SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Prom 19, Hesketh, Beethoven and Rachmaninov: Paul Lewis (piano), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko, Royal Albert Hall, London, 1.8.2008 (BBr)

Kenneth Hesketh: Graven Image (2008) (world première)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4 in G, op.58 (1804/1806)

Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, op.45 (1940)


For his first Proms commission, Kenneth Hesketh – who is composer in the House with the Liverpool Philharmonic – has given us a work of deep seriousness and radiant beauty. Starting with quiet dissonances for flutes and percussion, the clarinet gives a long theme which ranges over the whole of the instruments register. The orchestration gets bigger, more colourful, rich string chords accompany woodwind melismata. The horns take up a theme. The pulse is slow, giving us time to really savour the music. Gentle percussion adds to the dreamlike quality of the sound. The middle section, thrilling in its intensity, which uses the brass to great effect, creates a big climax before we are led back to the mood of the opening. More restrained than before, the final section sings of sorrow, the music gradually reduces to a single tone, and it’s all over too soon. This is a fine piece, and it received a performance of real commitment. Obviously a lot of time and energy had been spent on preparing this work and Hesketh can be proud of “his” orchestra.

The Beethoven 4^th Concerto seemed small scale by comparison. Paul Lewis is known as a fine Beethovenian but tonight he failed to engage me. He played well, as did the orchestra, but there seemed to be little insight. The somewhat delayed, and meagre, applause given at the conclusion of the first movement give the impression of confirming my feelings. The strange slow movement, Orpheus taming the Furies (according to Beethoven’s 19^th century biographer A B Marx), felt as if the piano and strings were on different plains, never meeting or discussing matters. Perhaps part of the problem was that the reduced orchestra, in such a large space as the Albert Hall, couldn’t quite fill the acoustic. In the long run, for me (and my companion) at least, soloist and conductor seemed disengaged from the music.

After the interval all went well with a white hot account of Rachmaninov’s final work – the Symphonic Dances. The first movement is marked Non Allegro (not fast) and Petrenko chose to ignore the non bit and give us lots of the allegro. Certainly this is the fastest performance of this first dance I’ve ever heard. There was a slight feeling of the music being rushed, but when it settled into the slow second theme (some beautiful woodwind playing here, accompanying the solo saxophone), and in the slower coda, he found exactly the right tempo and coaxed gorgeous playing from the strings. Especially memorable was his phrasing of the main theme from the 1^st Symphony with the most subtle bell accompaniment. What Petrenko must remember is that if he gives too much momentum to this first dance it could overshadow the final catastrophe of the last dance. Please curb your enthusiasm a little, Mr Petrenko!

The second, waltz, movement was very well done, very danceable and, with the judicious use of rubato, one felt the phrases come alive as in a ballroom. It was a suave account, almost Tchaikovskian, but when things hot up, in what increasingly becomes an haunted ballroom of old Russia, it becomes a place of terror as the music turns into a wild danse macabre. But even this frightfest (to use a contemporary Hollywood phrase) cannot prepare us for the Totentanz of the final dance, which is an headlong rush towards oblivion. Fantastic it certainly is, Rachmaninov’s original name for the work was Fantastic Dances, demonic and with the most hair raising writing for the orchestra. Petrenko pulled out all the stops and the orchestra responded to his vision with virtuoso playing of the highest calibre. There were no single stars in this performance, for the orchestra itself was the star. At the end, where the sound of the tam tam is left suspended in the air, there truly was a feeling of the end of things.

The response of the audience was as much a release of the tension created as a giant thank you to the players. We were granted an encore – the delightful hopak from Mussorgsky’s Sorotchinsky Fair.

Three nights ago, the Hallé proved what a fine band Manchester has, tonight, Liverpool was done equally proud!

Bob Briggs

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page