SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Bach, Mendelssohn and  Kenneth Hesketh: John Daszak (tenor) Robert Prosseda  (piano) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/ Harry Bicket (conductor)  Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 19.1.2008 (GMH)

Bach – Orchestral Suite No 3
Mendelssohn – Piano Concerto No 3 in E minor
Kenneth Hesketh – Like the sea, like time (World premiere)


There was a time when Liverpool audiences sat, packed into Philharmonic Hall, to hear some of the most outlandish and challenging new music. Sir John Pritchard’s Music Viva concerts of the 1950s and 1960s commanded national, if not international, attention,  so, in the year that Liverpool parades its cultural wares in front of a sceptical world, it’s good to see that local audiences seem to have regained their old sense of curiosity. While audiences for film and television seem always to be craving something new, to add the word ‘premiere’ to any musical billing was – in recent years, at least – tantamount to box office suicide,

But, once again, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic attracted an almost full house for the world premiere of Kenneth Hesketh’s shattering, monumental work Like the sea, like time. Unusually for the present day, this work was commissioned using private funds, thanks to the generosity of the H B Bicket Charitable Trust. And that trust must have felt that it was money well spent, for it earned a warm response from the audience. It was, however, an ambitious piece and is one of four large-scale choral premieres scheduled for the Capital of Culture year. Not only was the RLPO hugely augmented, bu the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir was also joined by the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the New London Chamber Choir.

The lyrical and evocative opening metamorphosed into a multi-layered choral prologue in which the drama built to a massive climax, a tiny trickle slowly becoming a raging torrent. At times, the first part was listless, at others almost calm. Right through the piece the word-painting by the orchestra richly complemented the narrative of the words.

The restless cross-rhythms in the second part led to a furious depiction of storms in which choral voices were also used as instruments to add to the drama. The children’s choir was particularly special, coping with complex lines with ease and with a purity of tone and clarity of diction. The adult choirs, too, produced some splendid a cappella sections in part three while, at the end of this section, there was some delicate, refined playing from the orchestra.Tenor John Daszak was a fine lyrical soloist, singing lines often reminiscent of Tippett opera. Conductor Harry Bicket, perhaps more often associated with early music, drew the drama out of this piece in fine style.

The opening work – Bach’s Orchestral Suite No Three – heard the RLPO don its Baroque cloak, and it worked. The ouverture opened rather stiffly but, after a translucent Air, the gavottes, bourée and gigue passed off in fine style.

The UK premiere of the reconstructed Mendelssohn E Minor Piano Concerto with soloist Robert Prosseda was interesting, though lacking the panache and verve of the two more familiar concerti. The piece was reconstructed and orchestrated by composer/conductor Marcello Bufalini, with Proseda’s assistance.

While the opening movement was somewhat ponderous, the andante was evocative of the second movement of the second symphony – the Hymn of Praise, while the whole work felt rooted in the Songs without words. The redeeming movement was the finale, where some virtuoso moments for the pianist were balanced with some fine playing by the RLPO.


Glyn Mon Hughes

Glyn Mon Hughes is music critic of the Liverpool Daily Post, writes for Classical Music and Music Teacher and is lecturer in journalism at Liverpool John Moores University. (Ed)

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