Music review: BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow
BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow ****
Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra opens wistfully before changing gear with a Hindemith-like pragmatism offset by Barber’s fondness for fresh-faced lyrical lines. The textures conjured up in this performance captured that intoxicating ambivalence.
Britten’s Violin Concerto dates from his short stay in America around 1940, and besides the consequent musical freedom and stylistic experimentation evident in its three movements are significant influences from the likes of Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
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Hide AdWith the unshakeable James Ehnes as soloist, this performance combined pinpoint accuracy with searing musicality, from the solo timpani’s dark opening gambit (so like Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in concept) to the perkiness of the scherzo and the intellectual thrill of the closing passacaglia with its folksy infusions. Ehnes’ solo Bach encore, yet again, revealed the Canadian’s supreme and polished artistry.
Then The Planets, which straight away conveyed the juiciness of Holst’s glorious technicolour scoring, rich in nuance and rhythmically seething. Occasionally, Feddeck fell into the trap of over-encouraging the brass and other general issues of balance sneaked in. The offstage female singers of Les Sirènes added a rich seraphic cream to the final moments. A pity that the hall door, acting as a swell box, creaked so noisily in the process.
KEN WALTON