Martin Kettle's Blog, page 73
November 13, 2015
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Ticciati/Tetzlaff review – clarity of texture and rhythmic grace
Royal Festival Hall, London
Tetzlaff played Lindberg’s first violin concerto with a vehement authority and Robin Ticciati drew refined playing from the LPO in the remaining French programme
Magnus Lindberg’s formidable first violin concerto, premiered in 2006, is written for Mozartian forces. But it is Sibelius who haunts this compelling piece, sometimes almost explicitly. It is as though Lindberg is constantly asking how a Finnish composer can be truly himself in a violin concerto when that other Finnish composer’s concerto is always there in the collective memory. Next month brings the world premiere of Lindberg’s second: the question may still be bugging him.
Christian Tetzlaff’s imperious playing of the piece was edge-of-the-seat compelling from first to last, brushing all uncertainty aside. From the high, rapt opening to the scintillatingly vigorous finale, Tetzlaff played with a vehement authority that never wavered, and at times was almost overwhelming. Once again, he showed why he is one of the unmissable artists of our era. Hats off to him for not playing an encore, either; a great concerto performance needs no afterword.
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November 12, 2015
New politics? Thankfully the old politics is very much alive | Martin Kettle
One of the problems of arguing that Britain is entering an era of “new politics” is that there is so little agreement about what new politics actually means. Some think it’s mainly about greater grassroots engagement. Others point to the impact of social media. Some argue it’s about newly sharpened ideological differences. Others, that it’s marked by a more inclusive public tone.
None of this can be wholly dismissed. Both Labour and the SNP have experienced big surges in membership in the last year. The political impact of Twitter and Facebook is manifestly enormous, for good and ill, for anyone who follows them. Labour has elected a leftwing leader, while in some eyes the Conservatives are embarked on a neo-Thatcherite agenda. And prime minister’s questions at Westminster is certainly less strident than it used to be.
Related: Blairites, Brownites, Corbyn refuseniks: where do the New Labour tribes go next?
Within the Conservative party … big principles may be at stake, but so too is the ultimate prize, the keys to No 10
Related: Labour moderates flex muscles by capturing key backbench offices
Continue reading...October 29, 2015
Disregarded and disaffected, the north of England awaits its own SNP | Martin Kettle
Heading in through the doors to the National Theatre’s new production of Husbands and Sons, DH Lawrence’s Nottinghamshire coalfield trilogy, a week ago, I realised that it had been ages since I had seen a play about the north in this supposedly national institution.
Yet now, before you can say chippy northerner, plays about the north are like London buses. Suddenly there are two of them on at the same time at the National. First a pacy adaptation of Jane Eyre, and now Lawrence’s three plays reshaped into one. It feels like a minor moment of cultural change. And about time too, I thought as I took my seat.
Related: Where is the north of England? Don't ask the government
If it weren’t for the Premier League and the weather forecast, the north would be out of sight, out of mind in the south
Continue reading...October 28, 2015
Mariinsky Orchestra/Gergiev review – Tchaikovsky competition winners show their strengths
Cadogan Hall, London
The ability of the Russian school to produce idiomatic music distinct from western traditions is remarkable, as this tour clearly demonstrates
Valery Gergiev’s embrace of the International Tchaikovsky competition has been a terrific shot in the arm for the global profile of the renowned four-yearly Moscow contest that boasts a glittering roll-call of earlier winners including Van Cliburn, Viktoria Mullova and Deborah Voigt. This Cadogan Hall concert, which featured the 2015 winners in four categories, was part of an international tour with Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra, and thus an exceptional opportunity for each to make the kind of impact that the pianist Daniil Trifonov achieved after the equivalent tour in 2011.
On this evidence, however, there was not yet a second Trifonov among this year’s winners. But the ability of the Russian school to continue to produce idiomatic music quite distinct from western conservatoire traditions is genuinely remarkable. This was particularly apparent with the two vocal winners. The mezzo Yulia Matochkina delivered Joan of Arc’s act one aria from Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans with a big vernacular tone almost unimaginable in a young western singer, while the overall grand prix winner, the Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar sang Yeletsky’s aria from the Queen of Spades with abundant presence, but perhaps not in his best voice on this occasion.
Continue reading...Stephen Hough review – high seriousness and imaginative intelligence
Barbican, London
With works by Schubert, Franck and Lizst, and the premiere of his own third sonata, the pianist took his audience on a spiritual journey from darkness to light
Even by Stephen Hough’s standards, this Barbican recital was a musical event of exceptional interest and reward.
