SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Elias, Haydn and Tchaikovsky: Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bĕlohlávek (conductor), Barbican Hall London 16. 5.2009 (GD)

Brian Elias: 'Doubles'
Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op.74 'Pathétique'

Bĕlohlávek has inherited the Czech tradition of conductors like: Talich, Ančerl, Smetaček, Kosler, Chalabala and Mačal (still active) who were never reluctant to perform new music. Bĕlohlávek and the BBCSO have recently given London a distinctive Martinů symphonic cycle - otherwise not much performed in London - and a wonderful opportunity, with a marvellous recording, to hear in its full version Janáček's 'The Excursions of Mr Brouček'. And the BBCSO under Bĕlohlávek's direction have not sounded so well in decades! In a recent Dvořák symphony recording they made with him I had difficulty in distinguishing between them and the Czech Philharmonic!

Allegory is the most apt term to describe the theme of 'Doubles' in this Elias BBC-commissioned world premiere. 'Doubles' entails the imagistic or literary deployment of allegory in sound configurations that are constantly and elliptically open to either a transmutation (or re-morphing) of one or multiple elements, or, in parallel measure, doubling up on stated, or developed sequences. As the programme notes imply Elias has obviously used certain examples (unstated) from literature. The writer alludes to Dostoyevsky's short novel 'The Double', but one could also mention Otto Rank's classic study of 'The Double', and more recently the late Jacques Derrida's 'The Double Session'. Elias has also shown an interest - felt in tonight’s work - in the baroque French masters, Rameau and Couperin who used changing themes - sometimes in double sequence and time - in variation and other forms.

At a more general level 'Doubles' has the sound of a concerto for orchestra but one which never deploys an orchestral/instrumental effect for its own sake. An example of this concentrated and inter-thematic structural use of orchestral texture is given with the opening E flat cadences on six horns. Initially sounding like something from 'Siegfried' it quickly re-casts itself into a more elliptical rhythmic figure which is taken up by woodwind and disparately configured violins in bi-tonal upper register. The work consists of six main registers, or movements where the doubling theme operates both from past, present and developing material. In duration the work runs to just over 25 minutes. Towards the mid-section - if it can so be called? - the trumpets, in off-beat quasi-canonic cross-rhythms, initiate a motif which develops into a long and discontinuous tutti ostinato. Elias's huge array of percussion is deployed in a most economic fashion in both dynamic and sustained pp passages; one instrument never up-staging another. Conversely this applies to the work as a whole, not just in terms of instrumental disposition. Elias introduces the semblance of new thematic material at the work’s coda with hushed fragmented tones on harps and woodwind. Then we realise, with an ascending figure on the vibraphone that the theme is actually a variant of the opening horn sequence. That sequence is now fractured and suggests a new tonality and soundscape just before the piece fades into silence. Bĕlohlávek and the orchestra were totally attuned to the complex demands of this piece as was acknowledged by the composer after the performance. It is very much hoped that Bĕlohlávek and the orchestra will record this important new work.

The young French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras gave a wonderfully elegant and resilient rendition of Haydn's Cello concerto in C. Bĕlohlávek, who has worked with Queyras in Prague, provided the most sympathetic and aptly agile/crisp accompaniment. Of special distinction in Haydn's 'messa di voce', was the wonderfully affecting cantilena line Queyras achieved in the beautiful adagio. Both soloist and conductor fully observed the allegro molto of the energetic concluding movement. Queyras, as in the rest of the concerto, was fully attentive to the range of melodic material, with those shifts into minor keys most arrestingly realised. My only quibble was with Bĕlohlávek's decision not to adopt antiphonal violins ... really a sine qua non in this repertoire!

Bĕlohlávek's rendition of the 'Pathétique' tonight was all the more convincing in its eschewal of rhetorical excess and agogic tempo/dynamic distortions. The D major string melody in the first movement arrived inevitably from the minor key modulations of the adagio introduction. And that theme was beautifully moulded without ever sounding mannered or contrived. The development crash, when it came, sounded all the more wrenchingly dramatic for not being too 'prepared'. The huge descending scale with an ffff timpani outburst at the climax of the development was in no way underlined. In the preceding section with dramatic cross-rhythms and quasi-canonic clashes in the brass, I detected a slight sagging of tension. This was partly due to the inability of the Barbican acoustics to accommodate the full range and detail of the passage. 

The second movement waltz was not too precious in its delineation. And Bĕlohlávek, with his eminently clear beat, reminded us that the two-four three-four in the bar is really a juxtaposed derivation of the movement’s initial and basic five beats. The persistent mediant pedal in the middle-section was for once scrupulously contoured in terms of dynamic variation. The march movement achieved a more convincing fff climax through being projected not as an orchestral show-piece but as symphonically related to the whole work. The drama and underlying menace sounded totally convincing due to Bĕlohlávek's absolute adherence both to a strict rhythmic structure, and a deft handling of dynamic/harmonic contrast.

Again the great B minor, lamentoso finale sounded more convincing through being played 'straight' so to speak. One could almost say that Bĕlohlávek, more than most conductors recently heard in this symphony, let the music 'speak for itself'. But there was no hint of blandness here. The great B minor climax was dramatically and rigorously handled. And for once the distant single gong stroke sounded ominous without in any way intruding on the sombre soundscape. Bĕlohlávek ensured that the concluding pulsating pizzicato figure in the bass register 'sounded' without any need of accented emphasis. Throughout the BBC orchestra responded excellently to Bĕlohlávek's every demand. And despite some tuning problems, especially initially in the horns, this was by far the most convincing 'Pathétique' I have heard in concert recently.