BBCSSO, 12/12/2019
Britten : Sinfonia da Requiem
Stravinsky : Dumbarton Oaks
Prokofiev : Romeo and Juliet - excerpts
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Alpesh Chauhan
It's not just the compositional period that links these three pieces, though all three were written in the '30s. It's the element of dance, too, for they have all been choreographed, the Britten more than once. That, in fact, was how I came to know the Sinfonia da Requiem. I had thought myself to be fairly well acquainted with Britten's music - his operas in particular, of course - when I arrived at the theatre one evening, just getting to my seat as the lights went down, so unable to consult the hastily bought programme. I barely recall the actual ballet - though I'm pretty certain, in retrospect, that it was Jirí Kylián's Forgotten Lands - but I remember being transfixed by the music. The thing was that it's early Britten, and at the time, I hadn't realised how much there was, and how important some of it is. As this programme made abundantly clear, the influences show - the resemblances between Sinfonia and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, when you hear the music side-by-side like this, are really striking, just as there is at least one movement of Britten's Violin Concerto that is very easily mistaken for Prokofiev. Alpesh Chauhan and the orchestra were almost relishing this cry of pain and protest, written in 1939 both as a memorial to his mother, and in the shadow of the looming war.
The Britten requires substantial forces, 80% of which melted away to leave just fifteen players for Stravinsky's take on the concerto grosso, and more specifically on Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. This too, like much of Stravinsky, has been choreographed, by Jerome Robbins for the New York City Ballet, and like much of the Baroque music to which Stravinsky was paying homage, the dance rhythms are clear and sprightly. That said, this was a rather low-key performance, almost wan after the force of the Britten, clean, polite, and rather too bland, lacking Stravinsky's distinctive piquancy.
After the interval, the platform filled once again, with a disposition quite similar to the Britten, for an hour's worth of extracts from Prokofiev's 1935 ballet Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev, as he frequently did with his stage works, had created orchestral suites for concert performance, three of them, in fact, but Chauhan preferred to make his own selection from the complete score, played in chronological order and giving a perfectly clear image of the story. The orchestra bloomed into life again, with committed, passionate playing, urged ever onwards by Chauhan, who is an unusually graphic conductor, sculpting the music with arms and hands. Good, rich sounds from the brass (one or two odd squawks, but forgivable), particularly telling in the Death of Tybalt, and a fine, lyrical sweep from all sections of strings, as well as judiciously chosen tempi and a clear narrative line made this a fine summary of the tale, with playing of a quality that one wishes could always be heard from the orchestra pit of actual ballet performances.
[Next : 13th December]
Stravinsky : Dumbarton Oaks
Prokofiev : Romeo and Juliet - excerpts
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Alpesh Chauhan
It's not just the compositional period that links these three pieces, though all three were written in the '30s. It's the element of dance, too, for they have all been choreographed, the Britten more than once. That, in fact, was how I came to know the Sinfonia da Requiem. I had thought myself to be fairly well acquainted with Britten's music - his operas in particular, of course - when I arrived at the theatre one evening, just getting to my seat as the lights went down, so unable to consult the hastily bought programme. I barely recall the actual ballet - though I'm pretty certain, in retrospect, that it was Jirí Kylián's Forgotten Lands - but I remember being transfixed by the music. The thing was that it's early Britten, and at the time, I hadn't realised how much there was, and how important some of it is. As this programme made abundantly clear, the influences show - the resemblances between Sinfonia and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, when you hear the music side-by-side like this, are really striking, just as there is at least one movement of Britten's Violin Concerto that is very easily mistaken for Prokofiev. Alpesh Chauhan and the orchestra were almost relishing this cry of pain and protest, written in 1939 both as a memorial to his mother, and in the shadow of the looming war.
The Britten requires substantial forces, 80% of which melted away to leave just fifteen players for Stravinsky's take on the concerto grosso, and more specifically on Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. This too, like much of Stravinsky, has been choreographed, by Jerome Robbins for the New York City Ballet, and like much of the Baroque music to which Stravinsky was paying homage, the dance rhythms are clear and sprightly. That said, this was a rather low-key performance, almost wan after the force of the Britten, clean, polite, and rather too bland, lacking Stravinsky's distinctive piquancy.
After the interval, the platform filled once again, with a disposition quite similar to the Britten, for an hour's worth of extracts from Prokofiev's 1935 ballet Romeo and Juliet. Prokofiev, as he frequently did with his stage works, had created orchestral suites for concert performance, three of them, in fact, but Chauhan preferred to make his own selection from the complete score, played in chronological order and giving a perfectly clear image of the story. The orchestra bloomed into life again, with committed, passionate playing, urged ever onwards by Chauhan, who is an unusually graphic conductor, sculpting the music with arms and hands. Good, rich sounds from the brass (one or two odd squawks, but forgivable), particularly telling in the Death of Tybalt, and a fine, lyrical sweep from all sections of strings, as well as judiciously chosen tempi and a clear narrative line made this a fine summary of the tale, with playing of a quality that one wishes could always be heard from the orchestra pit of actual ballet performances.
[Next : 13th December]