Hough’s scintillating technique and characteristically sparkling sound can perhaps be assumed these days, though of course they never should be. What gripped the attention from start to finish as well, however, was the high seriousness of the playing and the imaginative intelligence that Hough brought to the programme and its individual parts.
Continue reading...October 26, 2015
Leipzig Gewandhaus/Chailly/Fröst review – Strauss with bright exactitude
Barbican, London
Riccardo Chailly brought a pressing, unsentimental approach to Richard Strauss, while Martin Fröst played Mozart’s clarinet concerto with irresistible character
A thread of mortality was woven into this final concert of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s latest London residency under Riccardo Chailly. Strauss was 25 when he wrote Tod und Verklärung, his symphonic poem about death, but 81 when, in 1945, he reflected on Germany’s wartime shattering in Metamorphosen. Till Eulenspiegel, the subject of one of Strauss’s most dazzling early orchestral works, dies on the gallows, while Mozart wrote his clarinet concerto two months before his own untimely death.
Related: Riccardo Chailly: ‘I want to do things differently, to put life on hold’
Continue reading...October 22, 2015
It will soon be time to drop our oppressive remembrance rituals | Martin Kettle
This has been a bumper year for resonant anniversaries. We’ve already had the 800th of Magna Carta. We’ve had the 200th of Waterloo. Less gloriously, we have had the centenary of Gallipoli. And on Sunday we reach yet another monster moment in the island story, the 600th anniversary of Henry V’s victory at the battle of Agincourt.
Related: Agincourt was a battle like no other … but how do the French remember it?
Related: Tower of London remembers Agincourt – with a little help from the French
Continue reading...October 17, 2015
Nicola Sturgeon’s stance pleases everyone… for now | Martin Kettle
The SNP leader’s speech at her party’s conference delivered few surprises – but while she’s winning, who cares?
When you are 35 points ahead of your rivals after being in government for eight years, your party has quadrupled in size in the past year and you are the only party leader with consistently massive positive poll ratings, you aren’t doing much wrong. The SNP is still setting new records for electoral success, Nicola Sturgeon is its unchallenged champion and the focus of her speech to her party conference today was entirely on the Holyrood election next May that the SNP is expected to win.
Yet there were big conference divisions at Aberdeen on issues such as fracking and land reform. And an unscientific poll in the Herald yesterday suggested most delegates want a second independence referendum before 2020. As the party’s head of policy wrote this month: “The party are split between left and right.” One of these days, the disjunction between the radical rhetoric and the modest reforming achievement is going to begin to grate with voters.
Continue reading...October 15, 2015
Scottish independence is not inevitable – or not yet | Martin Kettle
To those of us who think politics is fundamentally about winning power and governing, there are only two interesting political parties in Britain today. One is the Conservatives. The other is the Scottish National party. Both are winners. The others have gone awol.
But the Tories and the SNP have another thing in common. They share a genuine capacity to demolish the political foundations of modern Britain: the Conservatives by bringing the country out of Europe, perhaps by accident; the SNP by breaking the country up, very deliberately. These are imminent destructive realities that cannot be overlooked, however much one may admire Nicola Sturgeon’s brilliance as a leader, which is beyond dispute.
Related: SNP conference: Nicola Sturgeon's speech- Politics live
Related: Will Trudeaumania sweep Canada’s Liberals into power – again? | Matthew Hays
Continue reading...OAE/Devine/Bostridge review – not a stale moment all evening
St John’s Smith Square, London
A Telemann and Handel programme found the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on top form, with Ian Bostridge’s expressive voice a high point
Thirty years young this season, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment opened its season with playing of seemingly undiminished energy. Tonight’s programme of Telemann and Handel – under Steven Devine’s lively direction from the keyboard – found the orchestra every bit as incisive as when many of the same players were in their hot youth three decades ago. There wasn’t a stale moment all evening.
In Telemann’s Overture in F the valveless horns whooped exuberantly, while oboes and bassoon chattered merrily. Handel’s D minor Concerto Grosso Op 3 No 5 was full of bright contrasts and sweet phrasing, and the Water Music Suite gave this ensemble of soloists the chance to shine individually and in unison. What James Galway once tartly described as all that emoting – the eye-contact between players, the swaying to the phrase and all the other tropes of early music platform culture – reinforced a thoroughly engaged and engaging evening.
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