BBCSSO (live stream), 19/05/2021

Enesco : Suite No. 1 - Prélude à l'unisson

Berkeley : Serenade for Strings

Vaughan Williams : On Wenlock Edge (Benjamin Hulett, tenor)

Ravel : Ma mère l'Oye 

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

John Wilson

There's much of Enescu's music I have yet to discover, he's not widely performed in this country outside of the 1st Romanian Rhapsody, despite his importance as a composer, performer and teacher.  The concert tonight was prefaced by the first movement of his Orchestral Suite No. 1.  First performed in 1903, and dedicated to Saint-Saëns, the first movement played here is an extraordinary monody, the strings playing entirely in unison, with some timpani underscoring at the end, in a plaintive, monodic song of considerable intensity, admirably conveyed by the orchestra.

Sir Lennox Berkeley's work now tends to be rather overshadowed by those of Britten and Tippett, more or less his contemporaries.  Berkeley went to Paris for his music studies, working primarily under Nadia Boulanger, but also, like Vaughan Williams, with Ravel for a period, and associating with, amongst others, the members of Les Six.  As a result, at least until the mid-50s, he might be viewed as an English adjunct of Les Six, with a similar lightness of touch.  The Serenade for Strings is one of his best-known pieces, and the work that perhaps first put him on Britain's musical map when it was premiered in 1940.  It is a four-movement work that starts gaily enough, but ends in melancholy, with a recall of the very beginning sounding like a forlorn ghost.  The string writing is elegant and fluid, and was expressively delivered.

The last time I heard On Wenlock Edge was with this same orchestra, almost exactly two years ago.  Once again, the orchestra delivered beautifully in terms of colour and atmosphere, Wilson exploring the Impressionistic aspects to the full, particularly in the blowing winds of the first song, and the summer haze of the opening of "Bredon Hill".  However, once again, I had problems with the soloist.  I've always liked what I've heard of Benjamin Hulett, it's a good quality, characteristcally 'English' tenor voice, without the bleating edge that can mar this particular type, and he was very clear with the text, which is all-important.  However, I felt that the performance was muted, and slightly lacking in descriptiveness.  This was most apparent in "Is my team ploughing", where the distinction between the two voices, that of the dead and of the living, was virtually non-existent. I was also disappointed by "Oh, when I was in love with you", which was singularly devoid of humour, at least vocally, though the orchestra was quirky enough.

There is a major revision of Ravel's oeuvre in progress, and tonight was, apparently, the world premiere of a brand-new edition of the complete "Mother Goose" ballet score.  I have to admit that I only really noticed some differences just on either side of the "Laideronette" movement, and they were not particularly shocking, but I'm happy to take the conductor's word for it that what was played tonight was closer to what Ravel originally intended than has been habitual in the past.  At any rate, the performance was lovely, poetic and descriptive, delicately coloured but full-blooded, and absorbing from start to finish.  This is Ravel the master-orchestrator in all his glory, subtle and fascinating, and tonight's performers revelled in it without ever tipping into over-indulgence, and a fine conclusion to a very-well crafted and delivered programme.