Martin Kettle's Blog, page 81
February 12, 2015
Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle/Kavakos review – eloquent exploration of Sibelius
The Berliners command an orchestral palette that few others can match, and although Rattle conducted with plenty of urgency, there was a greater focus on symphonic structure, while Kavakos was compelling
To hear Sibelius symphonies played by an exceptional orchestra under a great conductor is pretty much a guarantee of new insights. That is unquestionably what we are getting in Simon Rattle’s three-night chronological survey in London this week with the Berliner Philharmoniker. And in this second concert, which bracketed the violin concerto with the third and fourth symphonies, they delivered plenty more.
As reviews of the first concert on Tuesday noted, Rattle’s Sibelius seems to have become more spacious with the years. This time there were few of the viscerally ebullient speed changes that conductors from Robert Kajanus to the 1980s Rattle brought to the coltishness of the third symphony. Instead, although Rattle conducted throughout with plenty of urgency, it felt as if the concentration was now more on symphonic structure and on the evolution of the Sibelius orchestral sound, much sparer in the third than in the first two symphonies, and reaching wonderfully austere new heights in the fourth, ultimate music of the north.
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February 10, 2015
Philharmonia/Nelsons/Lewis review – Bruckner’s fractured Third flows in the right hands
Andris Nelsons’s close attention to phrasing, balance and dynamics was compelling, while Paul Lewis’s Mozart was impeccable but self-contained
Even though he is giving his considerable all at the Royal Opera in a hyperactive account of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, Andris Nelsons can clearly still find enough energy in reserve to give truly remarkable orchestral concerts, too. In some respects, though, the journey from pit to podium was a more logical one than usual in this case, since Bruckner’s Third Symphony is suffused with Wagnerian influences and its opening trumpet theme, which returns in splendour at the symphony’s close, is closely related to the Dutchman’s horn motif.
Nevertheless, Bruckner’s Third is a problematic symphony, on account of the composer’s many rewrites – he removed most of the more explicitly Wagnerian references – and the consequent enhancement of the already episodic character of Bruckner’s symphonic writing at this stage of his career. Making coherent sense of this symphony seems to require something more than even Nelsons can bring to it, for it is a something that eludes most conductors, perhaps because the work is just too fractured. Yet the symphony is rarely without interest or moments of lonely beauty. Nelsons’s close attention to phrasing, balance and dynamics was characteristically compelling at multiple points in the score, and with the Philharmonia playing with great intensity, there were times when the symphony flowed in ways that it rarely does in other hands.
Continue reading...February 5, 2015
A Labour failure in Scotland will lead to a battle for Britain itself | Martin Kettle
He won’t appreciate the comparison, but Gordon Brown may be becoming the Jimmy Carter of British politics. The first thing anyone ever says about Carter is that he was one of America’s worst presidents. They then go on to say that he is nevertheless America’s best former-president. Brown seems to be on a similar trajectory on this side of the Atlantic.
Though he undoubtedly had his good moments in Number 10, Brown was not – let’s just agree this and say no more – a good prime minister. But after much licking of personal wounds, he has re-emerged from the darkness of the defeat of 2010. As a result, in his 60s he may slowly be turning into the kind of statesman he looked like becoming when he was in his 30s. In my view he should reverse his decision to leave the Commons. His country – whether it is Scotland or Britain – needs him.
No one who thinks carefully about British politics can ignore the many interconnected things Brown said this week
Labour’s failure is that it does not provide a clear and plausible account of what it would actually do in government
Continue reading...January 29, 2015
This general election could define Britain’s global role into the next decade | Martin Kettle
What should be Britain’s role in the world in the 2020s and beyond? The question can’t be divorced in any meaningful way from the approaching general election. Few modern elections have been so clearly a search for national identity and meaning as the 2015 contest looks like being. But no election outcome will make much sense unless it simultaneously offers a new and consistent account of this nation’s place in the wider world.
Foreign affairs rarely play a prominent role in general elections. Yet 2015 ought to be an exception: partly because of the British relationship with the European Union, about which this election outcome will be so decisive; partly because this will be the parliament that decides whether to renew Trident, the ultimate embodiment in many eyes of great-power status; and partly because of the objectively greater sense of international tension that has followed the standoff with Russia in Ukraine, the rise of Islamic State (Isis) and the uncertainty in Europe embodied in the Greek election result.
