Category Archives: In concert

In concert – Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra / Jonathan Butcher: Bliss: A Colour Symphony

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Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra / Jonathan Butcher (below)

Elgar In the South (Alassio) Op.50 (1903-4)
Bernstein On the Waterfront – Suite (1954-5)
Bliss A Colour Symphony (1921-2, rev. 1932)

St John’s Church, Waterloo, London
Saturday 1 March 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra has given any number of well programmed concerts over the 53 years of its existence and tonight’s was no exception, featuring as it did a welcome revival of A Colour Symphony with which Arthur Bliss nonplussed first-night listeners 102 years ago.

Much has been written about the relationship between the colours as referenced in each of the movement headings with the music in question. In fact, the heraldic source from which these are derived was the means to focussing what could otherwise have remained the ‘Symphony in B’ of its working-title. The Purple of its opening movement evokes a processional whose emergence then retreat sets out the salient ideas in its wake, while that of Red is a scherzo with its two trios drawn into a sonata form whose unwavering impetus makes contrast with Blue more potent. Nor is this latter an archetypal slow movement – its expressive eddying an anticipation of that inexorable momentum with which Green traverses its double fugue, towards an apotheosis that sets the seal on the overall design with unmistakable conviction.

A Colour Symphony is not an easy work to make cohere – in which respect, this performance succeeded admirably. Jonathan Butcher ensured that Purple fulfilled its preludial function with sufficient gravitas to launch Red with an energy as amply underpinned its productive thematic elaboration; the work effectively becoming a tale of two halves, with the latter an extended and varied take on the ideas already established. The nervous energy that informs Blue was admirably conveyed, with the WPO giving of its collective best, while Butcher (rightly) did not rush the unfolding of Green – its respectively methodical then impetuous fugal subjects persuasively fused into a coda whose affirmation is far from that of a ‘‘mere paragraphist’’, as Elgar lamented, but of one able to refashion symphonic principals at will.

In the first half, Leonard Bernstein demonstrated a symphonic cohesion far greater than that of his actual symphonies in the suite from his score to Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront. For all its violent energy (and lessons well learned from Copland’s ballet Billy the Kid), this is music defined by its wind solos and it was to the credit of horn player Adrian Wheeler, oboist Tony Freer or alto saxophonist Bernie Hunt they were never less than plangently emotional. Whether or not Bernstein’s most ambitious orchestral work, this is by some way his finest.

Music by Elgar had opened the concert. His In the South might be as much a tone poem as a concert overture, but its effective overall design – anticipating those first movements of the symphonies to come – is its own justification. While he eschewed something of this music’s often scenic opulence, Butcher certainly had the measure of its formal ingenuity – with only the final peroration failing to deliver that necessary emotional frisson. Earlier on, Jonathan Welch’s viola playing brought pathos as well as tenderness to its exquisite ‘canto populare’.

Overall, a concert such as matched in execution what it had in ambition and which should equally be the case with the WPO’s next concert, where highly contrasted works by Barber and Tchaikovsky are to be followed by the mighty edifice of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.

For more information on the orchestra’s 2024-25 season, head to the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra website Click on the names to read more about conductor Jonathan Butcher, and about Sir Arthur Bliss himself. You can also find out more about The Bliss Trust

Published post no.2,464 – Wednesday 5 March 2025

In concert – BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Michael Seal: Discovering Bliss

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BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Michael Seal (above)

Sir Arthur Bliss
Miracle in the Gorbals (1944) – Overture
Things to Come (1934) – March
Metamorphic Variations (1972)

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Wednesday 26 February 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

2025 promises no mean retrospective of Arthur Bliss’s music in this 50th anniversary year of his death but no more significant revival than that of Metamorphic Variations, the composer’s late masterpiece that was heard live this evening for the first time in more than three decades.

Completed in December 1972 and premiered at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls the following April, Metamorphic Variations was the last while also the longest of Bliss’s purely orchestral works. Shorter than might have been, even so, as two of its sections were omitted at that first hearing (Leopold Stokowski having requested more rehearsal time for Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique after the interval) and given as an appendix in the published score; being excluded at later hearings as on the two commercial recordings. Tonight brought their reinstatement almost 52 years on.

