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Prom 73, Vaughan Williams, Xenakis and Holst: Elizabeth Watts (soprano), 4-Mality, O Duo, women’s voices of the Holst Singers (chorus master: Stephen Farr), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Royal Albert Hall, London, 10.9.2008 (BBr)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony No.7) (1948/1952)
Iannis Xenakis: Pleiades (1979) (first performance at the Proms)
Gustav Holst: The Planets, op.32 (1914/1916)


Tonight’s concert started with Roger Wright, director of the Proms and Controller of BBC Radio 3, announcing the news of the death, earlier today, of Vernon Handley and speaking briefly, but eloquently, of his life and work. That there was a special feeling about the performance surely had much to do with the fact that Tod, as he was known to everyone, musicians and public alike, was loved and revered for the great human being he was. The concert was typical Tod (consummate musician that he was he would, if called upon to do so, have conducted Xenakis with all his professionalism and given a fine performance) and was dedicated to his memory.

The Sinfonia Antarctica is based on music Vaughan Williams wrote for the film Scott of the Antarctic, featuring a fine performance by John Mills as the eponymous hero. The five movements bring together different musics from the film and paint pictures of various events and places; the depiction of an ice fall for full organ is one of the most cataclysmic moments in all VW’s work. He uses a lot of percussion – much of it new to him at the time – and the new sounds he created, together with a wordless female chorus, which is always accompanied by a wind machine (off stage tonight)  are quite unlike anything else he achieved – even the ‘phones and ‘spiels of the 8^th don’t manage to do what he did here. Brabbins directed a towering performance, full of emotion but yet restrained, stiff British upper lip to the fore don’-'cher -know? The BBC players responded to Brabbins' every inspiration; the woodwind section was especially fine, with beautiful ensemble and phrasing, and the strings, icy and glassy in their intensity.

This was a concert in three halves (to slightly misquote John Motson (if I remember correctly) and the filling in the musical sandwich was Iannis Xenakis’s quite astonishing percussion sextet Pleiades, played by the members of 4-Mality and O Duo. Written for the Percussions de Strasbourg (who else?) the work is in four huge sections, each focusing on different sonorities – metal, keyboards, mixtures (of what has gone before) and skins. Xenakis was always uncompromising in his music and Pleiades is no exception. However, despite that  this work is quite Beethovenian in its outlook and layout. First and foremost it could be a Symphony, the four movements correspond almost perfectly to a symphonic layout. Secondly it has a momentum which is found in all Beethoven‘s symphonic works - bgy now you probably think that I have lost my marbles but bear with me. The first movement, for metal sounds only, is forthright and thrusting, never letting go in its headlong forward rush. There is even (al least to me) the hint of a recapitulation. It’s a superb achievement by any composers' standards and it’s a thrilling conception. This didn’t stop a cat call or two and several members of the audience making for the exits however. The second piece, for marimbas, vibraphones and other tuned instruments, is playful and scherzo–like, and, to bring back the Beethoven analogy, it even has a jokey, fast, coda à la scherzo of the 9^th Symphony, after which more of the audience escaped to the foyers. The middle movement mixed tuned and untuned instruments in a kaleidoscope of sound,  and the final movement concentrated on drums, timpani, tom-toms, side drums in a fast finale which was all too short, the ending coming far too quickly.

Pleiades is not a piece for the feint hearted but it is a work which grows in stature with each hearing – and this was a performance which should have won it many new friends (unfortunately not the rock drummer friend with whom I attended the show). Wasn’t it Charles Ives who exhorted an audience member to use his ears like a man in the face of such fine new music? If the members of the audience who walked out had stayed and really listened they would have found much to admire and even enjoy. It’s a sad reflection on today’s concert-goers that such fine stuff can still scare the horses.

To end, one of Gustav Holst’s masterpieces, and his best known work, The Planets. A suite in seven movements ranging from the most musically horrifying depiction of war to the most gorgeous representation of beauty, and ending in the cold outer reaches of space. Again, Brabbins was at the helm and his gigantic forces, which filled the stage of the RAH, gave their all. It was a thrilling performance full of power, passion, tenderness and energy. Everyone concerned gave everything they could and my only complaint is that the ladies of the Holst Singers, far from being the ice maidens and space sirens they were supposed to be, were much too buxom and full of womanly warmth.

That said, as a de facto memorial to Tod Handley this was a splendid performance and he can rest assured that the valiant work he did throughout his career for and on behalf of British composers is safe in the hands of a younger generation headed by fine work from Martyn Brabbins. RIP Tod.

Bob Briggs

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