenger never quite recovered from its evidently disastrous premiere such that revivals have been occasional. At almost 45 minutes, it is a demonstrable statement of intent whose expansive choral gestures are assured but almost anachronistic given Holst’s chamber opera Sāvitri redefined his conceptual approach and musical idiom barely a year before. Yet the present work amply foreshadows much of what was achieved over the next two decades, notably a freely evolving melisma mostly unimpeded by rhythmic precedent and a harmonic subtlety such as only needed greater refinement in its handling to realize its fullest potential.

That much of this latter aspect was already in place is clear from those intimate passages for semi-chorus to the fore during its later stages, while the third of its five continuous section brought a confiding soliloquy that Jess Dandy (above) – contralto in the truest sense – realized with distinction. A pity she was not heard again, but the BBC Symphony Chorus was not found wanting beforehand or in that ethereal leave-taking with which the work evanesces, ‘Venus’-like, to its close. Whatever the stylistic inconsistencies, the best of it is Holstian to its core.

Now it is available in an expert reduction for chamber orchestra by Joseph Fort, The Cloud Messenger should attract more frequent hearings, but the Royal Albert Hall proved a fitting venue for this expansive original while Oramo’s perceptive performance did not disappoint.

For more on this year’s festival, visit the BBC Proms website – and for more on the artists involved, click on the names to read more about Jess Dandy, Senja Rummukainen, the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Sakari Oramo

Published post no.2,261 – Monday 5 August 2024