First performed as ‘Variations for Orchestra’, this work only acquired its definitive title after considerable soul-searching on the composer’s part, though Metamorphic Variations is more accurate in terms of those ideas outlined in the initial Elements: an oboe cantilena, a phrase for horns then strings, and a cluster on woodwind – thereby setting up melodic, rhythmic and harmonic possibilities to be explored intensively over the ensuing 15 sections. The first five comprise a lively Ballet, a brusque Assertion and atmospheric Contrasts whose absence hitherto has been to the detriment of overall balance. Less crucial formally, Children’s March is of considerable fascination for its deft pivoting between innocence and experience, while Speculation marks a crucial expressive juncture through its renewed sense of anticipation.

Such anticipation is fulfilled by the starkness of Interjections then incisiveness of Scherzo I, before Contemplation yields further repose. Next come the two most elaborate sections – an increasingly energetic Polonaise being followed by Funeral Processions which builds to a wrenching, even anguished culmination. A lighter sequence moves from the dextrous Cool Interlude, via the angular Scherzo II, to the ingratiating Duet – an intermezzo prior to the final two sections. A brief yet potent Dedication makes explicit the work’s inscription to the artist George Dannatt and his wide Ann, then Affirmation draws each of the main elements into a sustained peroration thrown into relief through its ultimate subsiding into a return of the oboe cantilena from the opening and which, in its turn, brings a withdrawal into silence.

Scored with real virtuosity for sizable forces, Metamorphic Variations proves no less testing for the players as it is conceptually for the listener, though the BBC Philharmonic responded with assurance to Michael Seal who (given the unavailability of John Wilson) had not merely learnt the score in around 10 days but ensured an interpretation that was distinctively his own. Hopefully a recording from this source (how about it, Chandos?) will follow before too long: meanwhile, however, this performance is being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in the near future.

Having provided the musical illustrations in Stephen Johnson’s introductory talk, Seal and the BBCPO had framed the first half with the fateful ‘Overture’ to Bliss’s wartime ballet Miracle in the Gorbals then the rousing ‘March’ from his inter-war score to the film Things to Come.

For more information on the orchestra’s 2024-25 season, head to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra website Click on the names to read more about conductor Michael Seal, and about Sir Arthur Bliss himself. You can also find out more about The Bliss Trust

Published post no.2,463 – Tuesday 4 March 2025

In concert – Maria Schneider and Oslo Jazz Ensemble present ‘Data Lords’ @ The Barbican

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Maria Schneider and Oslo Jazz Ensemble

Barbican Hall, London, 2 March 2025

by John Earls. Photo credits (c) John Earls

Maria Schneider is a distinct force. A passionate advocate of musicians’ ownership rights (she releases her work on the crowd-funded ArtistShare label), a campaigner on the threats of unchecked technology and an enthusiast for the power of nature. She is also an outstanding jazz big band composer and arranger, recording a number of superb albums with her own orchestra.

Much of this came together in this performance with the Oslo Jazz Ensemble of pieces from her remarkable 2020 Grammy award winning album Data Lords (also a Pulitzer Prize for Music finalist).

The double album (below) presents a suite of 11 pieces as two distinct discs, The Digital World (reflecting the dangers and threats it entails) and the more redemptive Our Natural World and it is sequenced in that order, reflecting a potentially optimistic outcome.

Incidentally it is also worth making the point that her releases are amazing artifacts in themselves, beautifully packaged with stunning artwork and photos as well as invaluable sleeve notes by the composer (almost like mini essays). They are not available for streaming.

However, for this performance the order of the selected pieces flipped between both worlds. At first this seemed somewhat counter to the narrative of the album. Ultimately, I think it reflects the constant battle between the two worlds which is arguably a better representation of reality.

Consequently, rather than starting with an introduction to a dystopic digital world, the set opened with a beautiful Bluebird with gorgeous solos on alto saxophone and accordion. Schneider’s use of and writing for the accordion is one of her most distinguishing and moving musical features.

However, darkness beckons, as we go into Don’t Be Evil, a takedown of Google’s now abandoned motto – “I guess they couldn’t reach that high bar” mocks Schneider. The sometimes sinister brass was reminiscent of Charles Mingus.

