SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
 

Prom 8 - Britten Prokofiev and Shostakovich: Alexander Toradze (piano), BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Thierry Fischer, Royal Albert Hall, London, 22.7.2010 (BBr)

 

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem, op.20 (1940)

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D♭ major, op.10 (1911/1912)

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major, 'Leningrad, op.60 (1941)

 

Programming is a difficult thing; having to find the right music for the right occasion but also music which will please the audience and, hopefully, get bums on seats. For a visiting foreign orchestra, and to the Proms audience the National Orchestra of Wales is a visiting foreign orchestra, there can be the added problem of displaying the compositional wares of its homeland. This year, apart from two Doctor Who Proms, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is giving three concerts, of which this was the first: and apart from a work by their composer in residence Simon Holt ( an Englishman, born in Bolton) whose percussion Concerto, a table of noises, will receive its London première on 26 July, there is not one note of Welsh music in any of BBC NOW’s concert. This is shameful, for at the very least, as the orchestra is funded from Welsh taxes, they have a right to be allowed to hear their own music at the Proms. And so do we.

This concert was a case in point where things could have been put right. Given that the Britten and Shostakovich works were written in 1940 and 1941 respectively, the addition of Daniel Jones’s beautiful tone poem The Cloud Messenger, written in 1943, would have been much more welcome than Prokofiev’s early jeux d’esprit. At the end, it would have had many audience members saying, “Who is this Daniel Jones? He’s rather good!” and nobody would have missed the Prokofiev Concerto very much. Entertain and educate, that’s what the Proms should still be doing, and if the BBC doesn’t allow it, then whoever will? This is a theme to which I shall return.

But to turn to what we were given. Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem was commissioned by the Japanese Government to celebrate the longevity of the Mikado Dynasty but was rejected on religious grounds – it was based on the Christian Liturgy and didn’t “…express felicitations for the 2,600^th anniversary of our country.” Britten considered the ensuing publicity “a wow” and what we have here is the nearest he ever came to writing a Symphony, and a fine piece it is too. Fischer had obviously spent some time with the score and he displayed a knowledge of the music which rivalled that of the composer himself. Fischer built the opening Lacrimosa from its hammering drums to a harrowing climax, never flinching when the huge dissonances crashed across the score. The following Dies Irae was wild and barbaric, but Fischer lost all tension at the start when he made a slight pause for breath between the two movements so that the stress, which carries on unbroken, from one movement to the next, was removed. Apart from that, this was a fine performance, with the most virtuosic playing from the orchestra, and a well handled disintegration of the structure which gives way to the final Requiem aeternam. Once again, Fischer was in his element building a big climax and overwhelming us with the emotion of the music. Fine stuff, indeed.

Prokofiev’s 1^st Piano Concerto is a clever–clogs of a piece; a “look what I can do and I’m still so young” work. It’s Prokofiev’s very facility, and felicity, which makes this a difficult work to bring off successfully. The structure is very loose, too loose in many respects, and without a firm grip on the music it can appear to be a series of disjointed episodes. Tonight, Toradze played like a man possessed, giving a very flashy virtuosic performance which was well in keeping with the music, but I never felt that Fischer had a real grasp of the piece so that we were given the series of disjointed episodes. I also felt that there was a lack of interest from the orchestra, for although it played well, there was no bite to the sound.

The Shostakovich was always guaranteed to bring the house down, what with the fabulous back story and the exciting and dramatic music. Fischer drew fine playing from his orchestra in the first movement, from a marvellous pianissimo of gossamer lightness, to a rich and roof raising fortissimo, which made the war machine episode of the first movement truly frightening in its intensity and unrelenting might. The second movement was a welcome rest from the fighting, and here we heard some on the most delightful playing of the evening. However, during the slow movement I suddenly found myself thinking of other things and both here and in the finale my mind wandered as Fischer’s grasp of the form left him and the energy he achieved became more tub-thumping Soviet Realism than real victory in the face of a barbaric enemy. With excellent playing from an orchestra on top form however, this was another fine performance but one which could have been great, if only the direction had been stronger towards the end.

Bob Briggs

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