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Shostakovich 4
My journey in to London yesterday was just like old times. In Reading, I found King's Meadow Car Park was closed for cleaning; I backtracked to Hill's Meadow, cautious that it used to close at 9pm, but believing it now has 24 hour access (and 24 hour charges). Then, a points failure somewhere seemed to be causing chaos in the station, although in practice it wasn't too long a wait for a train.
So for Prom 16 I was the rail, although a bit further off-centre than I would have preferred. John Storgårds conducted the BBC Philharmonic. For the first half, Lawrence Power was the soloist in Cassandra Miller's viola concerto I cannot love without trembling. It's not quite Rail Replacement Bus Service, but BBC co-commission isn't one of those phrases to trigger unfettered joy. Actually the piece was interesting, but for me it never quite built up enough momentum. It seemed to be full of micro-tones but rarely broke out of its somnolence. I suspect it deserves more listening, but may be unlikely to get it.
The main event was the second half, a performance of Shostakovich's infamous Symphony No. 4. A road not taken, as someone in the queue had said earlier, as the composer decided to file this piece after Stalin's criticism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. There's truth to that, but it still shares quite a bit of its sound world with later siblings. In the recording I have (WDR/Barshai) there's a passage just before the recapitulation in the first movement where rising strings give me the impression of an accelerating electric motor, like a tube train, tram, or lift. But in Storgårds' rendition, this passage was completely devoid of any legato, and produced a very different effect. I expected an interesting performance, and I was not disappointed. It's a long time since I saw this symphony previously, and I can't remember the detail to compare. Although I stand by the Mahlerian comparison - perhaps even more evident with the contrasts between woodwind fragments and orchestral tutti sections - as a whole the work has grown on me. The ending is tragic, but perhaps also defiant; the light is dwindling but it is not altogether extinguished.
So for Prom 16 I was the rail, although a bit further off-centre than I would have preferred. John Storgårds conducted the BBC Philharmonic. For the first half, Lawrence Power was the soloist in Cassandra Miller's viola concerto I cannot love without trembling. It's not quite Rail Replacement Bus Service, but BBC co-commission isn't one of those phrases to trigger unfettered joy. Actually the piece was interesting, but for me it never quite built up enough momentum. It seemed to be full of micro-tones but rarely broke out of its somnolence. I suspect it deserves more listening, but may be unlikely to get it.
The main event was the second half, a performance of Shostakovich's infamous Symphony No. 4. A road not taken, as someone in the queue had said earlier, as the composer decided to file this piece after Stalin's criticism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. There's truth to that, but it still shares quite a bit of its sound world with later siblings. In the recording I have (WDR/Barshai) there's a passage just before the recapitulation in the first movement where rising strings give me the impression of an accelerating electric motor, like a tube train, tram, or lift. But in Storgårds' rendition, this passage was completely devoid of any legato, and produced a very different effect. I expected an interesting performance, and I was not disappointed. It's a long time since I saw this symphony previously, and I can't remember the detail to compare. Although I stand by the Mahlerian comparison - perhaps even more evident with the contrasts between woodwind fragments and orchestral tutti sections - as a whole the work has grown on me. The ending is tragic, but perhaps also defiant; the light is dwindling but it is not altogether extinguished.