The worrying digital world continued in Sputnik, an “imagining of the digital exoskeleton” of stellar satellites representing humanity. It was sombre, eerie and contemplative, and featured some wonderful solo baritone saxophone playing by Tina Lægreid Olsen. The gently flashing stage and auditorium lights added to the atmosphere.

A mood of a different kind came with Look Up featuring mellow solo trombone, another instrument that Schneider writes brilliantly for. In the album notes she explains that she wrote the piece to feature trombonist Marshall Gilkes (who performs it on the album) inspired after thinking about his “sound, expression, range and facility”. Magnus Murphy Joelson played the piece admirably here.

Next up is CQ CQ, Is Anybody There?, inspired by Schneider’s avid radio ham father. The title is a reference to his ‘callsign’ and the piece uses Morse code for its rhythms (except for a recurring saxophone line). The album notes include a great story about her Dad’s radio ham QSL card: “The internet when used for honest human connection, is indeed incredible”. There was that ominous brass again with Magnus Murphy Joelson on tenor saxophone desperately seeking meaningful connection only to find AI represented by Richard Köster on trumpet (with electronics).

This was followed by The Sun Waited for Me. Inspired by a poem from Ted Kooser’s collection Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison, the music and saxophone solo (Atle Nymo) reflect an optimism and opportunity that provides the conclusion to the album. However, this particular set finishes with the darker Data Lords – “At the end of this piece we no longer exist” says Schneider – the trumpet heralding, well, who knows what?

Except, of course, Schneider returns for an encore – “I don’t want to leave on annihilation”. Braided Together is another piece inspired by a Ted Kooser poem and Schneider dedicates it to a number of couples in the audience celebrating wedding anniversaries and long marriages. Its warm tone and mellow alto saxophone ensure the audience leaves on a more comforting note. But only after giving a well-deserved ovation to this exceptional composer, arranger and conductor, and an orchestra completely in tune with her unique talent.

The full line-up for the Oslo Jazz Ensemble, directed by Maria Schneider, is as follows:

Børge-Are Halvorsen (alto saxophone, flutes), Joakim Bergsrønning (alto saxophone, flutes and clarinet), Atle Nymo and Martin Myhre Olsen (tenor saxophone), Tina Lægreid Olsen (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet), Frank Brodahl, Marius Haltli, Richard Köster and Anders Eriksson (trumpet and flugelhorn), Even Skatrud, Nils Andreas Granseth and Magnus Murphy Joelson (trombone), Ingrid Utne (bass trombone), Jørn Oien (piano), Kalle Moberg (accordion), Jens Thoresen (guitar), Trygve Waldemar Fiske (bass), Håkon Mjåset Johansen (drums), Thor-Ivar Lund (sound engineer)

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

To read more about Maria Schneider, click to visit her website, and click on the name to read more about the Oslo Jazz Ensemble

Published post no.2,462 – Monday 3 March 2025

In concert – Jong-Gyung Park, Tonbridge Philharmonic Orchestra / Oliver Cope: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov & Brahms

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Jong-Gyung Park (piano, below), Tonbridge Philharmonic Orchestra / Oliver Cope (above)

Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture (1869, rev. 1880)
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.43 (1934)
Brahms Symphony no.4 in E minor Op.98 (1884-5)

Chapel of St Augustine, Tonbridge School, Tonbridge
Saturday 22 February 2025

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos of Oliver Cope, Chapel of St Augustine (c) Ben Hogwood

This was the first concert for the Tonbridge Philharmonic Orchestra under their interim musical director Oliver Cope, in the position while current incumbent Naomi Butcher is on maternity leave. On this evidence he has quickly built a rapport with the orchestra, already in fine fettle under Butcher’s recent direction. On this occasion they responded with a memorable concert of Romantic favourites, given in the spectacular setting of the Chapel of St Augustine in Tonbridge School.

It is easy to take Tchaikovsky’s inspiration for granted, for his storytelling and melodic gifts are so abundant that his best music flows irrepressibly. Such is the case with the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture, in spite of the two revisions required for its composer to be fully satisfied. Cope was an athletic presence on the podium as the orchestra responded with a dramatic account of the lovers’ story, the sword duel between Mercutio and Tybalt particularly vivid, while the soaring love theme tugged at the heartstrings. With fire and brimstone, and crisp ensemble playing, this performance lit the touch paper at the start of the evening.

