SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Tippett: Fantasia concertante on a Theme of Corelli

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Martinů: Fantaisies symphonies (Symphony No. 6)

 

 

Unlike many of the nicknames that musical works acquire, 'Fantaisies symphonies' has real significance here. This was the composer’s own nomination and he linked the term fantaisies to images, or the imaginative process itself, which undergo/s changes and mutations. In a programme note that Martinů wrote at the work’s first performance  he describes how the motivic, harmonic material formed in a symphonic structure, begins to exceed all structural constraint to transmogrify into a realm of new 'colours' and harmonies; ' a deflection from symmetry towards fantasy'. Added to this, the symphony is full of references (some overt others more covert) to the composer’s own compositions (the opera 'Julietta' and the 'Frescos of Piero della Francesca'), as well to works by other Czech composers, notably Dvořak and Janáček. This fusion of quotations from other works is coupled with the inclusion of many Moravian and Czech folk themes. All add to the composer’s notion, or soundscape of ‘'fantasy', and endow this work with a quintessentially 'Czech' tonality; tonality in its wider and most inclusive sense, that is.

The first performance of the symphony was conducted by the work’s dedicatee Charles Munch, who was at the time the principal conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a recording of the work exists by Munch and the Bostonians. Martinů had known Munch back in his Paris years but listening to that recording now, fine as it is, I can't help detecting an element in Munch's approach that is alien to the work. This may have to do with Munch's reading, or misreading of the ‘Fantaises’ title' because he treats the work as an orchestral showpiece for his famous orchestra. Tonight Belohlávek gave us something completely different from this rather superficial approach. Right from the vague tritones of the hovering woodwind figures in the opening 'Lento' , I had the sense that Belohlávek was revealing not just the external structure of this most economical symphony, but alsothe works inner structure; the inner workings of the musical fantasy. Moreover, Belohlávek was acutely aware that with Martinů, there is no simple binary opposition between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’; the two levels often work at new (and strange) levels of interpenetration and juxtaposition.

Despite all manner of musical parody and metamorphosis, Belohlávek reminded us that the work does retain a very clear symphonic thematic coherence. The sudden bi-tonal trumpet theme which emerges midway in the first movement (superbly played and articulated tonight) re-emerges in a different tonal and rhythmic register in the second movement 'Poco allegro,  making its symphonic point all the more trenchantly by being contrasted - but simultaneously fused with - the symphony’s great lyrical outbursts. But here, even in the lyrical excursions, an underlying note of harmonic/thematic ambiguity, meticulously articulated by Belohlávek, added to  Martinů 's singular projection of dramatic tension.

The last movement 'Lento' at just under eleven minutes in duration, is the longest movement in the work. Even so, it is truly amazing how much musical diversity and contrast the composer  packs into this relatively short time span. The 'lento' tone is increasingly punctuated by solo and tutti off-beat harmonies and rhythms for which Belohlávek obtained some crucially precise playing from the extended percussion section, especially from bass drum and cymbals with the percussion developing ever new, complete and mutated. almost Tantric woven motives.  From this 'broken symmetry' the movement oscillates in and out of all kinds of remote tonalities and prismatic textural/textual formations. Towards the coda we hear intonations of the four-note motive of Dvořak 's Requiem, interwoven with themes from the previous movements. The culmination of these thematic clusters complete the ideational arch of the entire work.

Belohlávek has undoubtedly taken on the mantle of the likes of Talich, Kubelik, Ančerl in Martinů 's unique works. He has recorded all the symphonies, and orchestral works with the Czech Philharmonic and in this very Czech music the Czech Phil are usually  hors concours. Tonight however, the BBC orchestra played with a depth, empathy, and freshness which came very close to the great Czechs, and only occasionally did I sense a certain lack of contrasted sonority in the strings when compared directly with the Czech counterparts. This was inspired playing and conducting by any standards. 

The Schumann Piano Concerto was given an imaginative but rather old fashioned rendition by Russian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaya. After an arresting introduction, and a clear projection of the first theme’s 'Allegro', Leonskaja found it necessary to slow down considerably in the A flat, second subject 6/4 theme. Belohlávek 's clear projection of the 2/4 march theme was a joy however and how much more compelling this music sounds when played without mannered ritardandos. Similarly, Leonskaya played the short 'Intermezzo' at a tempo at least twice as slow as indicated. The final 'Allegro vivace' was much more successful, with carefully gauged  dialogue between conductor and soloist in the famous 'deux-temps' rhythm. After hearing Belohlávek 's totally lucid and superbly balanced conducting of the concerto’s joyous coda, I am looking forward to more Schumann from him. As an encore, Leonksaya gave us a restrained but beautifully contoured reading of the most famous of Chopin's 'Nocturnes', No. 2.

The concert had opened with a beautifully moulded performance of Tippett's homage to the baroque concerto grosso, based on a theme by Corelli, but also incorporating 12 bars of a fugue in which  J. S. Bach incorporated some of Corelli’s music . In this, as throughout the whole concert. Belohlavek obtained superb lucidity and balance from the BBC orchestra’s string section, with players from the first desks contributing to the florid concertante parts.

 

 

Geoff Diggines