RSNO, 04/10/2017
Rihm : Duo Concerto
Brahms : Double Concerto (Mira Wang, violin; Jan Vogler, cello)
Rimmer : Pathway (world premiere)
Beethoven : Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian
This was clearly to be my week for new music. Wolfgang Rihm is probably the foremost contemporary composer in Germany, alongside Aribert Reimann. Although in part a "child" of the Darmstadt-era, his music cannot usually simply be categorised as extreme avant-garde, although there have certainly been many forays in that direction. A very prolific composer, he has written in most genres, from stage to string quartet, from film scores to organ music.
This concerto for violin and cello was commissioned for tonight's soloists, the husband-and-wife partnership of Mira Wang and Jan Vogler, and was first performed in 2015. It begins in a fairly lyrical, gentle mood, the soloists duetting over a quiet haze of sound from the orchestra. The writing for the soloists is quite fusional; rather than a dialogue between the two, they are almost constantly playing together, the lines intertwining constantly and ceaselessly. There is the impression that they are never at rest, even as the music gradually increases in intensity.
It's difficult music to seize on to, its surface is quite aurally slippery, and placing it right next to the Brahms Double did it no great favours, in the comparison of the writing for the two soloists. Where the Rihm creates a kind of single, multi-layered, hybrid soloist, the Brahms is a dialogue, lavishly varied, between two equals. While not entirely rebarbative, the Duo Concerto is not, perhaps, a piece I'd go out of my way to hear again.
The last time I heard the Double Concerto was back in 2013, with this same orchestra, in a sadly soggy performance despite the undeniable quality of the soloists. It was, thankfully, a very different affair this time, richly flavoured and warmly coloured, Wang and Vogler intensely complicit in their playing. The melodic lines threaded in and out of their hands in a seamless flow, like an exhibition match of some intricate, scrupulously balanced game requiring no winners, only that the ball never drops, so you could watch each perfectly positioned shot, and how the ball passed from one side to the other. Behind them, Oundjian and the orchestra provided a luxurious tapestry of warm, autumnal sounds, with only the finale not quite as crisply energetic as I would have liked.
Benjamin Rimmer is a young (24) English composer, and this piece, Pathway, for string orchestra, is a commission from Classic FM, receiving its premiere in this concert. It's very short, but rather attractive, a melodic line with the plangency of a Celtic lament shared amongst the divisi strings that slides gently in and out of phase. From the snippets of other compositions I've found online, it's quite characteristic of Rimmer's work, not quite minimalist, very euphonious, quite ethereal, a bit of Pärt, maybe, a bit of Max Richter, all of it pretty easy on the ear.
Finally, Beethoven's "Pastoral", in a sound reading that perhaps did not develop to the fullest Beethoven's singular inspirations in this work, but which nevertheless breathed harmony and light. Katherine Bryan (flute) and Adrian Wilson (oboe) were particularly mellifluous in the "Szene am Bach", a movement which Oundjian commenced a little rapidly for my liking, but for which he managed to make a persuasive case in the end. Similarly, the "Merry gathering..." was on the decorous side, not enough beer and wine flowing amongst these peasants, but the radiance of the final movement was suitably uplifting.
[Next : 9th October]
Brahms : Double Concerto (Mira Wang, violin; Jan Vogler, cello)
Rimmer : Pathway (world premiere)
Beethoven : Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian
This was clearly to be my week for new music. Wolfgang Rihm is probably the foremost contemporary composer in Germany, alongside Aribert Reimann. Although in part a "child" of the Darmstadt-era, his music cannot usually simply be categorised as extreme avant-garde, although there have certainly been many forays in that direction. A very prolific composer, he has written in most genres, from stage to string quartet, from film scores to organ music.
This concerto for violin and cello was commissioned for tonight's soloists, the husband-and-wife partnership of Mira Wang and Jan Vogler, and was first performed in 2015. It begins in a fairly lyrical, gentle mood, the soloists duetting over a quiet haze of sound from the orchestra. The writing for the soloists is quite fusional; rather than a dialogue between the two, they are almost constantly playing together, the lines intertwining constantly and ceaselessly. There is the impression that they are never at rest, even as the music gradually increases in intensity.
It's difficult music to seize on to, its surface is quite aurally slippery, and placing it right next to the Brahms Double did it no great favours, in the comparison of the writing for the two soloists. Where the Rihm creates a kind of single, multi-layered, hybrid soloist, the Brahms is a dialogue, lavishly varied, between two equals. While not entirely rebarbative, the Duo Concerto is not, perhaps, a piece I'd go out of my way to hear again.
The last time I heard the Double Concerto was back in 2013, with this same orchestra, in a sadly soggy performance despite the undeniable quality of the soloists. It was, thankfully, a very different affair this time, richly flavoured and warmly coloured, Wang and Vogler intensely complicit in their playing. The melodic lines threaded in and out of their hands in a seamless flow, like an exhibition match of some intricate, scrupulously balanced game requiring no winners, only that the ball never drops, so you could watch each perfectly positioned shot, and how the ball passed from one side to the other. Behind them, Oundjian and the orchestra provided a luxurious tapestry of warm, autumnal sounds, with only the finale not quite as crisply energetic as I would have liked.
Benjamin Rimmer is a young (24) English composer, and this piece, Pathway, for string orchestra, is a commission from Classic FM, receiving its premiere in this concert. It's very short, but rather attractive, a melodic line with the plangency of a Celtic lament shared amongst the divisi strings that slides gently in and out of phase. From the snippets of other compositions I've found online, it's quite characteristic of Rimmer's work, not quite minimalist, very euphonious, quite ethereal, a bit of Pärt, maybe, a bit of Max Richter, all of it pretty easy on the ear.
Finally, Beethoven's "Pastoral", in a sound reading that perhaps did not develop to the fullest Beethoven's singular inspirations in this work, but which nevertheless breathed harmony and light. Katherine Bryan (flute) and Adrian Wilson (oboe) were particularly mellifluous in the "Szene am Bach", a movement which Oundjian commenced a little rapidly for my liking, but for which he managed to make a persuasive case in the end. Similarly, the "Merry gathering..." was on the decorous side, not enough beer and wine flowing amongst these peasants, but the radiance of the final movement was suitably uplifting.
[Next : 9th October]