SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Bax, Mozart, Debussy, Roussel, Watkins and Ravel: Sally Pryce Ensemble (Sally Pryce (harp), Adam Walker (flute), Sarah Williamson (clarinet), Elizabeth Cooney (violin), Tom Hankey (violin), Reiad Chibah (viola), Gemma Rosefield (cello)) Wigmore Hall, London, 3.3.2008 (BB)

Arnold Bax: Harp Quintet (1919)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartet in D, K285 (1777)
Claude Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane (1904)
Albert Roussel: Serenade, op.30 (1925)
Huw Watkins: Gig (2005)
Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro (1905)


What a fine, young, group of players Sally Pryce brought together for this concert, which was part of the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) Chamber Festival. And what a varied programme.

Bax’s Quintet is an elegiac and passionate work (not at all sorrowful as the programme notes told us) in his best manner. Real chamber music this, no one instrument taking the lead, and the harp fully integrated into the ensemble. In one movement, it’s a kind of extended sonata form-cum-fantasy (of the very English kind demanded by Cobbett for his composition prize) which musically comes full circle. There were some slight problems of balance in the louder music due to the very thick textures of the string writing when the poor harp disappeared into the ensemble instead of being allowed to point the highlights of the music as it so often should.

Mozart’s Flute Quartet was a strange bedfellow in this rarified atmosphere of late romanticism – Vagn Holmboe’s Quartet would have been a much better choice for the programme - but it was well enough played if with a slightly heavy hand and a lack of subtlety; it was all too loud.

Debussy’s two Danses are very special pieces. Full of restraint, and filled with a chaste nature (there’s nothing Spanish about this work despite what the programme book told us) akin to the perfectly smooth, cool, surfaces of marble sculptures until the music blossoms into the most beautiful, and succinct, of all Debussy’s climaxes before literally snuffing itself out. Here the five players really came into their own, feeling the light and shade of the piece to perfection and bringing out the muted quality of much of the music. Such was the power, insight and commitment of the musicians that it was hard to believe that we were only listening to a string quartet, and not a full string body, supporting the harp. An excellent and most satisfying performance.

After the interval we were treated to some delightful neo-classical chattering in Roussel’s Serenade, again real chamber music for a mixed ensemble with no star parts. The players made the most of this and the delightful chatter of the outer movements was tempered by the rapt intensity of the slow middle movement.

Then came the new work. Huw Watkins’s piece was splendidly laid out for the full ensemble in one movement falling into two sections. The first half was fast and well motivated, always moving forwards with a fine sense of purpose, knowing where it was going and building to a rewarding climax. It was followed by slower, more reflective, and very beautiful, music which again built to a large climax, which I felt to be unnecessary as it broke the reverie Watkins had so carefully created and the serenity was lost. Likewise the rhetorical ending left one unsatisfied; this is a perfectly formed composition with a real sense of purpose which deserves to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. But full marks for creating a generally very rewarding and rounded composition. I look forward to hearing this again.

The evening ended with Ravel’s superb Introduction and Allegro. Although written at the same time as Debussy’s Danses this couldn’t be a more different piece. Despite the cool opening, this music is extrovert and fantastic, truly virtuosic and a sheer joy. It brought the house down.

The Ensemble took a little time to warm up and get the feel of a quite full hall, but once the players had settled down the music making was of the highest order and we were treated to something very special, despite the lack of a true pianissimo.

Bob Briggs

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