Tag Archives: Edvard Grieg

BBC Proms 2023 – we’re underway…

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Yesterday saw the start of the biggest festival in British classical music, the BBC Proms – broadcast live from the Royal Albert Hall.

Dalia Stasevska, guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, led passionate Nordic music from Sibelius (the choral version of Finlandia with the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus, and a new arrangement of Snöfrid, narrated by actress Lesley Manville) and Grieg, whose evergreen Piano Concerto was given a new lick of paint by a wonderful interpretation from Paul Lewis.

Also featured was a Sibelian new work, Let There Be Light, from Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak – a composer definitely worth seeking out in this evidence – and the concert closed with Britten‘s Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra, with its triumphant fugal finale.

You can watch the Prom here on the BBC iPlayer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001nr5b/bbc-proms-2023-first-night-of-the-proms

Arcana will be covering a good number of concerts as the season progresses, so check back through July and August to read more!

In concert – Noriko Ogawa, English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods – Brahms, Grieg & Sibelius

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Noriko Ogawa (piano), English String Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Brahms Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (1880)
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (1868)
Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E flat, Op. 82 (1915-19)

Town Hall, Cheltenham
Sunday 16 April 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The English Symphony Orchestra’s latest concert had no English (or British) connection and no premieres or unfamiliar music. In short, a mainstream sequence of overture, concerto and symphony which worked as a programme simply because these pieces went so well together.

Although it has never lacked for performances, Brahms’s Tragic Overture remains among his more unusual conceptions: a concert overture whose deftly modified sonata design admits an element of evocation as if some intangible drama were being played out. It was to the credit of this performance when such subjection offset an otherwise unwavering formal trajectory, Kenneth Woods integrating the speculative central episode with a conviction that made the heightened reprise of the main theme the more telling for its implacably wrought fatalism.

Brahms’s writing of an overture with components as if ‘in the wrong order’ made an unlikely link to the Piano Concerto by Grieg, which still offers a wealth of surprises in a sympathetic reading. This it received from Noriko Ogawa – bringing out the unforced eloquence of what, the opening Allegro in particular, is much more than a loose sequence of enticing melodies in search of coherence. As her imaginative take on its cadenza underlined, Grieg left nothing to chance as the movement turns decisively full circle. With its easeful horn melody (courtesy of James Topp) and alluring solo response, the Adagio exuded an understated allure, and if the finale lacked for any rhythmic verve, the central section with its rapt flute melody (courtesy of Laura Jellicoe) sounded as affecting as its heightened peroration at the close was majestic.

The ESO and Woods are currently working towards a Sibelius cycle and their account of the Fifth Symphony had all the hallmarks of complete identity with, here again, a determination not to take to take anything in so familiar a work for granted. This was especially notable in the opening movement – its segueing between what began as two separate entities rendered with due seamlessness. Not least that central climax, out of which the scherzo emerged then proceeded to accrue motion imperceptibly through to a coda whose velocity was irresistibly evident. Much more than a whimsical interlude, the Andante had keen appreciation of those ambiguous shadows which inform its progress at crucial junctures, yet without undermining that guileless essence to the fore in the closing pages with their felicitous woodwind playing.

Making an attacca (and rightly so) directly into the finale, Woods brought out the productive contrast between its ideas – thus, the initial theme with its onrushing strings, then the ‘swan melody’ with its harmonic allure and intricate textural layering abetted here by the up-front acoustic of Cheltenham Town Hall. Just how so tensile and compact a movement generates an apotheosis of such grandeur cannot easily be explained, yet such an outcome was tangible as those concluding chords emerged with an inevitability as undeniable as it was heartening.

They certainly set the seal on an impressive performance which was warmly received by the sizable house. The ESO can be heard in Worcester early next month with assistant conductor Michael Karcher-Young, then with Woods in June for the latest edition of The Elgar Festival.

For more information on the artists in this concert, click on the links to read about Noriko Ogawa Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra.

Playlist: Herbert Blomstedt at 95

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by Ben Hogwood

To mark the 95th birthday of the great Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt on Monday just gone, Arcana has put together a playlist including a snapshot of some of his greatest and most enduring recordings.