If anything, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was even better. This was because Jong-Gyung Park (above), the popular rehearsal pianist with the Tonbridge Philharmonic Choir, delivered a sparkling account of the theme and its 24 variations. Cope threw down the gauntlet with a brisk tempo, yet Park rose to the challenge by taking control of even the quickest exchanges. There was an instinctive flow through the first six variations, the mood acquiring an appropriate chill as the Dies Irae was introduced in the seventh. From here the music travelled down darker roads, though still found time for a baleful sixteenth variation, before a shiver could be felt in the air as the seventeenth took hold. The famous eighteenth variation was lovingly delivered, before a flight to the finish that saw Park dazzle with her virtuosity, never losing sight of the whole picture.

To complete a challenging program, Brahms’s Symphony no.4 – and after initial hesitation, a convincing interpretation revealing this work’s unique bridges to the past – notably Bach – and the future, with Schoenberg on the horizon. There was an attractive open-air quality to much of the orchestra’s music making, with the second movement becoming a spring-like counterpart to the obdurate first. The scherzo built on this, dancing with a smile on its face. Flautist Rebecca Rees led a fine woodwind section in the second movement, where the horns, led by Paul Kajzar, were suitably fulsome. They were to prove critical to the success of the finale as the passacaglia developed, capping a performance with serious outlines but shot through with bursts of optimism suggesting Brahms still had a great deal to be thankful for later on in life. It put the seal on an extremely impressive concert.

For details on their 2024-25 season, head to the Tonbridge Philharmonic Society website. Click on the names to read more about pianist Jong-Gyung Park and conductor Oliver Cope

Published post no.2,456 – Tuesday 25 February 2025

In concert – Best of British @ Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

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Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham
Monday 17 & Tuesday 18 February 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has put on some notable extended events over recent years, the latest being Best of British – a two-day retrospective of piano music from UK composers past and present, all performed by current, former and associated musicians of this institution.

Monday lunchtime centred on composers ‘Made in Birmingham’, beginning with the Second Sonata of John Joubert. His three such works encompass almost his whole maturity, of which this is the longest – taking in a cumulatively intensifying Allegro, volatile Presto with a more equable trio, then a finale whose fantasia-like unfolding culminates in a powerful resolution. Rebecca Watson was a sure and perceptive exponent. Dorothy Howell’s Toccata was given with verve by Rufus Westley, with Christopher Edmonds’ Prelude and Fugue in G elegantly rendered by Ning-xi Wu. Chiara Thomson was dextrousness itself in Howell’s Humoresque, then Zixin Wen found quixotic humour in her Spindrift, before John Lee and Ruimei Huang enjoyed putting Joubert’s early and engaging Divertimento for piano duet through its paces.

Monday afternoon opened with Frank Bridge – his Three Lyrics given by John Lee with due appreciation of their keen insouciance, as too the menacing aura of his much later Gargoyles. Established as the pre-eminent English art-song composer of his generation, Ian Venables is no less adept in combining violin and piano – witness the expressive poise but also rhythmic impetus of his Three Pieces, to which RBC alumni Chu-Yu Yang and Eric McElroy were as emotionally attuned as they were in plumbing the expressive depths of Gerald Finzi’s Elegy.

Next came John Ireland – his imposing if somewhat discursive Ballade finding a committed advocate in Roman Kosyakov, who had no less the measure of his atmospheric Month’s Mind with its undertones of Medtner. Yinan Tong proved suitably alluring in The Island Spell (the first of Ireland’s Decorations), while Ruimei Hang conveyed elegance as well as playfulness in Bridge’s Three Sketches. Expertly partnered by Sarah Potjewijd, clarinettist Jamie Salters steered an insightful course through the diverting formal intricacy of Ireland’s Fantasy Sonata.

