SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Finzi, Vaughan Williams: Robert Cohen (cello), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul Daniel Cadogan Hall, London, 1.4.2008 (BB)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
Gerald Finzi: Cello Concerto, op.40 (1951/1955)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.5 in D (1938/1943)


Whatever way you care to look at it, Gerald Finzi’s Cello Concerto is very difficult to place. Even if you knew everything else he wrote, from Dies Natalis and the glorious Hardy songs with piano through the magnificent setting of Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality to the well tempered and good humoured Clarinet Concerto and the superb Grand Fantasia and Toccata, nothing could prepare you for the emotional kick in the solar plexus that is his Cello Concerto.

The slow, middle, movement was completed in 1951 shortly after he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of leukaemia, which was to kill him a mere five years later, and although work on the piece was continued whilst he underwent radiotherapy, it was only a commission from Barbirolli, for a major work for the 1955 Cheltenham Festival, that spurred him to complete the piece. It was premièred at the Festival by Christopher Bunting (whom Finzi had consulted on the solo part) and was repeated in London the following March.

At the pre-concert talk conductor Paul Daniel mused that the work was “incomplete”, suggesting that Finzi hadn’t left insufficient information for some things, such as dynamic and crescendo/diminuendo markings etc. I cannot accept this;  for the work is an obviously finished piece, all it requires is the insight and intelligence of the performers, and both Robert Cohen and Paul Daniel displayed these to the full.

The first movement is long, dark and brooding: a very serious and a disturbing listen. This is probably the most overtly passionate of all Finzi’s works, but despite the turbulent atmosphere this is not music of mourning – Finzi was too great an artist to allow his condition to take control of his work – and it must be seen as a celebration of life and love in all its forms. The argument is carried by both soloist and orchestra and, after a cadenza for the soloist, the music is suddenly snuffed out with a loud stroke on the gong and trills in the strings. The slow movement brings us nearer to the Finzi we know, an elegant theme for strings, with bassoon, brings us a pastoral landscape, oboe, horn, flutes, Arcadia. Disruptive elements briefly disturb the flow of the idyll and a big climax crosses the scene, but it’s the idyll we are left with, perhaps tinged with a little sadness but never with resignation. The finale is a buoyant dance with a catchy main theme and the various episodes which separate the restatements of this tune keep up the high spirits. At the end a big brass statement of the theme is followed by the headlong rush to the spirited conclusion.

Robert Cohen was a magnificent soloist, and a very persuasive advocate for this demanding work; he played it as if he’s been playing it all his life. His interpretation of the lyrical music – and there is a lot of it in this work – brought out the songlike quality of Finzi’s ideas, and if there’s one thing Finzi’s music does do, it sings.

The evening started with a glowing performance of VW’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The massed string sound was full and rich and Daniel was especially aware of what was going on in the middle textures; so much so that I heard things I had never heard before! A splendid and truly committed performance which was a revelation.

VW’s 5^th Symphony, surely one of the finest British Symphonies of the first half of the 20^th century, only slightly missed the mystical qualities of the performance of the Fantasia. Daniel got to the heart of the music, capping the performance with a radiant slow movement of deep understanding and love. It was only at the very end, where the violins fall over each other as they climb higher and higher to reach that final, incandescent, chord of D major, that Daniel failed to fully realise the transcendental quality of the music.

But this must not worry us unduly. Daniel directed a performance which was very well thought out and was superbly played by the RPO, giving of their very best.

Bob Briggs

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