SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Finzi, Gershwin and Mahler: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton (conductor/piano) Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, England 6.5.2009 (IL)

Finzi: Eclogue
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 

This concert was totally sold out with a large queue waiting for returns, for this was a very special concert to celebrate Andrew Litton’s 25th anniversary as conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The printed programme included a special commemorative feature, written by Andrew, in which he related his experiences with the BSO – often quite hilarious – covering, as he relates, “thousands of miles, hundreds of concerts, fourteen CD’s including a Grammy winner, the first BSO tour west of Penzance, and a wonderful wife later [Andrew Litton’s wife, Jayne, was playing in the violin section of the Orchestra for this concert], the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has been a never-ending source of pride and joy for me”.     

In this concert Litton proved his prowess not only as conductor but as pianist too. The programme opened with Gerald Finzi’s Eclogue which is the slow movement of an abandoned piano concerto; (its first movement was recast as the Grand Fantasia and Toccata.) Litton and the Orchestra delivered a heartfelt reading of this lovely tranquil work. Litton then went on to play and conduct Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue; the orchestra clearly relishing the opportunity to let their hair down; Litton’s solo sections, included some nicely idiosyncratic perky touches; and the Orchestra pulled out all the emotional stops for that big tune.    

As a surprise encore Andrew Litton performed a solo item – Thelonius Monk’s Round Midnight which showed off Litton’s virtuosity and versatility; the music soaring, swooping, twisting like some magic, highly-coloured bird – extraordinary extemporization caught on the wing. 

The main work in the programme was Mahler’s 5th Symphony. Litton’s reading had real bite and attack. It was majestic and powerful if perhaps a little short on joyfulness but exuberant enough. I thought some of the tuttis lacked the punch and clarity that Barbirolli used to bring to this work, I am thinking of that conductor’s celebrated 1969 recording at, for instance, the beginning of the second Stürmisch bewegt movement. But overall this was an excellent performance with outstanding work by the brass, especially the horns, and how moving was the strings’ Adagietto made famous (or infamous?) by its inclusion in the film Death in Venice.   

Ian Lace


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