Martin Kettle's Blog, page 75
September 10, 2015
BBCSO/Litton – it made us think differently about Nielsen and Ives
Royal Albert Hall, London
This well-conceived Prom with a generous range of choral forces placed the major works by Nielsen and Ives alongside the popular roots of their writing
Carl Nielsen and Charles Ives were near contemporaries. Yet at first hearing there is little else that links the two composers – or any other composer at all in Ives’s singular case. Another well-conceived BBC Symphony Orchestra Prom with a generous range of choral forces – a repeated feature of this year’s programmes – made one think differently, however. In each half of the concert an emphasis on the popular roots of the composer’s writing – folk music in Nielsen’s case, hymn tunes in that of Ives – was followed by a major concert work. It all made highly stimulating sense. Only the National Anthem, performed at the start in Gordon Jacob’s 1953 arrangement to mark the Queen’s record-breaking reign, disturbed the symmetry.
Andrew Litton, who conducted with benign crispness, caught the folkloric lilt of Nielsen’s Springtime on Funen with particular skill, with Malin Christensson and Ben Johnson clear and idiomatic soprano and tenor soloists in this witty and wordly choral welcome of spring. Nielsen’s ambitiously conceived violin concerto followed, with the Norwegian soloist Henning Kraggerud making an instant impression with his very forward account of the work’s early cadenza. The openness and commitment of Kraggerud’s playing maintained the tension through the concerto’s darker pages and made a compelling case for what is a surprisingly neglected score, even in an anniversary year which has done Nielsen proud.
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August 30, 2015
COE/Haitink/Pires review– a satisfying but risk-averse performance
Royal Albert Hall, London
Conductor Bernard Haitink is not prone to flamboyance, but these works cry out for more sparkle; Maria João Pires, nevertheless, proves an energising partner
Even in his younger days, Bernard Haitink was never a conductor given to flamboyance. Now aged 86, the characteristic avoidance of histrionics has become almost the essence of his work with the orchestras fortunate enough to be conducted by him. These days, Haitink concerts are models of tact and good judgment in the service of music that is invariably very beautifully played. The results are almost always balanced and satisfying. But in some music they can sometimes be a little unchallenging.
This prom with the outstanding Chamber Orchestra of Europe had such a feel. From the very start of Schubert’s C major Overture in the Italian style — very much that of Rossini — there were the familiar Haitink virtues of orchestral warmth, plus a determination to keep things moving. But the overture is quite a slight piece. It cries out for a bit more sparkle.
Continue reading...August 27, 2015
What is the point of a House of Lords that rewards failure? | Martin Kettle
Eighteen summers ago, in the early weeks of the newly elected Labour government, I had lunch with Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell. Powell arrived late at the restaurant, apologising that he had just been finalising the largest new list of appointments to the House of Lords of modern times, 57 in all and mainly Labour, which was published a few days later.
I asked him if any of those whom he had approached had refused a peerage, or had asked for time to reflect on the offer. Powell laughed out loud at the naivete of my questions. Not even one of them, he replied. It would not be an exaggeration, he added, to say that practically all of them bit his hand off in their hurry to say yes.
Related: Radical reform of the House of Lords is vital – that’s why I’m glad to be a member | Peter Hain
Most new peers, now as in 1997, take little persuading – even if they were once vociferous critics
Continue reading...August 20, 2015
What Hamlet can teach the Labour leadership about getting things right | Martin Kettle
Thank goodness, not for the first time but especially now, that there is so much more to life than the Labour party. Thank goodness for the high hills, for test cricket, and for the symphonies of Sibelius. And thank goodness, this week in particular, for Hamlet.
The current production of Hamlet at London’s Barbican theatre is providing almost as much action off-stage as on. Yet the official first night is not until Tuesday, and one of the most reassuring nostrums in the theatre is the enduring thespian optimism that everything will be all right on the night. Worldly wisdom says this is impossible. Yet even Shakespeare took this view.
Related: The Guardian view on Hamlet: time to cool the hysteria | Editorial
Not everything magically comes right on the night. Getting things right is hard work, even for geniuses
Continue reading...August 17, 2015
BBCSSO/Volkov review – Sibelius that didn't shake the soul as it should
Royal Albert Hall, London
The second concert marking this year’s Sibelius anniversary featured a fluent if unremarkable account of his Third and Fourth symphonies, while the Violin Concerto didn’t reach out in the way the Albert Hall needs
The Proms have reached a festival within a festival, with three concerts marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sibelius. This second concert, like the first, was in the hands of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, this time under the direction of Ilan Volkov.
It was also the only one to feature a piece not by the mighty Finn himself, though there was a strong Sibelius connection in the world premiere of Michael Finnissy’s Janne. This alert and tricksy tribute to Sibelius’s distinctive sound world – the title is the diminutive of the composer’s given name – was suitably enigmatic. It teasingly managed to keep a nano-step ahead of any actual quotations but towards the end, the piece seemed to lose its way.
