The Dome, 25 November 2012

Howard Shelley was both conductor and soloist for this concert, and an impressive job he made of both roles. He opened with a rarity – Weber’s Jubilee Overture of 1818. It’s slightly pompous opening leads quickly into an energetic theme which one could be forgiven for thinking a pastiche. If this seemed all rather too glib, the inclusion of a windband version of our national anthem at the end made one wonder if it wasn’t all rather too tongue-in-cheek. Splendidly played, with vibrant brass and wind throughout it was a fitting contrast to the rest of the afternoon.

The grand piano, minus its lid, was placed square on to us so that Howard Shelley had his back to us the whole time for Beethoven’s 4^th piano concert. While we may have missed some of his articulation we saw all of his conducting, standing up at the piano when there were extended passages for orchestra and conducting with one hand where the scoring allowed. It was very impressive and the rapport between players and pianist exemplary. The final movement was brisk and bright throughout.

Brahms’ 1^st symphony may be very familiar but the orchestral layout on this occasion gave it an extra bite. The impact of the brass, noted in the Weber, was even stronger for Brahms. The four horns were on a raised platform and sang out over the strings with unexpected clarity. There were passages in which I can’t recall ever being aware of the horns before but here they were and how impressive their lines seemed.

But the brass did not have it all their own way. The solo oboe was fluid and effective in the slow movement and the whole wind section on good form for the third movement. The main theme in the final movement was heralded by exquisite brass fanfares – like the dawn chorus awaiting the sun.

At the end of the performance Howard Shelley not only raised the solo instruments for applause, he raised each section of the strings in turn. I have not seen this before but it was very pleasing – the strings too often get a raw deal when it comes to applause! BH

 2012 marks the 21^st birthday of the Bath Mozartfest which goes from strength to strength. One of the great benefits is of course the city itself. While we were there for the music, we were also able to visit the Thermae for the first time and indulge ourselves in the natural spa waters of the outdoor roof-top pool, even in mid-November, which is at a constant 46°. We were also able to attend mid-week communion in the Abbey on Thursday morning, so all-in-all we did exactly as our Georgian forbears would have done in the 18th century –  a feast of fine food, fine company, and fine entertainment. 

London Winds    Assembly Rooms 13 November

The acoustic in the Assembly Room appears to amplify the sound and bounce it back from the ceiling. For the London Winds this meant that the impact was loud and warm if not always totally transparent. They opened with Mozart’s Serenade in C, a darkly brooding performance with an almost forced formality at times. Only the final variations brought any sense of daylight. By contrast Janacek’s Youth brought a playfulness and innocence which was both a relief and a delight. The single horn call at the start seemed to fill the hall with its brilliance and the Moderato was humane and joyful.

After the interval we heard an arrangement of three movements from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, where the melancholic edge was offset by the dance rhythms.

The anonymous arrangement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was the festival rarity and made for a fine conclusion to the evening. The opening movement was hard driven and hard edged in tone, with a fiercely metallic sound from the oboe and an answering stridency from the clarinet. At times it sounded more like Berlioz than Beethoven. The slow movement brought some fine bassoon solo work but the final Allegro con brio seemed unnecessarily rushed. Just because a small ensemble can play faster does not always mean it is a benefit to do so. However, the arrangement brought us a new understanding of Beethoven’s construction and the delicacy of his part writing, so was well worth hearing.

London Haydn Quartet    Guildhall 14 November 

The following lunchtime at the Guildhall brought the London Haydn Quartet in works by Haydn and Dvorak. The Guildhall’s acoustic is far crisper than the Assembly Room and allowed the most delicate of playing to be easily heard. They opened with Haydn’s Op76 No1, with its Schubertian touches and sublime slow movement. Haydn’s leaning towards romanticism here was well developed by the quartet and the Beethovenesque Menuetto and the playfulness of the final movement were very attractive.

Dvorak’s Op51 is clearly a favourite of the quartet, and their delight in playing it was visible throughout. The opening movement allows the melodic lines to grow and develop organically, combining a tight structure with a more relaxed dance motif. The gentle if slightly soporific Romanza proved a little too much for Catherine Manson, the lead violin, as she broke a string – ending the movement re-fingering the work across the remaining three.  While she was restringing, James Boyd was able to talk to us briefly about their use of gut strings. The sound is far better for these works, particularly in the Guildhall’s acoustic, but the risk of breakage is all the higher. Safely restrung, the Finale proved irresistible.

Sitkovetsky Piano Trio    Assembly Rooms 14 November

My concerns about the relative acoustics of the two venues in Bath were born out that evening when we heard the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio in the Assembly Room. There was no doubting the exceptional quality of the playing, particularly in Beethoven’s Archduke Trio, but the quality of sound in the lower registers was noticeable by its lack of impact. Where the cello in the Guildhall was vibrant and firm all the way down, the cello here lacked impact in the lower octaves. Surprisingly the piano seemed to carry better though even that lacked some bass penetration.

All of which was a pity for the young players were in excellent form, opening with Mozart’s K548. Here the Andante cantabile was particularly effective, preparing us for the romantic fury of Brahms’ Op 101. The sudden richness of scoring and intensity of the sound was unexpected and all the more effective. The second movement brought little respite and only the lovely cantabile lines from the pianist in the Andante grazioso eased the mind. The final movement brings more tension though Brahms does allow us a slightly more optimistic conclusion.

