Tag Archives: classical-music

On Record – Raphael Wallfisch, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods – John McCabe: Symphonies 2 & 3 and Cello Concerto (Signum Classics)

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Raphael Wallfisch (cello), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

John McCabe
Symphony no.2 (1970-71)
Symphony no.3 ‘Hommages’ (1978)
Cello Concerto ‘Songline’ (2007)

Signum Classics SIGCD1007 [67’32”]
Producer Andrew Keener Engineer Oscar Torres, Matthew Swan

Recorded 9-11 June 2025 at City Halls, Glasgow

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Signum Classics makes a notable addition to the discography of John McCabe (1939-2015) with his Second and Third Symphonies, alongside his Cello Concerto, given committed and perceptive performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Kenneth Woods.

What’s the music like?

Ranging over four decades, McCabe’s seven symphonies are a defining factor of his output and his achievement overall. An ability to reassess the genre afresh each time is hardly less true of those 20 or so concertos which, between them, encompass the entirety of his career.

Certain listeners may have encountered the Second Symphony via Louis Frémaux’s recording (EMI/Warner) made soon after the premiere. The catalyst was Sam Peckinpah’s Western The Wild Bunch (1969) and though McCabe does not follow this hard-hitting scenario literally, he does chart its emotional and maybe its experiential trajectory. A speculative woodwind phrase pervades the single movement whose five sections purposefully alternate fast and slow tempi, incisive and reflective moods, on its course to a visceral while cathartic denouement. That the work emerges full circle, the same yet different, comes as no surprise given its inspiration in a film which was unyielding in its fatalism but highly enlightening through its innate realism.

The stylistic consistency of McCabe’s idiom across several decades is borne out by his Cello Concerto, the ‘Songline’ of whose subtitle references that route taken through its content by the listener akin to aboriginals tracing a physical path through the Australian terrain; even a psychological path through their culture. Tersely though cogently argued, its outer Allegros frame a lengthy Adagio that takes in elements of slow movement and scherzo – separated by an accompanied cadenza where the soloist interacts with luminous tuned percussion in what ranks among its composer’s most eloquent inspirations. Neither are those closing bars, their abruptness dispelling any equivocation, seem other than inevitable in terms of a conclusion.

Stemming from what was a productive period for the genre in the UK, the Third Symphony is a highlight of McCabe’s output. The ‘Hommages’ of its subtitle makes reference to Haydn and Nielsen – but any such allusions are merged into a cumulative structure whose three (more or less) continuous movements unfold from an oblique if stealthy sonata design, via a ‘Fantasia’ more intermezzo than slow movement, to a ‘Fugue-Variations’ which gradually propels the whole orchestra towards an inexorable culmination with resplendent brass then ricocheting percussion. One of the most visceral endings in the modern symphonic repertoire that made an audible impression at its premiere, 48 years ago, and would doubtless do so again today.

Does it all work?

Yes, not least with Woods so attuned to McCabe’s idiom: the Second Symphony less taut if more flexible than Frémaux’s pioneering account and the Third a reminder of why Charles Dutoit’s premiere left such an impact. Nor is Raphael Wallfisch at all wanting in Songlines.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, enhanced by spacious yet detailed sound with informative notes from Guy Rickards. Hopefully Woods and the BBCSSO will take McCabe’s final two symphonies into the studio, while such major works as the Third Piano and Second Violin Concertos also await recording.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Signum Records website, and listen to excerpts from the album at Presto Music. Click on the names to read more about composer John McCabe, cellist Raphael Wallfisch, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Woods

Published post no.2,986 – Tuesday 17 August 2026

Arcana at the BBC Proms – Soloists, Epiphoni Consort, BBC Symphony Chorus & Orchestra / Nil Venditti: Respighi & Rossini

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Federica Lombardi (soprano), Chiara Amarù (mezzo-soprano), Dave Monaco (tenor), Nicola Ulivieri (bass), Epiphoni Consort, BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra / Nil Venditti

Respighi Church Windows (Vetrate di chiesa) (1925-26)
Rossini Stabat Mater (1831-1841)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Friday 7 August 2026

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Mark Allan

Friday night is Italian night at the BBC Proms, it would seem. Two weeks after John Wilson’s blistering account of Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, we had a sequel of sorts headed by Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti, marshalling a double bill from Respighi and Rossini, a composer he much admired.

