SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Edwin Roxburgh, Elgar and Delius:< Olivia Robinson (soprano), Christopher Bowen (tenor), BBC Symphony Chorus (director: Stephen Jackson), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis, Barbican Hall, London, 8.10.2010 (BBr)

Edwin Roxburgh: Concerto for Orchestra (2010) (RPS Elgar Bursary Commission: world première)

Elgar: Falstaff – Symphonic Study in C minor, op.68 (1902/1913)

Delius: The Song of the High Hills (1911/1912)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 80^th birthday this year and there are several premières to help it commemorate this milestone. Edwin Roxburgh’s new Concerto for Orchestra gave the orchestra a real celebratory piece, and, at the same time, something for it to really get its collective teeth into. The Elgar Bursary has been set up to commission new works from mature composers (those over 29 years of age!) and the funding is derived from the royalties from Anthony Payne’s realisation of Elgar’s 3^rd Symphony. Roxburgh is the third recipient of the Award and a worthy one. This new work is a brilliant and vital piece, a kaleidoscope of ideas and shifting moods which together make a most satisfactory whole. Although the score is percussion-laden, as in so many contemporary works, it isn’t dominated by that department; and the percussion isn’t included just to cover a paucity of ideas, again, as in too many contemporary works; Roxburgh is too fine an artist ever to allow that to happen. Instead we have a colourful score, packed with thematic ideas, some too fleeting to be called tunes, which the composer works out in a logical and satisfying way. The BBC used to repeat, at the Proms, under the idea of a second hearing, new works given during the season. Here is a work which would benefit from the large space of the Albert Hall, and the chance to hear it again would be most welcome.

 

I have always had a problem with Elgar’s Falstaff. Landon Ronald, to whom the work is dedicated, said that he didn’t understand it and we have that in common. I could never see the thread of the argument and, indeed, thought that the two dream interludes were surplus to requirements. No more! Sir Andrew and his orchestra – and the BBC Symphony is his orchestra for it seems to play better for him than anybody else – gave a virile performance of this music, making it a more forthright and powerful piece, than I have ever heard, though it was not without its more tender moments. Everything was right. Elgar’s seemingly diffuse thematic relationships were laid bare before us and Sir Andrew took the time to show us how the separate sections related to one another. Most impressive was his moulding into the texture of the Dream Interludes. This was a splendid achievement.

 

Sir Andrew’s fine interpretation of Falstaff was equalled by his reading of Delius’s sublime Song of the High Hills. This is the Yorkshireman’s vision of eternity, as seen from the high peaks, and on the way he created, possibly, his masterpiece. Sir Andrew again allowed the music to breathe, giving it time to weave its spell. The Barbican isn’t the kind of hall which gives itself to subtlety but here even the tenderest moments had a wistful and delicate feel to them. This was most impressive. I only have two reservations concerning this performance. Shortly before the chorus started to sing it stood up en masse. In the score, Delius makes it quite clear that the choir, at this point, should remain seated – The Chorus keeps sitting, it says in my score and the opening phrase is marked to sound as if in the far distance; this is easier to achieve from a sitting position. A moment of magical mystery was lost here for one knew that the chorus was singing and from where the sound was coming, whereas if they remain seated the sound comes to one without the visual stimulus to listen for it. This is what Delius wanted. My other complaint is the importation of two “star” singers for the small, but important, solo roles. Mackerras did the same at his Proms performance last year. As the chorus represents man coming out of nature, and ultimately rejoining it, there are no stars here, just humanity. Delius makes it clear in the score that the two solo voices are in the chorus and when the two singers remain seated whilst the chorus is singing and then stand for their parts another illusion is lost. Also, by bringing in real soloists they tend to over-sing their parts and this is what happened here; at one point soprano Olivia Robinson, employed a most displeasing operatic swoop. Definitely not what the composer ordered, or wanted. Apart from this point of performance, Sir Andrew’s concept of the work was excellent and a joy to hear. After the show Sir Andrew told me that they are to record the piece this week. That will be worth looking out for when it is issued.

 

Bob Briggs

 

 

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