Manchester Evening News review 23 October 2015

HALLE ORCHESTRA   Bridgewater Hall

 

THIS was one of the highlights of the Hallé Thursday concert series so far. Ryan Wigglesworth made his debut as the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, and had the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s piano concerto to offer, among other things.

It wasn’t the conductor’s first time with the Hallé altogether – far from it. He’s worked with them for several years on recordings and concerts, and the announcement of his new job was made some time ago.

But each time we see him at work it seems there’s more to his gifting than you could reasonably expect from one man. The butcher’s son from Sheffield is a solo pianist and composer as well, for one thing. This time he was letting Marc-André Hamelin, the Canadian for whom the concerto was written by Turnage, do the ivory-tickling.

It’s a very attractive piece. There are three movements – fast, slow, fast, in traditional style – and Turnage’s ability to vary and develop simple motifs as the music goes along, in an immediately clear and accessible way, is obvious in both the outer ones.

He brings in styles from jazz and swing traditions, too, with ‘stride’ writing for both piano and orchestra, and there is constant variety, like a fast-cut film. Some of the elements he uses, such as the principal rhythmic phrase of the last movement (which seemed to me reminiscent of one Bernstein used in West Side Story), are repeated to the point of being obsessive.

But the central slow movement, titled in tribute to composer Hans Werner Henze, to whose memory the whole concerto is dedicated, is deeply felt and haunting, with the piano’s long lullaby song, the sound of distant bells, and an unresolved cadential chord left hanging in the air.

The concert began with Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ symphony, no. 35, played in lively style by the Hallé under Lyn Fletcher’s leadership. The middle movements were stately, like an elderly but still gracious lady making her way across uneven ground, reflecting their socially decorous origins – but the finale fizzed.

Last was Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring, 102 years old but still more able to shock than many of today’s experimentalists. Wigglesworth piloted the Hallé through an incisive performance, careful to grade the levels of intensity and deliver the coup de grace with some deftness.

 

****

 

Robert Beale