Monday evening commenced with further Ireland in ‘Phantasie’ mode – his First Piano Trio finding a productive accord between its Brahmsian inheritance and his own, subtly emerging personality at the hands of violinist Roberto Ruisi, cellist Nicholas Trygstad and pianist Mark Bebbington. They were joined by violinist Shuwei Zuo and violist Jin-he Huang in Venables’ Piano Quintet, among the most substantial and certainly the best known of his chamber works. Its opening Allegro is preceded by an Adagio whose acute pathos underlies the robust energy of what follows, before a Largo such as takes in the capriciousness of its scherzo-like central section without disrupting its soulful discourse; while the finale’s animation is not necessarily resolved by its slow postlude, a sense of this music come affectingly full circle is undeniable.

The second half found these artists in a performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet doing full justice to a work which, whatever its eccentricity of form and content, is worthy to stand beside any of his mature masterpieces. How persuasively they elided between the haunting ambivalence of the first movement’s introduction and its trenchant Allegro, with the central Adagio gradually emerging as a statement of great emotional import, then the final Allegro building inevitably to an ending of fervent affirmation. Memorable music-making indeed.

Tuesday lunchtime brought more ‘Made in Birmingham’. Michael Jones gave an interesting overview of his teacher Christopher Edmonds, two more of whose Preludes and Fugues – the elegance of that in E then the rapture of that in A – preceded his Aria Variata which, inspired by wartime experiences in the Crimea, channels the influences of Scriabin and Cyril Scott to personal ends. Zoe Tan teased out unity from within the diversity of Howell’s appealing Five Studies, before Duncan Honeybourne gave of his best in the Third Sonata written for him by Joubert. Inspired by lines from Thomas Hardy on the innate futility of the human condition, its three movements unfold an inevitable trajectory from aggression, through compassion, to a resolution more powerful for its inherent fatalism. A fine piece and performance to match.

Tuesday afternoon brought a varied programme in terms of style and media. Chian-Chian Hsu was alive to the limpid poise of Frederick Delius’s Cello Sonata, while otherwise leaving her attentive pianist Charles Matthews to set the interpretive parameters. Honeybourne was then joined by Katharine Lam in the Sonata for Two Pianos by Andrew Downes – whose subtitle A Refuge in times of trouble indicates the ominous unease, shot through with a consoling warmth, that pervades these three, lucidly designed movements by its underrated composer.

Jing Sun gave her own, attractive take on Bridge’s Rosemary (second of his Three Sketches) – before which, Ren-tong Zhao and Jake Penlington offered an unexpected highlight in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis as stylishly arranged for two pianos by Maurice Jacobson. A not inconsiderable composer, the latter was represented by his quirky Mosaic with Zijun Pan and Julian Jacobson as fluent duettists; Julian returning for his Piccola musica notturna that feels more Busoni than Dallapiccola, if a haunting study in its own right.

Tuesday evening consisted of four notable works. Daniel Lebhardt opened proceedings with Joubert’s First Sonata, this tensile single movement fusing a variety of ideas into an eventful and, above all, cohesive whole through a masterly formal and motivic development. Not that Ethel Smyth’s Second Sonata was lacking such cohesion and if its three movements, arrayed in the expected fast-slow-fast sequence, seemed indebted to the pianistic idiom of Schumann more than that of Brahms, the unbridled rhythmic elan of its opening Allegro (set in motion by a no less forceful introduction), the gently enfolding harmonies of its central Andante (a ‘song without words’ in spirit), then its impulsive final Presto as surges to an aptly decisive close needed no apology. Just the sort of piece that is worth revival at a festival such as this.

As equally was Howell’s Piano Sonata, its more understated and equivocal emotion no doubt representative of a very different persona and one which Rebecca Watson duly brought out – whether the eddying motion of its initial Moderato, intimate calm of its central Tranquillo, or mounting resolve of its final Allegro to a (more or less) decisive close. Yun-Jou Lin rounded things off with Sarnia – An Island Sequence that is arguably Ireland’s most successful such piece for its keenly evocative quality, as was conveyed here though her scintillating pianism. Quite an embarrassment of riches, but one which came together effectively in performance – thanks not least to Mark Bebbington in his curating of the event. It hardly needs adding that there is an abundance of this music for a ‘Best of British, Part Two’ on some future occasion.

For artist and repertoire details in listing form, head to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire website – clicking here for Day One and here for Day Two

Published post no.2,455 – Monday 24 February 2025