Continue reading...August 14, 2015
The strange death of Labour Britain has a worrying precedent | Martin Kettle
Which is it? Are we witnessing the death of Labour, as Tony Blair warned this week? Or is it the party’s rebirth, as Jeremy Corbyn’s followers hope? The truth, as ever, will lie somewhere in between. Something will die, or at least be placed on life-support, if Corbyn wins – the prospect of Labour as a single-party alternative government. That’s a historic change. But Labour will survive in some form if Corbyn wins. A significant number of people will go on voting for it, some with enthusiasm. It will be a strange sort of death.
Related: Tony Blair: Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge
As with the Liberals in 1914, Labour in 2003 was already losing its support and its grip for a lot of other reasons
Continue reading...August 12, 2015
Ravel double-bill review – inventive, witty ... and unbalanced
Glyndebourne festival
Danielle de Niese commands the stage and there are irresistible moments in both one-act operas, but with differing production values, the evening doesn’t gel as a whole
In Laurent Pelly’s 2012 productions of Ravel’s two one-act operas, the female leads were in different hands. This time, in Glyndebourne’s first revival of Pelly’s performances, Danielle de Niese sings both Concepción in L’Heure Espagnole and the Child in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. The roles call for very different strengths; sexy vocal allure in the first case, childlike artlessness in the second. The assured de Niese commands them both, as actor and singer, her voice sounding weightier these days. Neither is a conventional star role – and De Niese doesn’t hog the limelight – but she is unquestionably the star of the evening.
Robin Ticciati’s idiomatic and restrained conducting draws some sublime playing of these two fastidiously inventive scores from the London Philharmonic. A largely Francophone cast shares the roles across the operas too, with Étienne Dupuis as a wide-eyed and strongly sung Ramiro in L’Heure and a swanky seductive tabby-cat in L’Enfant. The most vernacular singing of the evening comes from tenor Cyrille Dubois, as the hapless poet Gonzalve in L’Heure. Sabine Devieilhe, in the multiple coloratura roles of Fire, the Princess and the Nightingale in L’Enfant, is equally good.
Continue reading...August 9, 2015
BBC Philharmonic/Collon review – an evening of considerable distinction
Royal Albert Hall, London
Stormingly brilliant Mozart is followed by a French-themed programme of Ravel, Messiaen and Stravinsky, conducted with style by Nicholas Collon
This excellent BBC Philharmonic Prom began with a surprising rarity. Mozart’s ballet from Idomeneo is normally cut in the theatre, where it comes at the end of what is already a long opera. But it is nearly half an hour of music from the early, mature Mozart and is worth anyone’s attention. The highlights were a big chaconne, a delicious gavotte that was recycled in the K503 piano concerto years later and a stormingly brilliant pas seul, which rounded out a resequencing selected by Nicholas Collon , who conducted with notable style throughout the evening.
The rest of the programme had a French theme, particularly if you accept Stravinsky as an honorary Frenchman. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet was the thoroughly engaged yet idiomatic soloist, living every bar in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major. This was very much a communal effort, with Collon’s more measured than usual opening movement tempo allowing orchestral detail and interplay to flower very rewardingly, so that one caught every shimmer in the percussion and harps and each gurgle in the woodwinds. Bavouzet then raised the roof with a fleet and fantastic encore, Pierné’s Etude de Concert, op 13.
Continue reading...August 6, 2015
Wake up, unions: there will be no Prime Minister Corbyn | Martin Kettle
Whatever happened to that post-election stuff about “one nation”? It is clear that David Cameron and some of his ministers genuinely believe in the Disraelian ideal of social cohesion at some important level. Yet in the wake of the government’s latest move against trade unions, the commitment will look to many like mere hypocrisy.
Part of the essence of any kind of one-nation politics, whether from the left or the right, must be an effort to reconcile old antagonisms. But these new measures to make it more difficult to join a union are only designed to provoke this antagonism still further. They are a petty and partisan poke in the unions’ eye, timed to coincide with the London tube strike, and intended to extract a primal response from the Labour leadership candidates, in which they will probably succeed.
Related: Tories accused of 'mean-spirited' attack on trade union funding
Why are we still refighting old battles? Why have we not moved on?
Continue reading...July 31, 2015
Hallé/Elder review – impressive revival of Vaughan Williams neglected oratorio
Mark Elder and his Hallé orchestra were perfect advocates for Vaughan Williams’s large and little-known Sancta Civitas
Vaughan Williams’s millennarian oratorio Sancta Civitas is the kind of large and neglected piece that the Proms exist for. Premiered in Oxford in 1926 to texts drawn from the Book of Revelation, it might have been written for the Albert Hall. The work calls for huge vocal forces, an organ and a distant boys choir, tenor and trumpet, here performing high in the gallery under the roof. And since Sir Mark Elder is a great organiser and advocate of such demanding large-scale rarities, these were near ideal conditions for the Hallé players and singers to make the case for this important piece.
They succeeded impressively, despite Vaughan Williams’s occasionally earthbound choral writing and the apocalyptic texts, which make for uncomfortable listening in an era of terrorism. That apart, Sancta Civitas is an expertly structured work, illuminated by haunting and successful orchestral writing, all meticulously marshalled by Elder and idiomatically played by the Hallé principals. Iain Paterson travelled from Bayreuth to sing the visionary text with sympathetic baritonal warmth, while the ending, in which tenor Robin Tritschler brought a jolt of energy from on high, was beautifully managed.
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