The BBC Philharmonic – Mischief and Magic – Live Review

Saturday 5 October 2024

The Bridgewater Hall Manchester

*****

A magical evening of virtuosity and merriment

Last Saturday’s concert by the BBC Philharmonic took magic as its theme from Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet Petrushka, in which a magician brings the puppets to life. But this imaginatively programmed concert began with mischief, the other theme of the evening, in Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. Written in 1894–95 by Richard Strauss, the tone poem describes the practical jokes of the trickster of the title, a figure who has appeared in European literature since the early sixteenth century. A vast orchestra occupied the stage to illustrate his pranks, playing superbly, with playful enthusiasm, spirited soloists, and lots of detail and humour brought out by conductor John Storgårds who was active and expressive throughout. The piece had a false ending, illustrating Till’s death, after which Till’s theme returned but in a more lugubrious form as if he had returned to haunt us after death, asking him to mourn him. But before we got too sad, Till had the last laugh when he returned with a sparkling version of his theme – a jolly and inspiring start to the concert.

Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto (1796) continued the jolly theme, with lovely light orchestral textures in the first movement, stately strings in the second movement, and more of the jolly strings in the third. Those looking for magic could find it in the playing of the Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger. He played with a golden tone, rich and warm, with lovely articulation, sailing above the orchestra with lovely phrasing and great fluidity. His first movement cadenza, which he wrote himself as Haydn doesn’t provide one, was magical, leaping up and down the scale then becoming much simpler with subtle ornaments, ending with a tone that recalled the great Miles Davis. Hardenberger was a relaxed presence, joking with a violinist as he left the stage, and returning to a huge and well-deserved cheer.

The American composer Betsy Jolas was born in 1926 and is apparently still composing at the age of 98. She was born in Paris but moved with her family to the USA in the early 1940s, returning to Paris in 1946 to study with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. She was Messiaen’s assistant from 1971 to 1974, and wrote Onze Lieder (Eleven Songs) in 1977. The piece showed some influences from Messiaen, including the opening chord and some of the piano writing which could have come from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time (1941). But Jolas has found her own voice, influenced more by sixteenth century polyphonic vocal music by the likes of Orlando di Lasso than by the intellectual rigours of the Darmstadt School of composers. Her love of vocal music was shown in the structure of the piece, a series of eleven short songs. Hardenberger brought the magic of his virtuosic playing to the solo trumpet part. It was also easy to imagine him as a magician, leading the chamber orchestra players as their parts echoed his. Particularly effective were the passages where a muted, distant-sounding trumpet from the orchestra echoed the solo trumpet in a moving duet. And towards the end there was a huge outburst from the solo trumpet as the orchestra clattered to the floor in anguish. The variety of Hardenberger’s playing was stunning. Sometimes the trumpet had a low rasp like a didgeridoo. Elsewhere equalling the playing and tone of avantgarde trumpeter Markus Stockhausen. And at other times his playing was decorative with a filigree effect, reminding us of the cadenza in the Haydn Concerto.

Hardenberger introduced the encore as, ‘another piece by an old lady who is still writing’, Joni Mitchell who is 80 years old. He played a gorgeous arrangement of Mitchell’s Both Sides, Now (1969) for string orchestra and solo trumpet. The piece features in an emotional scene from the film Love Actually (2003), in which Emma Thompson’s character quietly weeps as she listens to it. Hardenberger’s playing was warm and rich in this lovely piece.

The second half of the concert was a stunning performance of the 1911 version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. If Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is programmatic and episodic in structure and content, then Petrushka is even more so. Following along with a very detailed synopsis of the ballet by Robert Philip during the concert, it was possible to pick out each of the vividly characterised sections of the four Tableaus with ease, so expressive was the orchestral playing. Tableau One The Shrovetide Fair began with glittering woodwind and thrillingly fast chords illustrating the bustling of the crowd at the fair. Storgårds brought out every detail of the orchestral texture while maintaining momentum, with precise syncopation and perfect ensemble. The lilting flute solo from Alex Jakeman, illustrating the ‘Magic Trick’ of the magician introducing the puppets in his theatre was lovely. John Bradbury’s solo clarinet duetting with Ian Buckle on piano was colourful and vibrant. The Second Tableau Petrushka’s Room opened with excellent bassoon and trumpet solos, and Petrushka’s anger at the magician was stirringly drawn by the orchestra. The Third Tableau, The Moor’s Room began with a lurching evil-sounding dance created by unison clarinet and bass clarinet. The music of the flirtatious Ballerina, a slow waltz with scything lower strings, was a moment of quiet magic. There was virtuosic trumpet playing as Petrushka appeared, followed by brilliant flute and bassoon solos as the Moor and Petrushka fought. The fierce dissonances of muted trumpets brought out the tension between the Moor and Petrushka. and there were savage chords as the latter was beaten, the music still sounding fresh in this performance even though the piece is more than a century old. The final Tableau The Shrovetide Fair (Towards Evening) began with a bustling recreation of the opening of the First Tableau. Again, the orchestra excelled. It was fascinating to hear how Petrushka was a bridge between The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Some of the crunchy, fiercely rhythmic orchestral chords cast forward to Stravinsky’s Rite which used the whole orchestra as a percussion instrument, and the quiet orchestral chords near the end cast back to the more romantic style of The Firebird. At the very end, Petrushka’s ghost appeared, bringing us back to the death of Till Eulenspiegel at the beginning of the concert. The ending of Petrushka was strangely ambiguous and unresolved, but the audience on Saturday were left in no doubt about the quality of the BBC Philharmonic, both as individual solo players and as an ensemble, bringing this special evening to a magnificent end.

Performers

BBC Philharmonic
John Storgårds conductor
Håkan Hardenberger trumpet

Repertoire

Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Haydn Trumpet Concerto
Betsy Jolas Onze Lieder
Joni Mitchell Arr. R. Pontinen Both Sides, Now
Stravinsky Petrushka (1911 Version)

Source

Philip, Robert The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music (Yale University Press, 2018)

The complete concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 19.30 on Monday 14 October and will be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days after that.