As we heard two weeks back, Respighi was no shrinking violet when writing for orchestra, a point reemphasised by this first Proms performance of Church Windows. This is the sort of orchestral music on which the Royal Albert Hall thrives – descriptive, colourful, bold, brash in places but beautifully controlled in others. One of these moments was Adam Lee’s clarinet solo, exquisitely spun.

Less obviously demonstrative than the Roman poems, Church Windows nonetheless softened the heart with its invocations of Gregorian chants and chorales, woven into Respighi’s writing. Not all were successful in performance, the horn theme of San Michele Arcangelo taking a while to align with Venditti’s tempo, but this movement grew into a tumultuous finish, the tam-tam describing Satan’s fall from heaven. A tender account of Il mattutino di Santa Chiara (The Matins of St Clare) found the BBC SO woodwind on fine form, but the finale, San Gregorio Magno (St Gregory the Great) carried all before it, Richard Pearce’s barnstorming organ solo briefly smothering the orchestra before a brilliantly manoeuvred climax. Once again, the ears were ringing, and while this may not have registered so highly on the Richter scale, it was nonetheless a qualified triumph.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater is similarly unconventional. Its long gestation period would suggest a creative block, but the final composition, finished after a decade, is a profound utterance. Venditti kept things moving here, and with an evident love for the piece, from the solemn choral intoning of the Stabat mater dolorosa itself, through the sequence of arias which found the soloists taking a little while to adjust to the acoustic of the hall. A healthy balance was found, though bass Nicola Ulivieri, a commanding presence, was appreciably louder than his three colleagues – each of whom were dramatic in their responses to the text. Tenor Dave Monaco nailed his top notes with impressive precision in the Cujus animam gementem, soprano Federica Lombardi was bright and commendably unforced with the chorus throughout Inflammatus et accensus, while mezzo-soprano Chiara Amarù shone in the Fac, ut portem Christi mortem.

Yet the real stars of this performance were the London-based Epiphoni Consort, making their Proms debut, and the BBC Symphony Chorus, both extremely well drilled and of one voice. The antiphonal exchanges of ‘Paradisi gloria’ in the Quando corpus morietur section were memorable, but the crowning glory was the ‘Amen’ finale, where Rossini – and the charismatic Venditti – let loose in the thrilling tour de force of powerful counterpoint. A special mention for timpanist Antoine Bedewi, too, whose role throughout was critical. This was the choir’s to bring home, however, and they delivered with style and panache, convincing audience and listeners of Rossini’s original inspiration and dramatic instinct. A refreshingly different Prom, and how good to hear two less familiar but deserving works in performances that made them shine.

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026.

Published post no.2,977 – Saturday 8 August 2026

In concert – National Youth Orchestra / Thomas Adès: Transcend – Liszt, Adès & Berlioz

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National Youth Orchestra / Thomas Adès

Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S110 No. 2 (1856-61)
Adès Dante, Part 2: Purgatorio (2019-20)
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Op.14 (1830)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 5 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Tom Morley

If there is little space remaining on an extended Symphony Hall platform, the National Youth Orchestra is the likely reason. Tonight saw the start of its annual summer tour with a typically demanding programme that played to the strengths of some 150 players in no small measure.

All three of these pieces are focussed upon a journey of unforeseen consequences, not least Liszt’s First Mephisto Waltz. Setting a swift tempo for its propulsive initial section, Thomas Adès ensured the performance had the measure of this and of those halting evocations at its centre. If the sudden build-up to its climax felt a little tentative, the ensuing pensiveness and hectic coda (this being the more familiar loud ending) found these musicians comfortably in control. A showpiece with substance that deserves to regain its popularity from former times.

Adès’s ballet Dante has been often heard on stage or in concert. Its central Purgatorio makes a journey from out of darkness towards light, recordings of three sung prayers made the basis for its musical evolution. This would be fine were that evolution more varied in progress and more cumulative in impact. As it was, samples of this chanting were elaborated by woodwind and brass, singly or in ‘choirs’, before drawing to a climax on full orchestra. That this process was several times repeated would not have mattered had it been less systematic or predictable, while the actual writing had (surprisingly) little subtlety or finesse to offset its brazen impact. Whatever Adès’s orchestral command or the NYO’s commitment in realizing it, the result felt not so far removed from Wojciech Kilar’s folk-inspired symphonic poems half a century ago.

