Above: conductor Edward Gardner
~ Author: Ben Weaver
Saturday October 19th, 2024 - The London Philharmonic returned to New York City tonight after a lengthy absence for a one-night only appearance at Carnegie Hall. An eclectic program of 20th and 21st century works, it gave a wonderful overview of the different styles of music that over the past 100 years.
Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich will forever be linked not just because they were contemporaries, but because they were also friends and admirers of each other’s works.
Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, composed in 1940 after a commission by the Japanese government, was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1941 conducted by John Barbirolli after the Japanese government rejected it. The work is Britten’s first major orchestral work that did not include a soloist, and is actually his largest orchestral work for the concert hall.
Sinfonia da Requiem's thunderous opening of the Lacrymosa movement is led by timpani and quickly settles into a dark cellos-led brooding, desolate march, intensely led by London Philharmonic’s principal conductor Edward Gardner. The movement builds to an explosive finale and without a break (all movements are connected) moves to the Dies irae, a scherzo/gallop. Britten subtitled it a “Dance of Death.” Here the crisp rhythms were beautifully articulated by the orchestra, as was the closing Requiem aeternam, as calm returns and the work closes on a beautifully sustained closing note by the clarinet (the principal soloist was Benjamin Mellefont.)
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was composed in 1947-48, just as Shostakovich and many of his colleagues were condemned by Stalin for writing the wrong sort of music for the Soviet people. Though Shostakovich completed the work under this dangerous spotlight, he shelved it until 1955 - when Stalin was already dead - when it was finally premiered by its dedicatee David Oistrakh.
Tonight’s superb soloist was Patricia Kopatchinskaja (above, in a Marco Borggreve portrait), a unique and quirky artist whose musicality and dramatic commitment can hardly be bettered. Kopatchinskaja performed barefoot, something she has done in the past. Perhaps feeling the stage so directly helps her dig in for the musical storms that follow. In any case, her flowing pantaloons hid her bare feet most of the time - and I know some people object very strongly to this unusual practice. Personally I have no objection to what performers wear - or don’t wear. Kopatchinskaja’s performance of this very difficult work was all fire.
The opening Nocturne begins quietly with a brief introduction from the lower strings before the soloist comes in with a flowing, mournful theme. Throughout the work the moods shift from the deepest sorrow to white-hot rage, and Kopatchinskaja delivered every mood with complete commitment and technical perfection. She makes a big sound with little effort. There’s an emphasis on the modernity of the concerto over its lyricism. She can scale the sound down to a tiny whisper. The audience was hypnotized and was remarkably quiet.
The concerto’s closing Passacaglia movement contains an astonishing cadenza: an extended solo that Kopatchinskaja delivered with hair-raising intensity. Throughout, Maestro Gardner supported the soloist wonderfully, by keeping the orchestra at bay, never letting them cover the violinist. Ms. Kopatchinskaja was greeted with thunderous applause and multiple curtain calls. She held up Shostakovich’s score as a special acknowledgment of the man who gave us the music. And as the audience demanded an encore, Ms. Kopatchinskaja said “After this concerto, there is nothing left to say,” and she walked off for the final time.
Tania León’s 2024 composition “Raíces” (Origins) was written for the London Philharmonic, which premiered it in earlier this year, also under the leadership of maestro Gardner. It is a fun piece filled with unusual and varied sounds. Its opening, with jagged high violins, reminded me of Leoš Janáček’s signature style. The kaleidoscopic nature of the piece is meant to represent the sounds of life around Ms. León growing up in Cuba. The cacophony of sounds was quiet pleasant, with some big Romantic flourishes towards the end. The London Philharmonic played it all superbly and Maestro Gardner kept the seemingly disjointed musical ideas beautifully connected. Ms. León was warmly received by the audience at the conclusion of the piece.
Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 closed the concert. A big, beautiful work, it is always a pleasure to hear live. Sibelius could paint pictures with sound like few others, particularly sounds of nature. The majestic opening was gloriously played by the horns, which played wonderfully throughout the night. The wonderful pizzicato movement was played to perfection by the strings. The only disappointment of the night came in the final movement, where the glorious “swans” theme, the one the symphony is building to, was lost. Maestro Gardner just let it come and go all too casually. But the closing moments were thrilling, with the huge sound of the orchestra filling the hall.
As an encore the London Philharmonic and Edward Gardner delivered a moving rendition of the Nimrod movement from Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
~ Ben Weaver