By contrast the Archduke Trio was balm to the soul. The nobility and panache of the opening movement swept all before it until the final Allegro brings youth and hope. On the way the Andante cantabile seems so beautiful it is almost wasted on a Trio – if that is not heresy!

Alasdair Beatson    Guildhall 15 November

Pianist Alasdair Beatson is a late romantic at heart as his concert demonstrated in the Guildhall on Thursday lunchtime. Mozart’s Variations on Gluck’s Unser dummer Pobel meint K455 may be somewhat tongue-in-cheek but the grandeur that Alasdair Beatson brings to the work convinces us throughout. His bold and often aggressive playing makes the Steinway work for its money and singing out into the Guildhall across its full range and dynamic.

His approach to Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy was equally dynamic, with its punchy bass chords and joyful exuberance. That the Adagio seems to prefigure Liszt was all the more obvious in the light of the rest of the programme which was given over to the composer’s arrangements of Schubert and Schumann.

Du bist die Ruh made a gentle contrast with the fire of the Wanderer with its fine phrasing and pace. Gretchen am Spinnrade was romantically forceful and filled out with Lisztian runs and ornamentation. Schumann’s Widmung brought the concert to a warmly, if somewhat sentimental, conclusion, but one that was loved by all.

Alasdair Beatson was so enthusiastically received that an encore was inevitable, and we heard Faure’s Dance Caprise, its lighting shifting moods acting as a soufflé after the Liszt.

English Chamber Orchestra  Assembly Rooms 15 November

The English Chamber Orchestra provided a popular but none the less welcome programme at the Assembly Room that evening, opening with Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No 6. It is difficult to accept that a work of this complexity and style was composed by a twelve year old with no intention of publication, but such are the facts. Not only was the performance highly enjoyable but the precision the orchestra find without a conductor continues to impress.

Two Mozart concerti followed. The orchestra’s leader and director, Stephanie Gonley, gave us a meaty reading of the violin concerto No4, with a series of stylish cadenzas. Richard Watkins was the accomplished soloist in the 4^th Horn Concerto. Again the acoustic was somewhat strange. The sound from the soloist was never in doubt but appeared to be coming from the upper left cornice about ten foot above his head, and divorced from the string sound which was so obviously surrounding him. Given that most modern PA systems go out of their way to ensure that any amplification does not over-ride the apparent source of the sound, it is odd that a natural acoustic does just that!

No such problem with the final work, Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings. This masterpiece seemed the best suited to the Room and we were able to wallow in Dvorak’s intense romanticism. The five movements flowed with a simple inevitability to the point where the return of the opening melody almost demands that we hear the whole work over again. The quality of the ensemble playing was faultless and the balance never in doubt. A wonderful way to end our visit. BH

If you have yet to discover the delights of Bath outside the ‘normal’ season, and at a time of far fewer daily tourists, the next big musical event is the Bath Bachfest which runs from 21-23 February 2013. www.bathbachfest.org.uk

It is not often these days that a production is both modern and highly sensitive to both the music and text of an opera. We have, over recent years, swung wildly between the excessively relevant and the pompously ‘authentic’, with neither feeling satisfactory in the theatre. Maybe it is Yoshi Oida’s ability to work within both traditional Japanese art forms and western music that makes him an ideal interpreter of Vaughan Williams’ rarely performed The Pilgrim’s Progress. The composer himself wanted a production that was spiritually alive and yet not specifically Christian. He would surely have been delighted by what Yoski Oida has created, particularly in the rituals and calm relationships which unfold slowly before us. It might not have the length of Parsifal but there is an intensity about the flow of the music which is far closer to Wagner than the pastoral English scene which the narrative often conjures up.

Tom Schenk sets the story within a prison where the warders and prisoners could be somewhere in Eastern Europe or Asia but the drabness of clothing and harshness of the prison doors and bars is a constant reminder of the reality of this dream. Bunyan is in prison throughout, and even if he reaches the Celestial City we are all well aware that this is not an escape so much as a vision of the spiritual life in the midst of an oppressive and often violent world. The sections of the set move with ease to create different environments and heights, allowing for smooth transitions and easy access for chorus and soloists. The introduction of the electric chair during the Vanity Fair scene is startling and effective, particularly when it becomes the focus of the final scene. That the text is frequently at odds with the visual image works extremely well. This is no updated juxtaposition, where Siegfried carries a sawn-off shotgun, but a world where the Pilgrim has a spiritual life which allows him to see through the immediate to the eternal. There is a fine moment when the three shepherds of the delectable mountain appear as priest, judge and doctor come to escort Pilgrim to his execution. What we see is banal and prosaic, but what Pilgrim is hearing is uplifting and profound. It is a wonderful concept and beautifully created.

The very large cast are fully committed to the work in a way which conveys no sense of cynicism or world-weariness. At its heart is Roland Wood as Pilgrim, looking like a worker who has managed to upset his boss rather than Everyman, but this is apt both to the work and this production. Timothy Robinson and Benedict Nelson make an individual impact, but there are no obvious weak links. Smaller parts flow in and out of the chorus, who are used as much as witnesses to Pilgrim as to commentators on the action.  Martyn Brabbins allows the score to unfold with great delicacy and has a particularly good ear for detail. It would be good to think the performance might be recorded both on CD and DVD. It deserves to be remembered. BH

Until Nov 28. Tickets: 020 7845 9300