SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
 

Prom 18 - Brett Dean, Mahler and Shostakovich: Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo–soprano), The Australian Youth Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder, Royal Albert Hall, London, 30.7.2010 (BBr)

 

Brett Dean Amphitheatre (2000) (London première)

Mahler 6 Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1892/1901)

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor (1953)

 

When I’m rich I’m going to commission a composer to write a piece for large, modern, orchestra without percussion. My reason for this is that far too often new works appear with a percussion section lined up across the back of the platform, and their purpose is to make noise which, all too often, is designed to cover a paucity of invention on the composer’s part. Without mentioning names, there were a couple of pieces at last year’s Proms which fulfilled this statement, and when I walked in the Albert Hall tonight and saw the percussion laid out for Brett Dean’s work, I despaired. Happily, I was wrong in this case, for here is a work which only uses the percussion for coloristic effect and uses the section with discretion. Amphitheatre is a short slow movement, playing for about ten minutes, which grows to a big climax and falls away again. It is an impressive edifice, as any description of an amphitheatre would have to be, and this music, also built of granite, was impressive in its simplicity. Dean is a fine composer who understands the orchestra and how to use it, and tonight he was well served by the young players who gave an impressive performance.

Mahler’s little songs felt uncomfortable by the side of Dean’s work. Gubanova sang them well, if somewhat quietly, she was difficult to hear, at times, because of her unforced delivery, but her control and use of tone colour was always right for the music: Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen was particularly striking in its controlled emotion.

Control was much in evidence in the Shostakovich 10^th Symphony, which crowned this show. In the first movement the moderato tempo varies, almost imperceptibly, and Sir Mark moulded the music so well that the progress through the many, and varied, emotional states was laid before us with a clarity seldom achieved in this music. By slightly underplaying the first climax the main outburst was devastating in its power and, although we had been prepared for it, it still came as a real shock to the senses. At the end the duet for piccolos was tragic and withdrawn, full of loneliness and resignation. This was a superb interpretation. The scherzo delivered the short, sharp, shock of dreadfulness and terror, which it is designed to do. A fast tempo, and virtuoso playing of the very highest standard, made this the horror it is. The allegretto, third, movement, with its horn calls, quirky outdoor theme and wind soliloquies seemed to, more than most performances, to bring out the “unrequited affection” (as David Fanning put it in the programme book) between the composer and his pupil Elmira Nazirova. Again, control was everything here and Sir Mark’s seeming impersonal direction worked to the music’s advantage. The finale is an odd movement, after what has gone before, for it seems to be a circus event, in the manner of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 4^th Symphony, but the dark terrors are still there. But the ending is triumphant with the composer’s motto DSCH pounded out by the brass and timpani almost as an act of defiance. The ending is difficult to achieve with success for the music just stops, but Sir Mark built this final climax with such skill that, for once, I felt no dissatisfaction here.

Each time I see Sir Mark in action he impresses me more, and tonight the insight and intelligence he displayed in this work was second to none, and his vision was matched by peerless playing from the Australian Youth Orchestra. If I have one complaint, it is that the percussion section was far too restrained throughout. As an encore we were given Percy Grainger’s sumptuous arrangement of the Londonderry Air for strings and horns. A most satisfactory show.

 

Bob Briggs

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