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is a work that has featured often on NYO schedules, but its music is tailor-made for an orchestra with not a few aspiring professionals to demonstrate its capabilities, and the present performance did not disappoint. Favouring relatively swift tempi, Adès steered an impulsive if never wayward course through Rêveries – Passions; at its best in the approach to a searing climax followed by its pensive ‘come down’. He found the right balance between elegance and ecstasy in Un bal (but this was not a waltz for dancing), then traversed Scène aux champs with due focus on that mounting despair which emerges out of then returns to the soulful isolation either side. The thunder effects of multiple timpani at its close were well realized, while the cor anglais (Leah Wiseman) summoned a melting pathos.

Steady if not unduly portentous (with, as in the first movement, its repeat included), ‘Marche au supplice’ made a properly baleful impact – not least through the addition of military drums after the fall of the guillotine – but it was a pity Adès did not head straight into Songe d’une nuit de sabbat, whose initial silence then feels more deafening. That said, he had the measure of its sardonic parodies of earlier themes, evocations of gothic horror and fugal orgies on the way to an apotheosis during which the NYO gave its collective all then some more besides.

The result was a performance that could not have failed to impress those unfamiliar with this singular work. Doubtless the programme overall will sound equally impressive with the NYO repeating in at Snape Maltings tomorrow evening, then at the Royal Albert Hall this Saturday.

To read more about the NYO’s 2026 summer tour, visit the NYO website – and click on the name to read more about composer & conductor Thomas Adès

Published post no.2,971 – Friday 7 August 2026

In concert – Three Choirs Festival: Adrian Partington conducts Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’

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John Findon (tenor), Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo-soprano), David Ireland (bass-baritone), Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Adrian Partington

Wagner Parsifal – Prelude to Act One (1878)
Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 (1899-1900)

Gloucester Cathedral
Saturday 1 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo credits (c) James O’Driscoll

Closing this latest edition of the Three Choirs Festival with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius felt both inevitable and fitting, given its seminal place in the annals of the English choral tradition as of this festival, in what proved if not an unblemished then certainly a memorable realization.

Hearing this work now is to feel surprise how, aside from aspects of Cardinal Newman’s text, its musical treatment could have seemed so problematic whether technically or interpretively. Maybe the musical lineage on which it drew being not yet fully assimilated by musicians and listeners, or its contrasts between life and after-death being so emotionally charged, presented challenges to be overcome only with time and perseverance. If such were the case, then those challenges have certainly been met in the 124 years since its first hearing at the Three Choirs.

Allotting the vocalists so they merge into a balanced and complementary whole is a task this evening’s performance met convincingly. John Findon (above) brought fervour and an immediacy to Gerontius which never threatened overkill. Witness the assured pacing of his ‘Sanctus fortis’ solo so it dominated the opening part without undermining the latter’s formal and expressive trajectory; or the respective poise and fervour of ‘I went to sleep’ and ‘Take me away’, at the start then climax of the second part, in furthering overall dramatic flow.

A little too detached initially, Niamh O’Sullivan (above, with Findon) duly entered into the persona of the Angel such that ‘Softly and gently’ exuded an affecting poise. Starkly implacable as the Priest, David Ireland (below) brought to Angel of the Agony an understatement preferable to that wanton rhetoric often encountered.

Few such works have so extensive and varied a choral component as Gerontius, in which the Three Choirs Festival Chorus did not disappoint. Thus the distant response of the Assistants, menacing aggression of the Demons, accumulating power of the Angelicals in their majestic ‘Praise to the Holiest’ or ethereal chant of the Souls in Purgatory were all characterized with the requisite insight. Nor was the Philharmonia found wanting in Elgar’s always resourceful though often demanding orchestral writing, notably a Prelude such as unfolded purposefully towards its eloquent culmination. Here, as throughout, Adrian Partington (below) gave notice of his deep knowledge of and unfailing involvement with this score – not least when bringing out those sombre if luminous hues as were a hallmark of the composer’s orchestration forthwith.

Orchestral and conductor were also at one when delineating the hieratic mystery or grandeur of the Prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal. Its inclusion prior to Gerontius has often found favour in recent years yet, other than pointing up that debt which Elgar repaid handsomely in his own terms, it hardly seems necessary given the emotional scope or inclusiveness of what follows. If it is included then better, surely, to play this piece without its Act One ‘resolution’ then go straight into the Elgar to point up their conceptual connection and ensure cohesion forthwith.

Attendees at the performance had the benefit of programme notes by Martin Lee-Browne – author, authority on British music (not least Delius) and one-time Chairman of Gloucester Three Choirs – whose presence at and contributions to this festival will be greatly missed.

