SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Stravinsky: Symphony in C
James MacMillan: Violin Concerto (premiere)
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout for this evening’s LSO concert, but what could have attracted the almost sell-out crowd? The two Stravinsky symphonies? Unlikely. A James MacMillan premiere? Surely not. Vadim Repin? A possibility. Undaunted Gergiev-mania? Who’s to say?

Those who had come to hear the soloist are likely to have been the most satisfied. You expect the very best from Repin, and he delivered in spades. MacMillan’s new Violin Concerto is a mixed affair, clearly the product of a major talent, but confused and unfocussed in its artistic intent. And the LSO were on mediocre form at best, an unusual state of affairs, given their justified reputation as an ensemble who can be relied on to maintain their top form.

There were a number of unfamiliar faces among the ranks, deps presumably or possibly auditionees, but it would be unfair to blame all the ensemble and intonation problems on them. It was a long concert – a prelude, a concerto and two symphonies – and it could have done with being cut by at least one work. I suspect that the rehearsal time had been cut by at least that, if not more.

Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi was a stilted, awkward affair. The solo flute made a good job of the opening, all rustic, woody tones, but it deteriorated as soon as the orchestra entered, the ensemble in the strings being particularly poor. Gergiev did his best to be poetic, pulling the phrases around and giving generous caesuras for repose. But nothing really gelled, and countless moments of potential beauty were lost.

The Symphony in C was a similar case. Stravinsky didn’t like orchestral musicians very much, and you get the impression that many of the counterintuitive ensembles and needlessly jarring syncopations are only there to catch them out. Sadly, it managed this evening far too often. Gergiev is known to be a champion of Stravinsky’s symphonies, I recall a performance of the Symphony in Three Movements about this time last year that was a real triumph, so what went wrong here? There was drama aplenty, and Gergiev can always be relied upon to knock the starch out of Stravinsky’s neoclassical formality. But he also usually maintains absolute precision in all that essential detail, which this evening was sadly lacking.

After listening to thirty seconds of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto, it suddenly became apparent what had happened to all the rehearsal time that Debussy and Stravinsky had been deprived. MacMillan is a master orchestrator, unlike Stravinsky he is a composer who likes orchestral musicians and strives to show them at their best. So everybody had something to do, and everybody made a magnificent job of it. This is the sound the LSO are famous for, and for the short(ish) duration of this new work they shone.

The concerto is in three movements entitled dance, song and ‘song and dance’ respectively. The first movement is the strongest. It begins with a crack of the whip (one of the many percussion instruments used) and the violin lands running, with a fascinating, weaving virtuoso line that runs for almost the whole movement. It put me in mind of Thomas Ades’ recent Violin Concerto in its sheer energy and its ability to spin virtuosic violin lines without resorting to tried and tested rhetoric. But from the start of the second movement the work entered terminal decline, at least to my ear. Most of the movement is based on interactions between the woodwind and the soloist which, while clearly based on lyrical lines, strenuously avoid the status of melodies. But what really got me were the two ‘folk’ interludes. On the first occasion, the violin transforms into a folk fiddle for a brief solo air, and in the second, the piccolo becomes a fife and plays a reel or jig or something over an arpeggiated piano accompaniment. I have to confess a personal allergy to Celtic ‘whimsy’ and really resented each of these plunges, whoever brief, into Riverdance territory. Both were fairly quiet, but fortunately loud enough to cover the sound of my teeth grinding.

The finale is a confused affair, with all manner of ideas and concepts thrown in. It begins with the members of the orchestras counting in German, for reasons that never become apparent, before continuing with a range seemingly unconnected styles and ideas. As I say, James MacMillan is a virtuoso orchestrator, and every texture is based a clear understanding of what the orchestra can do and how he can achieve his aim. But how to explain the Looney Tunes tomfoolery in the brass, or the random solos from the back desks of the strings? Irony perhaps? Or perhaps not.

A great performance though from Vadim Repin (who curiously is a dead ringer for James MacMillan). The security of his technique is incredible, and there was nothing that MacMillan could throw at him that he was unable to make look easy. And I love that strident ‘virtuoso’ tone. That’s not to say his sound is unduly penetrating or monotonous, but it always commands and carries across the top of any orchestral texture.

The London Symphony Chorus waited patiently at the back of the stage throughout the first half, and in the second became the main attraction. The Symphony of Psalms is a tough sing, particularly with the double fugue in the second movement and the long, arching phrases in the third, but they made a good job of it. Gergiev erred on the slow side in almost every passage, which must have made things even harder on the choir. The orchestra returned to their mixed form, and didn’t play significantly better here than in the Symphony in C.

But for all the efforts by the chorus, this concert was all about Vadim Repin and James MacMillan. Stravinsky and Debussy were support acts, which is fair enough given the prestige of the premiere, but the Stravinsky symphonies in particular were both missed opportunities, especially given this ensemble’s previous form.

Gavin Dixon

This concert was recorded by the BBC and will be broadcast on Radio 3 on 20 May.