SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

George Benjamin:

 

Piano Figures (2004)
Viola, Viola (1997) performed with Duet, Duet
At First Light (1982)
A Mind of Winter (1981)
Palimpsests (1999 - 2002)
 

Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble
Paul Silverthorne -- viola
Eniko Magyar - viola
Claire Booth -- soprano
Matthias Sperling -- choreographer and dancer
Rachel Krische - dance collaborator

 

George Benjamin’s own music (not to mention his conducting) was for me one of the great discoveries of the recent Messiaen anniversary year. This performance with the London Sinfonietta to celebrate his 50th birthday showcased him variously performing and conducting a programme devoted exclusively to his own work and spanning compositions from 1981 to 2004. The opening work was a series of solo piano miniatures performed by the composer himself. His characteristic exquisite sound quality was brought to these simple and economical pieces, as was also his characteristic sudden change of tempo and volume.

The highlight of the evening in many ways was Viola, Viola a most unusual duet for two violas created originally for Yuri Bashmet and Nobuko Imai, and here performed by the virtuoso soloist Paul Silverthorne, London Sinfonietta's principal viola, and the rising star Eniko Magyar. The work has a sparse, pared down simplicity, with the instruments sometimes very close, separating and then coming back together but somehow managing even when their lines are independent, to make a whole that remains harmonious and sonorous. The combination of Benjamin's conducting and Silverthorne's playing brought back to mind another memorable evening from the Messiaen year, with these same musicians with Silverthorne as the viola soloist in Gerard Grisey's Espace Acoustique. Although that is a much larger scale work, its opening section for solo viola has a similar quality to this duet. The South Bank Centre had commissioned contemporary dance to accompany the musical performance of this work. This is an art form which I personally enjoy, but although I liked both the choreography and the performance of the dancing, the effects of combining the two was to create a split stage, and I found it hard to give full and due attention to both the music and the dance.

I am looking forward to being able to watch the dance again as there will be an embedded video of this on Radio Three's website. However, I suspect I would not have been the only music lover whose primary desire was to give as much attention as possible to the playing of Paul Silverthorne, as he is such a delight to watch. His interaction as a performer with his colleague in Nikko Magyar was dynamic and interesting in itself. This was inevitably a rival attraction for the viewer or audience member to the interactions between the pair of dancers. If the intention was to enhance the music, such embellishment was not necessary and whilst the word "distracting" is not entirely fair, the division of attention was perhaps at odds with the meditative quality of the music which tends to take the listener's attention inwards rather than outwards.

The other work which particularly stood out for me was the earliest of Benjamin's pieces on this programme, A Mind of Winter (1981), a setting for soprano accompanied by strings and woodwind of Wallace Stevens' poem, The Snowman. This atmospheric and seasonal work featured Claire Booth in a very pleasing performance in the solo role, her strong rapport with both conductor and orchestra were readily visible. The London Sinfonietta Wood joined by young musicians of the Royal Academy Manson ensemble to create an enlarged group but one which was impressively well integrated. The New England poet Stevens, a contemporary of Eliot and Pound, is a continuing source of inspiration for Bejamin, his poetry also played a pivotal creative part in the significant subsequent work Sudden Time (1989 to 1993).

Between these two works and closing the first half of the concert was a work from 1982, At First light, a longer work in three movements inspired by the breaking of the day which showcased Benjamin's admirably precise conducting style and in which the oboist Gareth Hulse particularly excelled. The performance closed with one of Benjamin's best known pieces, Palimpsests, giving the audience to see his considerable skill with larger forces, as well as with a more miniature canvas.

This performance will be broadcast as Hear and Now on 13 February,Viola Viola is on video on Radio Three's website. George Benjamin will be a special guest at this year's Aldeburgh festival, where collaboration with his close friend and collaborator Aimard can be warmly anticipated. His opera Into the Little Hill is being revived by the London Sinfonietta with Claire Booth, this will be performed in London and tour to Buxton as well as Aldeburgh. There is plenty of opportunity to hear his interesting work in this anniversary year.

Julie Williams

Back to Top                                                   Cumulative Index Page