Prom 4: Debussy, Colin Matthews, Sibelius Richard Watkins (horn)  Halle Orchestra, conductor Mark Elder, Royal Albert Hall London, 17. 07.2006 (JW)

 

Debussy   La Mer
Colin Matthews Horn Concerto

Sibelius Symphony No1 in E minor

The Halle often give excellent performances, particularly in their native Bridgewater Hall, but this was not one of them.

 

A delicate and precise approach to Debussy’s ‘La Mer’, whilst interesting in itself, produced a rather thin sound which did not fill this large and demanding venue sufficiently. The best moments were in the second movement, where the brass  players deserve particular mention.  Those used to a more lush and rounded approach in this well known work might have been disappointed, but the reading here was not without merit and would be likely to work rather better in a smaller venue with a crisper acoustic.

 

The Sibelius symphony, taken at a brisk pace,  sometimes urgent, fared better in this regard, and was well received. At times it was unrelentingly strident, although the second movement showed  some of the sensitivity which had marked the approach to the Debussy. The brass section were good in both these works, as was the flute, particularly in the Sibelius.

 

The symphony marks a bridge between Sibelius' early success with tone poems and  his development of the symphony throughout his cycle of seven. The programming in this concert neatly contrasted the symphony of a composer well known for tone poems with a tone poem by another composer ostensibly averse to the symphonic form. This was a conceptually interesting point, and the concert had plenty of intellectual challenge, although perhaps rather less immediate appeal for the listener seeking relaxation on an exceptionally hot and oppressive summer night.

 

Colin Matthews, who celebrates his 60^th birthday this year, is receiving considerable attention in this anniversary year and this was his first appearance at this year’s Proms. (He is also featured in Proms 5 and  28). The Horn Concerto was written between 1997 and 2001 and this was its first performance at the Proms, in the presence of the composer and with its dedicatee as the soloist.  The concerto is a single movement of about 23 minutes, with the orchestral horns positioned offstage throughout. This makes it a compact work, and its nature is to seem deliberately understated.

 

The concerto shares a connection with ‘La Mer’ (a work depicting the hours of darkness giving way to sunrise and daylight), in having a nocturnal theme. The orchestral forces are also somewhat unusual; the second flautist plays an alto flute, trumpets are replaced by flugelhorns and the orchestral horns are placed offstage in various positions as the work develops.

 

The music starts off-stage before being taken up by the onstage orchestra, with the soloist and the conductor entering later, unobtrusively and without ostentation. The soloist performs from the side rather than from the usual central position and conducts a dialogue with the orchestral brass, interspersed with muted high strings and unsettled pivotal passages. A harp is also prominent. About fifteen minutes into the work, an extended horn solo is accompanied mainly by percussion and the soloist finally moves to the central position of the stage to play with the low strings. As the work ends, the conductor leaves much as he entered, with the music fading out gently in his absence

 

The sound world of this concerto is in many ways typical of Matthews but it is a more mellow and accessible work than , say, the String Quartet performed at Aldeburgh earlier this year. The extensive use of off-stage performers may or may not appeal to all listeners. 

 

 

 

 

 

J Williams