RSNO, 26/05/2018
Panufnik : Landscapes
Jennifer Higdon : Tuba Concerto (John Whitener, tuba)
Holst : The Planets
Ladies of the RSNO Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Storgårds
I've little experience of Panufnik's music, but what I've heard (usually thanks to the radio) has never discouraged me from continuing to listen, though perhaps not to pursue the issue further. It was the same with tonight's opener, a short piece for string orchestra, describing a semi-imaginary landscape in planes of glassy string sound gently gliding over and under each other to create an open, but melancholy vista. The opening, with the cellos playing way up into the harmonics of the instrument, higher than all the other instruments, is particularly striking.
Similarly, prior to tonight, I knew only one Tuba Concerto, Vaughan Williams's. It's a piece that has never stuck in my memory, and I like Vaughan Williams's music. I'm not sure that Jennifer Higdon's Tuba Concerto will either, though it was an engaging enough piece. Higdon is an American composer, quite prolific, judging from her website, and much performed in the States. The Tuba Concerto is a joint commission for the RSNO, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where Higdon studied and now teaches, and it received its premiere in March of this year. The RSNO's performances in Edinburgh and here in Glasgow marked the European premiere. The concerto conforms to the standard three-movement format, fast-slow-fast, with the outer movements showing that the tuba can be a virtuoso instrument, for all its apparently ponderous nature, zipping around in short, rapid bursts of activity, while the slow movement showcases a more ample, flowing style. The third movement in particular, although short, has a quirky charm well conveyed by the orchestra and soloist, who is the RSNO's own Principal Tuba.
It's been a long time since I last heard The Planets in concert, and it was the main attraction for me of this evening's programme. Alas, save for rare moments, the whole performance never quite connected, and although the orchestral playing was certainly competent enough, and sometimes excellent, it seemed that Storgård simply wasn't providing that extra degree of inspiration that would have ensured an exceptional interpretation. It was clear from the outset that there was something missing; that inexorable, five-in-a-bar beat that hammers throughout "Mars" should seem to overpower your own heartbeat, and it never quite happened. The much gentler pulse of "Venus" took most of the movement to soften into the proper seductive lilt, while both "Mercury" and "Jupiter" were a little leaden-footed. "Jupiter" might seem to require a bit of stomping around, but there's a right way and a wrong way of doing it, and the right way should have your foot tapping, which this did not. The first accelerando into the first theme almost came badly adrift, too.
Storgårds's stolidity finally came into its own with a suitably grave "Saturn", and in the ironic, galumphing rhythm of "Uranus". This movement is the timpanist's chance to show off a bit, and Paul Philbert seized the opportunity with both hands and revelled in it, making this the most successful movement of the Suite as a whole. As the winds had been consistently extremely good throughout, and Storgårds appeared to have finally hit his stride, I had hopes for "Neptune", but there was a serious miscalculation of the hall's acoustics, which meant that the Chorus ladies were virtually inaudible. Holst's directions are that the chorus should be off-stage, and they are required, infamously, to fade out at the end of the movement, a notoriously difficult effect to pull off under any circumstances, but they need to find another solution for this hall, because this was nearly catastrophic, at least from where I was sitting. Storgårds was visibly exhorting them (via a camera) to sing louder, but to little effect, and the distance from the platform and absence of direct line-of-sight, had the inevitably deleterious effects on their pitch. To conclude (if you'll pardon the expression), a less than stellar performance.
[Next : 5th June]
Jennifer Higdon : Tuba Concerto (John Whitener, tuba)
Holst : The Planets
Ladies of the RSNO Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Storgårds
I've little experience of Panufnik's music, but what I've heard (usually thanks to the radio) has never discouraged me from continuing to listen, though perhaps not to pursue the issue further. It was the same with tonight's opener, a short piece for string orchestra, describing a semi-imaginary landscape in planes of glassy string sound gently gliding over and under each other to create an open, but melancholy vista. The opening, with the cellos playing way up into the harmonics of the instrument, higher than all the other instruments, is particularly striking.
Similarly, prior to tonight, I knew only one Tuba Concerto, Vaughan Williams's. It's a piece that has never stuck in my memory, and I like Vaughan Williams's music. I'm not sure that Jennifer Higdon's Tuba Concerto will either, though it was an engaging enough piece. Higdon is an American composer, quite prolific, judging from her website, and much performed in the States. The Tuba Concerto is a joint commission for the RSNO, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where Higdon studied and now teaches, and it received its premiere in March of this year. The RSNO's performances in Edinburgh and here in Glasgow marked the European premiere. The concerto conforms to the standard three-movement format, fast-slow-fast, with the outer movements showing that the tuba can be a virtuoso instrument, for all its apparently ponderous nature, zipping around in short, rapid bursts of activity, while the slow movement showcases a more ample, flowing style. The third movement in particular, although short, has a quirky charm well conveyed by the orchestra and soloist, who is the RSNO's own Principal Tuba.
It's been a long time since I last heard The Planets in concert, and it was the main attraction for me of this evening's programme. Alas, save for rare moments, the whole performance never quite connected, and although the orchestral playing was certainly competent enough, and sometimes excellent, it seemed that Storgård simply wasn't providing that extra degree of inspiration that would have ensured an exceptional interpretation. It was clear from the outset that there was something missing; that inexorable, five-in-a-bar beat that hammers throughout "Mars" should seem to overpower your own heartbeat, and it never quite happened. The much gentler pulse of "Venus" took most of the movement to soften into the proper seductive lilt, while both "Mercury" and "Jupiter" were a little leaden-footed. "Jupiter" might seem to require a bit of stomping around, but there's a right way and a wrong way of doing it, and the right way should have your foot tapping, which this did not. The first accelerando into the first theme almost came badly adrift, too.
Storgårds's stolidity finally came into its own with a suitably grave "Saturn", and in the ironic, galumphing rhythm of "Uranus". This movement is the timpanist's chance to show off a bit, and Paul Philbert seized the opportunity with both hands and revelled in it, making this the most successful movement of the Suite as a whole. As the winds had been consistently extremely good throughout, and Storgårds appeared to have finally hit his stride, I had hopes for "Neptune", but there was a serious miscalculation of the hall's acoustics, which meant that the Chorus ladies were virtually inaudible. Holst's directions are that the chorus should be off-stage, and they are required, infamously, to fade out at the end of the movement, a notoriously difficult effect to pull off under any circumstances, but they need to find another solution for this hall, because this was nearly catastrophic, at least from where I was sitting. Storgårds was visibly exhorting them (via a camera) to sing louder, but to little effect, and the distance from the platform and absence of direct line-of-sight, had the inevitably deleterious effects on their pitch. To conclude (if you'll pardon the expression), a less than stellar performance.
[Next : 5th June]