They include the Fifth Symphony of Nielsen, part of a landmark cycle of the composer’s symphonies with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for Decca. Blomstedt’s recordings with that orchestra in the 1990s were notable for their sonic prowess but left some critics cold; however on revisiting his Sibelius cycle, for instance, they stand up very well. The Third Symphony is included here, as is the first Peer Gynt Suite of Grieg.

Also in the 1990s came a trio of fascinating discs lending weight to the cause of Paul Hindemith. A disc of the Mathis der Maler Symphony, the Symphonic Metamorphoses and Trauermusik was to be expected, perhaps, but the follow-ups were even more valuable – a disc of the music for Nobilissima Visione, the Konzertmusik for Brass and Strings and Der Schwanendreher, and a pairing of the Symphonia Serena and symphony from the opera Die Harmonie der Welt, included here.

Blomstedt has more recently recorded a well-received Brahms cycle with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, though prior to that recorded a fine disc of the composer’s choral works in San Francisco. With the Gewandhaus, however, he has completed his most recent release, that of Schubert’s Unfinished and Great symphonies. The former is included here. Enjoy this selection of wonderful recordings!

In concert – Jayson Gillham, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Owain Arwel Hughes: Grace Williams, Grieg & Sibelius

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Williams Penillion (1955)
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 (1868)
Sibelius Symphony no. 5 in E flat major Op. 82 (1919)

Jayson Gillham (piano), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Owain Arwel Hughes

Cadogan Hall, London
Tuesday 12 April 2022

Written by Richard Whitehouse. Photos (c) Benjamin Ealovega (Jayson Gillham)

Its high-profile concerts may currently be elsewhere in London, but the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continues its schedule of regular performances at Cadogan Hall, and this evening was heard under the direction of former principal associate conductor Owain Arwel Hughes.

Hughes has rightly featured Welsh music whenever possible, and this programme began with Penillion that Grace Williams wrote for National Youth Orchestra of Wales. Two symphonies aside, several other of Williams’s pieces are inherently symphonic – not least her ‘symphonic poem in four movements’ whose title infers the Welsh tradition of singing against an existing melody. This is heard at its most evocative in the initial Moderato with solo trumpet intoning its (original) theme in the context of ethereal contributions from woodwind, harp, and strings. There follows a tensile Allegro then haunting Andante as ‘scherzo’ and ‘slow movement’ of a piece where the trenchant final Allegro proceeds toward a gently fatalistic close. Certainly, this is music such as warrants frequent hearings – irrespective of the present cultural climate.

Hard to imagine Grieg’s Piano Concerto undergoing a period of neglect, yet familiarity need not breed contempt at the hands of a skilled and sensitive exponent which Australian-British pianist Jayson Gillham assuredly is. After a commanding start the first movement felt unduly sectional in its unfolding, its orchestral tuttis a little overwrought, but the second main theme was limpidly rendered then Gillham came into his own with a cadenza whose developmental aspect was as audible as its virtuosity. With its poetic contributions from solo horn and cello, the Adagio was no less affecting, then the finale’s lyrical middle section threw into relief the combative dialogue either side. Its flute melody returns in a peroration whose grandiloquence found effective contrast with the Notturno in C (Op.54 No 4) that Gillham gave as an encore.

Even if Sibelius’s Second Symphony had been replaced by his Fifth during the run-up to this concert, the latter’s inclusion played no less to the RPO’s collective strengths. Building those earlier stages of the first movement’s intricate evolution patiently and methodically, Hughes amply brought out this music’s epic as well as ruminative qualities on the way to a powerful central climax – from where its scherzo-like continuation headed stealthily and purposefully to a coda that, if it lacked the last degree of visceral impact, generated undeniable dynamism.

The highlight was an Andante enticingly poised between intermezzo and slow movement – its plaintive repartee of not without its more ominous moments, yet whose winsome essence was itself a telling foil to the finale. Here the coursing interplay of strings and enfolding eloquence of its ‘swan theme’, horns magnetically to the fore, set in motion the eventful progress toward an apotheosis whose affirmation was never in doubt. If some of those concluding chords were not quite unanimous, this hardly detracted from the majesty of Sibelius’s overall conception.