Continue reading...January 28, 2015
Hagen Quartet review – Mozart celebrated with sparkling spontaneity
Wigmore Hall, London
A series of concerts devoted to Mozart’s quartets kicks off with an exhilarating exploration of the boundaries of his writing
Mozart’s string quartets are core chamber music repertoire. That much is beyond question. But a concentrated series of concerts exclusively devoted to Mozart quartets, an approach familiar with the quartets of Beethoven, Schubert or Bartók – that’s a bit unusual. Does this relatively rare opportunity suggest a slight modern tendency to take this music for granted?
If so, a series of Mozart concerts by the Hagen Quartet at the Wigmore Hall provides the best and most robust answer. Their four concerts this week span the whole of Mozart’s mature quartet output after his move to Vienna, played in strict publication order. If that is not tempting enough, then the sparkling spontaneity of the way the Hagens approach works they have played many times over the years ought to be the clincher.
Continue reading...January 22, 2015
Cromwell, the fixers’ fixer: a role model for our times | Martin Kettle
The hero of Wolf Hall was cold-blooded and ruthless, but he mastered statecraft and achieved results
Thomas Cromwell is the politician of the moment. We seem entranced by him. How cunning and deep he is. How clever and calculating. With what skill he acquires, husbands and uses his power. How precise he is in his judgment of when to speak and when to stay silent, when to watch and when to act, absolutely ruthlessly if need be.
We are a nation hooked on Cromwell, as a result of Hilary Mantel’s novels. And now perhaps in even greater numbers than before, thanks to the BBC’s dramatisation of Wolf Hall that began this week, whose centrepiece is Mark Rylance’s Cromwell: the outsider who mesmerisingly watches, plots and thinks his way into the heart of the English Tudor state.
Continue reading...January 18, 2015
I don’t care what the weatherman says when it’s just hysteria | Martin Kettle
It is January. It is therefore not a total surprise that the weather across Britain is likely to be cold this week. This happens sometimes in winter, especially in the north and on hills. Temperatures fall. So, occasionally, does snow. But there is no need to panic. Most of us have lived here long enough to know how to cope with a cold snap. Some of us even enjoy winter. And the Britain of keeping calm and carrying on is a cliche that has impressed visitors from at least the time of Montesquieu. What was it they used to say? Britain can take it.
Unfortunately, no one has told Britain’s weather forecasters. Too often, weather bulletins these days are delivered amid something close to hysteria. The Met Office acts increasingly as though Britain is facing an invasion. There are far more weather warnings than terrorism warnings. The default setting is now melodrama, danger and sometimes even panic.
Continue reading...January 15, 2015
Fifty years on, we’ve yet to find post-Churchill Britain | Martin Kettle
Don’t mention the war? Dream on. This country never seems to tire of the bloody thing. Even this year’s newly Oscar-nominated Imitation Game has strong echoes of The Dam Busters, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing in many ways reprising the brilliant-but-unworldly wartime-boffin role pioneered by Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis almost 60 years ago.
And it’s not just the second world war, either. Last year’s centenary of the first world war and the current build-up to this summer’s Waterloo bicentenary show how much Britain still revels in a martial commemoration. Our media, moreover, like nothing better than to pull out the stops to mark any kind of nice-round-number anniversary connected with the war against Hitler.
Continue reading...January 9, 2015
Simón Bolívar SO of Venezuela/Dudamel review – where was the verve?
Beethoven’s Fifth lacked pathos and the Wagner was short on tension in a programme that seemed misconceived
Venezuela’s inspiring El Sistema ambassadors have long since dropped the “Youth” of their title, and there’s no sign of the famous yellow and blue bomber jackets and caps, but they still command the same audience enthusiasm as before, and no wonder. The more than 100-strong orchestra are an uplifting presence and they make a thrilling sound. The Festival Hall fizzed with excitement for the first of their two concerts this week.
As a purely musical experience, however, this latest Venezuelan visit under Gustavo Dudamel was not a happy one. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony started well, with Dudamel exerting a tight propulsive grip. But this conductor’s tendency to pull the phrasing about for no good reason soon reared its head, with the oboe solo in the first movement recapitulation almost bringing things to a complete halt. Dudamel’s fast speed removed much of the pathos from the slow movement, but only those with hearts of stone could fail to enjoy the earthy playing of the lower strings in the third-movement trio, or the exuberant rendering of the symphony’s closing pages.
Continue reading...January 8, 2015
Charlie Hebdo, election 2015 and Greece – Politics Weekly podcast
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