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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Prokofiev, Wagner and
Beethoven:
Alwyn Mellor
(soprano),
London Schools Symphony
Orchestra, Peter Ash,
Barbican Hall,
Silk Street, London, 5.1.2011 (BBr)
Prokofiev:
Six Dances from
Romeo and
Juliet, op 64 (1934)
Wagner: Prelude
and Liebestod (Tristan und
Isolde) (1865)
Beethoven:
Symphony No 5
in C minor, op 67 (1807)
A programme obviously designed to show off the Orchestra to best advantage
proved to be too big a bite of the cherry, which, although it stretched the
young players, ultimately demonstrated that this Orchestra isn’t the match of
the one I heard play
Petrushka last September.
The show was marked by some poor intonation – especially from the cellos, whose
opening to the Tristan
Prelude and the the scherzo
of the Beethoven Symphony
was unsure, to say the least. Also, the trio was far too fast, thus articulation
suffered, and during the transition to the finale, the first violins were
equally insecure. Horns and trumpets split too many notes for comfort and I was
never convinced that the players were entirely happy in their work.
That said, when things went well, there was some thrilling music making. The big
pieces, such as the Knight’s
Dance and the
Death of Tybalt,
from Romeo,
made a satisfactory sound, filling the hall, but the more delicate pieces
weren’t always entirely confident. With playing of this quality six dances
seemed too much.
The Wagner started badly but the famous Tristan chord, on woodwind, was perfect,
and, it must be mentioned, Ash’s understanding of the silences between the
statements of the opening phrase were pregnant with expectation. The
Liebestod
never rose to the heights of ecstasy it should reach, perhaps because the
orchestra couldn’t really let go for fear of drowning the solo voice.
Alwyn Mellor
is every inch the Wagnerian soprano and she sang with the customary vibrato, not
as bad as some but enough for it to annoy – but this is the current, and
currently accepted, way of singing.
Beethoven’s great Symphony
benefited from having the exposition repeated in the outer movements, but tempi
were pushed and there was little chance for the music to really breathe. Where
the slow movement should simply have flowed there was a slight haste and mystery
was entirely missing from the scherzo. The finale was full of triumph but it was
a hollow victory, and the sound was banal.
On the plus side, principal oboe Amy Roberts was superb and, at the end of the
Tristan Prelude,
Jessica Chorley’s cor anglais was full of sexual longing.
Bob Briggs