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SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
Mozart, Holt, Tchaikovsky: Stephen Reay (Bassoon), Northern Sinfonia, Thomas Zehetmair (Conductor), The Sage, Gateshead/Newcastle upon Tyne, 27.1.2011 (JL)
Mozart Overture: ‘The Magic Flute’ Good, old fashioned programming this: two
popular composers represented in the overture / concerto /symphony format with
a “modern” piece smuggled in. The last time I saw Thomas Zehetmair start
a concert by conducting the Magic Flute Overture, he took his bow at the
end, exited, marched back on with a violin under his arm and launched
into the Tchaikovsky Concerto. An amazing feat, I thought, summing up his
remarkable relationship with the Northern Sinfonia as their Music director. On this occasion he was to yield the solo
spot to his own principal bassoonist. Before that, though, we were treated to
an astonishing rendering of a very difficult piece, Simon Holt’s
1990 work, Lilith. Lilith was a legendary figure who appears in different
versions in several different cultures. The lowest common
denominator seems to be that Lilith was some sort of female demon, sometimes
taking the form of a serpent, who got up to nasty things such as kidnapping or
strangling babies. There are connotations with occultism, fantasy and horror,
and there is more than a hint of misogyny about it all. Holt’s piece is suitably sinister, cleverly
creating imaginative orchestral effects in an atonal (keyless) harmonic
language. It is a big challenge for players but the Sinfonia members met it
heroically in a committed and convincing performance. The clarinet player, for
example, was having constantly to switch from that instrument, to the high
version, and saxophone. I expect considerable rehearsal time had been devoted
to the piece, and there was the advantage that the Sinfonia had publicly
performed it before in 2009. The composer was in the audience and,
invited on to the stage at the end by Thomas Zehetmair during the applause, I
lip read the word “wow” as he looked at the performers. That said it all. Returning to Mozart we heard Stephen Reay,
one the country’s senior and most respected bassoonists, in a relatively light
work written when the composer was eighteen. Numerous bassoon concertos
were churned out in the Baroque period, notably by Vivaldi, but after that the
form went into serious decline so by 1774 Mozart’s work was a rarity.
Only in recent times has the bassoon concerto made a comeback and Stephen Reay
has been prominent in premiering some notable examples. One might expect a
certain ponderousness from such a low-lying instrument but Mozart, in the first
and last movements of his work, writes some very nimble passage work that can
at times be alarming in its technicalities. The bassoon though does
pose balance problems in a concerto, and in spite of the Northern Sinfonia’s
relatively small size, the soloist’s penetrating power in the upper
register was limited. Reay’s instrument compensated in part with some
very fruity low notes. The central slow movement brings the best out of Mozart,
and also on this occasion, I may say, of Stephen Reay. The song-like
melodic line of the bassoon floats over muted strings and the beauty of
Stephen’s lyrical playing was a feature of the evening. Thomas Zehetmair’s direction of both Mozart
pieces was wonderfully paced, particularly excelling in the youthful joie
de vivre of the music but combining that with well phrased lyricism. Is
it too fanciful to believe that Zehetmair’s manifest affinity with Mozart is
because he was born in the same place – Salzburg?! Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony,
nicknamed “The Polish” for no good reason, is not given anything like the
airing of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth. There is certainly a big
step forward in symphonic maturity between the 3rd and 4th
and there is little sign in the 3rd of the emotion and Tchaikovskyan
angst that can be found in the later works. There are angularities in the
construction that pose problems for the conductor. For example, the work opens
with a minor key funeral-type march that then jerks into a fast major key
section, the transition of which needs careful handling. Towards the end
of the movement Tchaikovsky launches a long, climactic finish characterised by
some really furious string playing, the violinists bowing arms blurred with
speed. During the pause before the next movement I noticed some
violinists shaking their right arms to get some circulation back. It had been
worth it. The excitement was palpable. At this point, it is worth mentioning that
the Sinfonia is an orchestra of classical proportions, on this occasion
sporting only 14 violins, not far off half the number most orchestras
would employ in this symphony. Yet there is no hint of this
presenting a balance problem. The characteristic Sinfonia attack must have a
lot to do with it, a style led from the front by Bradley Creswick and
reinforced by Thomas Zehetmair. I mentioned misogyny earlier so
dare I raise an issue here about female string players. Of the 14 violins, 12
were women. Andre Previn, when conductor of the LSO, famously put his
foot in it by claiming that too many women players would weaken the sound. The
great Vienna Philharmonic’s ban on female players was lifted only 13 years ago
and even now you would be pushed to spot a woman among the players.
If it had been possible to present the Northern Sinfonia’s current playing as
evidence in a case against Previn’s argument, he would have been trounced game,
set and match. John Leeman
Simon Holt Lilith
Mozart Bassoon Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony no.3 ‘Polish’