SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

 

Prom 53 - Mozart Bent Sørensen and Grieg: Leif Ove Andsnes (piano/director), Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Isabelle van Keulen (director/leader), Per Kristian Skalstad (conductor, Sørensen only), Royal Albert Hall, London, 25.8.2010 (BBr)

 

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, Haffner, K385 (1782)

Bent Sørensen: La mattina (Piano Concerto No.2) (2007/2009) (UK première)

Grieg: From Holberg’s Time – Suite in the Olden Style, op.40 (1885)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491 (1786)

 

Introducing tonight’s concert on BBC Radio 3, Fiona Talkington said, “how could we bring the Norwegians here, and not hear Grieg?” I would have thought that that was what is called a no–brainer, although considering the fact that the BBC National Orchestra of Wales didn’t play any Welsh music on any of their three visits, and the Sydney Symphony ignored Australian music last night, but perhaps it needed saying. I may go on about this, but it is important for musicians to play the music of their own country, especially when on tour. So I am grateful to the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra playing Grieg tonight, but it makes me wonder why it didn’t think to bring something more recent, there are works by Lasse Thoresen and Ragnar Søderlind which still haven’t been heard in this country, not to mention the astonishing works of Olav Anton Thommessen, whose Corelli Machine (2002) would have fitted into this concert perfectly.

 

But I cannot be negative when I hear a concert as good as this. Mozart’s Haffner Symphony made a spritely opener, my only complaint being that whenever the violins played on the e string the sound was wirey and rather biting. Not what you want for Mozart.

 

Bent Sørensen is one of the most exciting, and interesting, of the younger Danish composers, and his 2^nd Piano Concerto was written for tonight’s performers, tailor made in fact. The idea for the piece came from hearing Andsnes in a performance of Mozart’s Concerto, K453, and later, in a piano bar, Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Ich ruf’ zu dir, Jesu Christ. According to the composer, this is his 'darkest and most profound' music and, certainly, it’s a long way from his earlier Schreie und Melancholie and Symphony. A feeling of ecstatic luminosity pervades this work, by which I mean it has a clarity which is missing from much new music, and the work is so emotionally full that it speaks directly to the senses. Its expressive landscape is rich and the scoring has a dark side to it, but Sørensen has created a Concerto of brightness – hence the title. In the long run, it’s no matter what the composer might think of his work, for it is an important addition to the Piano Concerto repertoire and, as it is scored for a Mozart sized orchestra, is well within the capabilities of any chamber group looking for something out of the ordinary. And Sørensen’s music is, certainly, out of the ordinary, and with an easy communicability.

 

Grieg’s Holberg Suite isn’t heard as often as it deserves to be, particularly when it’s given in as fine a performance as this. Playing standing, and from memory – how often does an orchestra achieve this? – this was a vital and electrifying performance, which made the music come alive and sing and dance for us. To end, Mozart’s darkest Piano Concerto – K491, only one of two he wrote in the minor key. Directing from the keyboard, Andsnes and his players created a performance which brought out all the tragedy of the music, without loosing sight of the essential humanity of the music. And as a nice touch, linking Mozart with Sørensen, Andsnes played Busoni’s cadenza for the first movement. For an encore they played the first movement of Mozart’s Concerto in E♭, K449, a blissfully uncomplicated work, making it a perfect companion to the tragedy of what we had just heard. A splendid concert.

 

Bob Briggs

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