BBCSSO, 14/11/2024

Sibelius : Scènes historiques - Suite No. 2

Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Tom Borrow, piano)

Tchaikovsky : The Sleeping Beauty - excerpts

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder

The two suites of Scènes historiques were premiered close together, in 1911 and 1912, but unlike the 1st, which was arrangements of pieces originally written just before the turn of the century, the 2nd consisted of new music.  For all that, I found myself hearing the traces of Tchaikovsky that can be perceived in his early orchestral works, though there's no question that it's Sibelius.  The first piece is entitled "La Chasse",  but there's not much of a hunting feel to it.  The "Love Song" is tender, but a little sad, while "At the Drawbridge" starts out as something like a cross between a serenade, with its jaunty tune over plucked strings, and a village dance, but it too ends in darkness.  These were good, characterful performances of minor examples of Sibelius's art.

24-year old Tom Borrow was very much the star of the show in Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto. Written - or rather, recomposed - in 1924, it is one of the most demanding concertos in the entire repertory.  The pianist barely stops playing for any length of time, and when he is playing, it's in fistfuls of notes and cascades of scales, a blindingly virtuosic display that even the creator himself found taxing.  Most of Prokofiev's lyricism goes into the first movement, which had a splendid sweep, and by the time Borrow had finished the long cadenza, I had pretty much forgotten the orchestra was supposed to be a part of the proceedings as well.  The scherzo was a brief, dizzying perpetuum mobile, while the remaining two movements have a mechanistic brutality to them, ceding right at the end to a reminiscence, though not a recall, of the lyricism of the first movement.  I wouldn't venture to say Borrow gave a faultless performance; frankly, I don't think it's possible, in live performance, but he certainly gave a persuasive and highly impressive one, ably seconded by orchestra and conductor.

To close the concert, Sir Mark Elder had put together a suite of his own concoction drawn from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty.  There is an official suite by Tchaikovsky's hand, very well known, but apart from the Introduction and the Garland Waltz, Elder has looked elsewhere in Tchaikovsky's rich score for his content.  It got off to a slightly shaky start, with a rather ragged start to the accompanying strings for the Lilac Fairy music in the Introduction, and what I thought was a very slow tempo for the Six Fairys' Adagio (No. 3a), which also lost its "Petit allegro" conclusion in favour of a direct segue to the Garland Waltz.  That, however, was roundly delivered, and the tempi were fine thereafter.  Another cut I thought a little brutal was to the end of Aurora's Variation (No. 8c) which deprived leader Kaneko Ito of the end of her otherwise excellent solo, and led somewhat clunkily into the Finale of Act 1.  However, it was good to hear the entirety of that number, especially including the glorious Casting of the Spell that puts the court to sleep along with the princess, and conceals the castle in its forest of thorns.  

Elder then chose to dive straight into the Act 3 festivities, with a splendidly swaggering Polonaise, and some delightfully sweet-toned duetting of Matthew Higham (flute) and Yann Ghiro (clarinet) for the Bluebird pas de deux.  Of course, one could hardly have a Sleeping Beauty round-up without Aurora and her Prince, but instead of the Wedding pas de deux, Elder chose the Vision one from Act 2, and a very fine cello solo from Rudi de Groote.  We returned to Act 3 for the Entrance of the act's second pas de quatre (No. 23a, traditionally assigned to the Jewel Fairies, but that can vary enormously), this one delivered in a nicely urgent pace, which dancers would probably protest vigorously, but which made very enjoyable listening in concert.  Finally, rather than the admittedly pompous Apotheosis of Act 3, Elder chose to round things off with the Act 2 Finale, the Awakening, much more exhilarating with its exuberant fanfares.  

Anyone reading these pages of mine will know how much I love this score, and hearing bits of it like this, sometimes unceremoniously truncated, and certainly in disorder, it feels a little like the 'bleeding chunks' of Wagner of which Tovey complained.  On the other hand, it's just good to hear some of the music you never normally do outside of a fully staged performance, because this is a gem of a score by any standards, and it was clear from the performance that Elder thinks so too.

[Next: 15th November]