Saturday 17th January 2015
Review of the concert by Philip Worth
A programme of romantic music was appropriately introduced by the brilliant Polonaise from the opera Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. Based on a verse novel by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin the storyline involves four nice, ordinary people who so mismanage their relationships that the end result is tragedy. We must not, however, sustain a solemn note. The Polonaise drives the ball scene at the start of Act 3. The venue is a great hall in Tsarist St. Petersburg; crowds of beautiful women and handsome men dance stately measures while the music exudes the scented glamour which permeates all the composer’s output (tip - watch the Bolshoi production of the scene on U-Tube if you have it – it’s a joy!)
Some melodies have become so familiar that everyone, even those not musically inclined, can recognize them and (if challenged to do so) hum, whistle or even sing them: what about ‘land of hope and glory’, ‘should auld acquaintance be forgot…’ ‘by a sleepy lagoon’, ‘summertime’ etc. etc.? a list of such tunes would ‘girdle the earth’ and many more examples, of course, could be added. And it would certainly include Variation18 from Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This intensely poignant melody has popularly been extracted from the main composition and performed as a single concert item on hundreds of occasions wherever and whenever orchestras play. This is not to overlook the astonishing brilliance of the main piece composed by Rachmaninoff at his villa by Lake Lucerne in 1934; there he enjoyed a break from the relentless round of solo piano recitals imposed on him by his adoring American hosts and a chance to return to composition, largely neglected over the preceding fifteen years – balm to his reflective Russian soul. But, to return briefly to variation 18, was this a burst of inspiration sent from Heaven above? Not really; Rachmaninoff simply took Paganini’s main theme and stood it on its head. You could claim that what he did with it then was certainly inspired!
Before leaving the subject of this classic work for piano and orchestra mention should be made of our soloist Martin James Bartlett. Fortunate indeed was the DSO to secure his services as he was the recently chosen finalist at the annual BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, playing the Rhapsody before a distinguished panel of judges at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh who were unanimous in voting him a clear winner. So Martin came to us fresh from this triumph and gave us a performance riveting in its technical mastery and mature artistry, impressive in one who had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday. Impressive also was the way that, throughout the performance, he played with the orchestra and they with him, resulting in an artistic bonding enviable by any musician. For the DSO and its many friends it was a privilege to be at the launch of someone who must be able to look forward to a career as an international virtuoso.
What better way to end this memorable programme of the work of two great Russian masters than with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.5? This work contains all that is best in Tchaikovsky: unfailing melodic inspiration, rich orchestral colouring and depth of feeling. But there is, in this work, something exceptional which contrasts with the characteristic tone evidenced in most of the composer’s purely orchestral output. Tchaikovsky was a deeply troubled man with a melancholy strain in his emotional make-up, and one is aware of this in much of his music. But the Fifth Symphony, which begins on a funereal note, progresses by stages to a triumphant conclusion – in technical terms from a solemn minor in the first movement to a blazing major in the finale. This sounds the right note on which to end a wonderful concert in which the DSO have never performed with greater vitality and cohesion, and they have it all to play for under the tireless baton of maestro Tom Loten.
A programme of romantic music was appropriately introduced by the brilliant Polonaise from the opera Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. Based on a verse novel by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin the storyline involves four nice, ordinary people who so mismanage their relationships that the end result is tragedy. We must not, however, sustain a solemn note. The Polonaise drives the ball scene at the start of Act 3. The venue is a great hall in Tsarist St. Petersburg; crowds of beautiful women and handsome men dance stately measures while the music exudes the scented glamour which permeates all the composer’s output (tip - watch the Bolshoi production of the scene on U-Tube if you have it – it’s a joy!)
Some melodies have become so familiar that everyone, even those not musically inclined, can recognize them and (if challenged to do so) hum, whistle or even sing them: what about ‘land of hope and glory’, ‘should auld acquaintance be forgot…’ ‘by a sleepy lagoon’, ‘summertime’ etc. etc.? a list of such tunes would ‘girdle the earth’ and many more examples, of course, could be added. And it would certainly include Variation18 from Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This intensely poignant melody has popularly been extracted from the main composition and performed as a single concert item on hundreds of occasions wherever and whenever orchestras play. This is not to overlook the astonishing brilliance of the main piece composed by Rachmaninoff at his villa by Lake Lucerne in 1934; there he enjoyed a break from the relentless round of solo piano recitals imposed on him by his adoring American hosts and a chance to return to composition, largely neglected over the preceding fifteen years – balm to his reflective Russian soul. But, to return briefly to variation 18, was this a burst of inspiration sent from Heaven above? Not really; Rachmaninoff simply took Paganini’s main theme and stood it on its head. You could claim that what he did with it then was certainly inspired!
Before leaving the subject of this classic work for piano and orchestra mention should be made of our soloist Martin James Bartlett. Fortunate indeed was the DSO to secure his services as he was the recently chosen finalist at the annual BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, playing the Rhapsody before a distinguished panel of judges at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh who were unanimous in voting him a clear winner. So Martin came to us fresh from this triumph and gave us a performance riveting in its technical mastery and mature artistry, impressive in one who had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday. Impressive also was the way that, throughout the performance, he played with the orchestra and they with him, resulting in an artistic bonding enviable by any musician. For the DSO and its many friends it was a privilege to be at the launch of someone who must be able to look forward to a career as an international virtuoso.
What better way to end this memorable programme of the work of two great Russian masters than with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.5? This work contains all that is best in Tchaikovsky: unfailing melodic inspiration, rich orchestral colouring and depth of feeling. But there is, in this work, something exceptional which contrasts with the characteristic tone evidenced in most of the composer’s purely orchestral output. Tchaikovsky was a deeply troubled man with a melancholy strain in his emotional make-up, and one is aware of this in much of his music. But the Fifth Symphony, which begins on a funereal note, progresses by stages to a triumphant conclusion – in technical terms from a solemn minor in the first movement to a blazing major in the finale. This sounds the right note on which to end a wonderful concert in which the DSO have never performed with greater vitality and cohesion, and they have it all to play for under the tireless baton of maestro Tom Loten.