To read more about the 2027 festival in Worcester, head to the Three Choirs Festival website. Click on the names for more on the artists in this concert – tenor John Findon, mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, bass-baritone David Ireland, the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Adrian Partington

Published post no.2,954 – Monday 6 July 2026

Arcana at the BBC Proms – Louise Alder, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner: From the Alps to the Auvergne

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Louise Alder (soprano), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner

Tjøgersen Between Trees (2021)
Canteloube from Chants d’Auvergne (1923-55): La pastoura als camps; La delaïssádo; Deux bourrées; Lou coucut; Baïlèro
Richard Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie Op.64 (1911-15)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 27 July 2026

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Chris Christodoulou

The music for this invigorating Prom drew us outdoors, to Norwegian woods, the fields of Auvergne and the mountains of the Alps – all brought to us in glorious technicolour by an orchestra on top of their game.

The Norwegian forest was first, a 360 degree view turning the Royal Albert Hall itself into a vast canopy. Kristine Tjøgersen’s Between Trees was full of sonic invention, an intriguing portrait by turns humorous, ominous, light, heavy, happy and sad. The instrumental effects (water in the brass instruments, ‘prepared’ harp and strings) would have been gimmicky in the wrong hands, but Tjøgersen clearly knows her way around a symphony orchestra and ensured all were used to the greater good.

The creak of a branch, the snap of a twig and even the underground workings of fungi and insect life – all were vividly evoked, to the point of wondering if the casing around the organ was even swaying in the light wind! Every rustle had a purpose, pointed towards the more conventional passages for horn quartet and strings in the closing pages, where unexpectedly sharp points of emotion lay in wait. Tjørgersen, who was in the audience, begins a three-year residence with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra next season. On this evidence hers is a striking, individual voice, a composer to follow closely.

Canteloube is a rare visitor to the Proms on account of his small output, heavily weighted towards his crowd-pleasing Chants d’Auvergne. These settings of traditional Auvergnian folksongs for soprano and orchestra are largely pastoral affairs, descriptively bringing their shepherds and birds to life. It proved impossible to listen, however, without a strong pull of sympathy for those suffering at the hands of the fires in France, a feeling heightened by the sorrowful La delaïssádo (The Abandoned Shepherdess). The part was inhabited with great feeling by soprano Louise Alder, supported by meltingly beautiful solos from cor anglais (Sue Böhling) and oboe (Ian Hardwick).

By contrast the bright La pastoura als camps (The Shepherdess in the Pasture) revelled in the open air, while the Deux bourrées danced lightly, the second (Lo calhé) especially, the quail a worrisome presence as it protected its nest. Lou coucut (The Cuckoo) was funny, heightened by Alder’s side glances to the audience, but inevitably the showstopper was Baïlèro, the shepherd’s song drawing an exquisite tone from the soprano and the supporting London Philharmonic Orchestra woodwind.

Donning our crampons after the interval, we joined Edward Gardner in an ascent he knows well, scaling the peak of Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, a piece both he and the LPO have captured on record. Familiarity in this case brought a tight structural grasp of the arching structure, whose 22 sections lasted 48 minutes – a relatively quick interpretation. Some of the sections did indeed move a little too quickly, the ascent taken by quick mountaineers, but the vistas on display were stunning in their sound quality.

The brass in particular excelled, trombones (led by Mark Templeton), trumpets (Tom Nielsen), tubas (Lee Tsarmaklis) and horns, both onstage (John Ryan) and off (Annemarie Federle), the latter expertly marshalled in the gallery by conductor Wilson Ng, who successfully accounted for the sonic delay.

Meanwhile the percussion took the brunt of the Thunderstorm, the wind machines whirring as timpani rolled and struck with ever greater danger, the mountain revealing its dark side. As an orchestral sound painter, Strauss is almost without equal, and his gifts were shown off repeatedly as Gardner showed us the waterfall, flowery meadows, mountain pasture and glacier in glorious technicolour. The LPO woodwind were crystal clear in the rarefied air, the burnished strings enjoying the rich melodies and cadences. Balancing everything was Richard Gowers on the Albert Hall organ, his church solo ideally rendered as the magical coda approached, setting us back on the arena floor where this extended musical paragraph began.

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds until the end of September 2026. Meanwhile you can click on the link to access Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie as recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner

Published post no.2,961 – Tuesday 28 July 2026