BBCSSO, 24/11/2022

Sibelius : Tapiola

Richard Strauss : Four Last Songs (Elizabeth Llewellyn, soprano)

Vaughan Williams : Symphony No. 5

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins

This was a nicely chosen programme, Sibelius and Strauss's last major works, and probably Vaughan Williams's best-known symphony, which was dedicated to Sibelius.  However, while the two latter works have a certain valedictory air to them, the Sibelius does not, and it seems unlikely he would have known at this point that he wasn't going to write any more music of any significance for another 30-odd years.  Brabbins and the orchestra caught the wildness of the piece well, the impression of wind whistling through tree-tops, and the dimness of wan light filtering through heavy foliage.  The brooding intensity of the work came across very effectively, and that uniquely Sibelian sense of other-worldliness, with profound, ineradicable roots in a natural world that is both familiar, and yet quite alien. 

Elizabeth Llewellyn was in glorious voice tonight, singing the Four Last Songs from memory (something one sees less and less from soloists in concert these days) with a deep intimacy and opulent, yet never over-indulgent, tone.  Brabbins put the orchestra entirely at her service, but Strauss always knew how to write for voices in any event, and even when it seemed the orchestra was almost going to overwhelm the voice, it was merely to draw you in.  She remained audible, if sometimes discreetly so, at all times, and the voice, golden and sweet, soared effortlessly at others.  I will be very much looking forward to hearing her Ariadne nexts February.

There was a period, about ten years ago, when I heard several performances of Vaughan Williams's 5th Symphony in quite close succession, and developed a particular image of it that I expected to find repeated in most performances thereafter.  Brabbins confounded those expectations almost from the outset, in both positive and negative ways.  I missed the bells in the first movement, and that hint of the Serenade to Music in the Romanza, but the organ-like sonorities were there, the rich palette of harmonies redolent of church choirs, and the modal, antique colours of stained glass windows.  Tonight, in the last movement, I was strangely reminded, quite strongly, of Gerald Finzi's song "Fear no more the heat o' the sun", from the 1929 cycle Let us Garlands Bring - a Shakespeare text Vaughan Williams had also set to music just a few years earlier.  

The inner movements were not as clearly drawn as the outer ones, the Scherzo in particular seemed a little murky, lacking in rhythmic subtlety, muted and flighty, yet still somewhat earth-bound.  Similarly, the woodwind solos of the Romanza lacked a certain degree of cohesiveness and liquidity.  However, the main impression after the last movement was that, yes, there was peace, and serenity, but it was that of closure, of a saying goodbye to something irrevocably lost, with regret and fondness and a recognition that nothing would ever quite be the same again, but that life must go on.  This was a strong conclusion to an absorbing evening's music-making.

[Next : 25th November]