The BBC Philharmonic plunged into music of
the 21st century on Saturday at the Bridgewater Hall, with Simone Young conducting
and Jonathan Biss their piano soloist.
(It was balanced with Beethoven and Elgar,
but more of that later).
Brett Dean’s Testament, in its 2008 revision for orchestra, was a stimulating
beginning. It’s inspired by Beethoven’s ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’ – the unsent
letter in which he grappled with thoughts of suicide (‘Testament’ in this
context = a will, to be read after one’s death) but resolved to pursue his
calling as a musician in spite of encroaching deafness.
The composer’s description itemizes a
three-stage process of ‘leave-taking, an acceptance and a fresh start’, and
that’s certainly mirrored in the music. It was played with care and
considerable precision, Yuri Torchinsky in the leader’s chair of the Phil.
The other novelty – Sally Beamish’s Piano Concerto no. 3, ‘City Stanzas’ – was
premiered in January this year and written (at Jonathan Biss’s request) explicitly
to ‘partner’ Beethoven’s first piano concerto. Beamish says it was affected by
the political situation in the UK and USA as she composed it last year, and
that it’s ‘darkly sardonic’ in all three movements. I have the impression that
its concept changed as she worked on it, and that the intention to write
something about urban landscapes took on grimmer aspects without completely extinguishing
the more light-hearted aspects which she may have had in mind originally.
Its structure follows that of the Beethoven
concerto, with the marching rhythms of its opening turned quite militaristic
and grotesque, and its ‘second subject’ making a strong and near-lyrical impression,
though with heavy tread. The slow movement’s bleak sound, with gloomy chords
from the piano and lugubrious woodwind solos, is a real lament for something
lost. The finale catches Beethoven’s lightness and wit – a touch of dance band music
included – but ends with a good deal more anger than he put in: a testament to
2016’s politics, I guess.
Jonathan Biss played the solo part with
love and expertise, and the BBC Philharmonic backed him all the way. In the actual
Beethoven Piano concerto no. 1 (which
preceded the Beamish concerto), we had a stylistic mix, with the orchestra’s
beginning in attempts to inject lightness and classical articulation to their
sound but reverting more to their tried-and-tested tutti quality as time went
on. Jonathan Biss was a model of classical decorum, but added telling passion
and drama in the course of the first movement – almost as if a new music was
being invented before our very eyes. The slow movement had a poised solo with
muscular accompaniment.
The concert ended with Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations. The Phil, of
course, can play this with their eyes shut, and the accent in some places was
again on muscularity, with a big finish that brought an enthusiastic reception.
It was in the quieter and gentler movements, however, that their best qualities
came out.
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