SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Prom 44, Elliott Carter, Prokofiev and  Beethoven:  BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor) Nicolas Hodges (piano) Alban Gerhardt (cello) Royal Albert Hall 18.8.2008 (GD)

Elliott Carter Soundings (UK premiere)
Prokofiev Symphony Concerto
Beethoven Symphony No 6 in F major, Op. 68, ‘Pastoral’


Carter composed Soundings for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2005 at the age of 96! This was to mark the event of Daniel Barenboims’ departure as music director of the CSO and  was written for Barenboim as both conductor and pianist in the work. Soundings constitutes Carter’s third work in the last five years for piano and orchestra; Dialogues and Interventions were the two earlier pieces. Like those, Soundings is not in the standard sense a piano concerto, the piano being more a part of the various different orchestral textures and projections. Neither is the piano part in Soundings necessarily and organically linked thematically to the orchestral structures. Among contemporary composers Carter is unique in the way he can condense a multiplicity of themes/textures in a work lasting 10 minutes. In that 10minute span he traverses a huge soundscape (or more impressionistically ‘landscape’) of musical ideas. The concertante ‘interruption’ from contrabass clarinet to bass trombone and E flat clarinet interweave with the orchestra and sparing use of the piano in ways which interconnect in their differences rather than in their structural correspondence. The piano’s fragmented commentaries at the end of the work make only the most remote allusions to any thematic development from earlier material. As always with Carter,  percussion (a whole array here) plays an important role either as solo interventions or in dialogue with woodwind clusters and configurations in the central section (if central in its traditional narrative meaning is the correct term here)? A strangely haunting bass tuba quasi-cadenza adds a totally new timbre to the work which links in sequence to the enigmatic piano’s single notes with desolate woodwind figures towards the coda.

Volkov, Hodges and the orchestra gave what sounded like a most well rehearsed rendition tonight. In particular the BBCSSO’s string section was able to sustain Carter’s deceptively (in real time) longues durées. Also the all important percussion writing integrated superbly throughout. I have not heard the CSO’s performance with Barenboim, and it is a scandal that it as not been  recorded -(as far as I know) But I would be surprised if it proved to be substantially better than tonight’s U K premiere.

I can’t think of a more contrasted work to Soundings than Prokofiev’s 1951/52 Symphony-Concerto. Although the composer, with Rostropovich’s encouragement, reworked it from his earlier first Cello Concerto, and subsequently put the work through various revisions, thus giving it something of a hybrid character (in its very title) it comes across as a thematically closely-knit work in contrast to Carter’s elliptical statement.  The opening of the the piece  with its 4-note ostinato (E-F sharp-G-B) which is actually an incorporation of the same set of themes in the death-potion motif in the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ballet score,  was inflected with the right degree of rhythmic verve by soloist and conductor. In the second movement I felt at times, in the lyrical contrast of the étude-like mid-section of the allegro giusto,  that Volkov could have allowed the music to expand a little more. Gerhardt, whose very taxing cello part hardly lets up for the work’s 40 minute duration, was superbly projected  catching the terse concentrated tone in the short cadenzas, as indeed  throughout the whole work. My only quibble is that from were I was sitting, in the central stalls, I could see Gerhardt’s tireless efforts, but could not hear the full range of his cello sonorities. The massive Albert Hall acoustic is not very kind to solo stringed instruments.

In the more extrovert finale in the form of theme and variations,  both the more carnivalesque folk elements and more disparate and reflective tones were delivered with a superb sense of pacing and brio by both conductor and soloist. Here Volkov’s attention to detail really paid off with truculent, but sardonic brass rhythms, snarling woodwinds particularly in their lower registers, and the most effectively economical unleashing of timpani and percussion interjections. All in the context of superb orchestral balance.  This major work by Prokofiev deserves to be played more often. It was a tribute to both the conductor and soloist that it received its first Prom performance tonight and I hope they go on to record this protean work, or that it this performance is issued as a BBC recording.

After hearing this ‘Pastoral’ my estimation of Volkov has gone up considerably as he has not always convinced me in the past. But with the superb BBC Scottish orchestra of which he has been principal conductor since 2003, the obviously very close relationship they have developed was certainly in evidence in this symphony as indeed throughout the whole concert. Toscanini said that together with the ninth he had always found the ‘Pastoral’ the most difficult of the Beethoven symphonies especially in terms of getting the instrumental/orchestral balance right :  he would spend hours in rehearsal balancing horns, clarinets, and bassoons in the opening exposition figure. I mention  this because tonight Volkov and the orchestra achieved this correct balance in most places together with  a  lucid clarity throughout. I was going to say that this was more a period influenced rendition with its clarity of instrumental texture and fastish tempi,  but just by looking at the score one sees that Beethoven never asks for a slow tempo at all. What is usually and erroneously called the ‘slow movement’ is ‘Andante molto mosso’, flowing, with movement. And it was largely through following the correct tempo markings, with the occasional well chosen subtle ritenuto in the phrasing that Volkov was so successful. Here and there I would have wanted a greater sense of symphonic tension as in the long crescendi in the first movement development, or a touch more coarseness in the strings and woodwind in the ‘peasants merrymaking’ scherzo and trio. But overall this was a most successful performance; Volkov balancing for once the ornithological woodwind cadenza at the second movement coda with accuracy and clarity.

My only real disappointment came with the storm. Both the ominous lead up and cohering tempo of the storm were well articulated and balanced. But the unleashing of the storm itself lacked that essential dramatic impact. In fact it didn’t sound at all ‘unleashed’, simply just played . Also, and contrary to all the score material I know, Volkov introduced a decrescendo in the timpani after their initial ff entry which further weakened the sense of sustained drama. Furthermore throughout the storm, timpani and brass interjections were also played down thus robbing the piece of its essential force which is in contrast to the mostly genial character of the rest of the score. This lapse was all the more disconcerting as the important transition from the storm to the concluding ‘Shepherds thanksgiving’ was superbly crafted and paced, as was the finale itself.

Altogether a most rewarding concert perceptively programmed and superbly performed.  And my disappointment regarding the the storm in the ‘Pastoral’ may not be felt as strongly by others.

Geoff Diggines


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