A memorable ending, then, to an appealing programme that found the RPO on fine form and confirmed Hughes’s insights. The orchestra returns here next week in a concert of Schumann, Brahms and Dvořák with the violinist Fumiaki Miura and the conductor Domingo Hindoyan.

The inclusion of Penillion was made possible with funding from the ABO Trust’s Sirens programme, a ten-year initiative to support performance and promotion of music by historical women composers. Further information can be found by clicking here For further information on the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2021/22 season, click here Click on the performer names to read more about Jayson Gillham and Owain Arwel Hughes, and for more on Grace Williams click here

In concert – Clare Hammond, CBSO / Michael Seal: Nielsen, Grieg & Sibelius

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clare-hammond-grieg

Nielsen Helios Overture FS32 (1903)
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 (1868)
Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in E minor Op. 39 (1898-9)

Clare Hammond (piano, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Michael Seal

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 9 March 2022 (2.15pm)

Written by Richard Whitehouse

A Scandinavian programme this afternoon from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, featuring music by the three most famous of this region’s composers (so no representation for Sweden), and presided over with his customary authority by CBSO’s associate conductor Michael Seal.

Unusual nowadays to have a programme consisting of overture, concerto and symphony – but Nielsen’s Helios is as fine a curtain-raiser as any, its ‘sunrise to sunset’ scenario captured with one of the most graphic crescendos and diminuendos in the literature. Seal ensured this gradual emergence, and its faster evanescence, were unerringly paced – the horns’ echoing sonorities enfolded into the orchestral texture; and if the intervening intermezzo and fugato rather tread water by comparison, their role within the formal scheme made for a cohesive overall entity.

Whether or not Grieg tired of hearing or at least playing his Piano Concerto, he would surely have appreciated Clare Hammond’s take on its solo part. The inedible opening gesture might have been less than usually arresting, but the opening movement proceeded methodically and often poetically so its structural seams were barely in evidence – culminating in a resourceful account of the cadenza with the composer’s motivic ingenuity much in evidence. Easy to pass off as a bland interlude, the Adagio had an appealing poise that opened into keen pathos at its height. Trenchant rather than impetuous, the outer sections of the finale were rarely less than engaging but it was the warm soulfulness at the centre that really struck home; its return for a triumphal apotheosis did not quite avoid portentousness, but it ensured a decisive conclusion.

A distinctive and, for the most part, convincing performance which Hammond followed with the caressing harmony of the eleventh from Szymanowski’s Op. 33 Etudes – music in marked contrast to the existential drama of Sibelius’s First Symphony which came after the interval.

The latter work’s emergence against a background of fraught self-determination has inevitably taken on far greater resonance during recent weeks, and it was to Seal’s credit that he played down any tendency to overt sentiment – rendering the first movement, its sombre introduction limpidly realized by Oliver Janes, as the striking and frequently innovative study in expressive contrasts it should be. Nor was there any lack of Tchaikovskian pathos in the Andante, whose whimsical passages were as vividly delineated as those eruptive outbursts towards its climax.

The ensuing Scherzo had the right rhythmic tensility and, in its central trio, enticing whimsy – but it was the Finale as set the seal on this performance. The ‘Quasi una fantasia’ marking can result in emotional overkill but Seal kept its prolix follow-through in focus at all times – whether with the anguished recall of the work’s initial theme, surging impetus of its swifter sections, or the heart-on-sleeve immediacy of its ‘big tune’; pervaded by an ambivalence to the fore in a peroration which (almost) avoided histrionics on the way to its fatalistic close.

A fine response from the CBSO, playing here with burnished eloquence and Matthew Hardy making the most of a timpani part that has structural as well as expressive significance. Few having heard it are likely to underestimate this work’s status in Sibelius’s symphonic output.

For more information on the CBSO’s current season, visit their website. Meanwhile for more information on the artists, click on the names to access the websites of Clare Hammond and Michael Seal