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Pitkin, Ravel and Vaughan Williams: Kumi Matsuo (piano), Royal College of Music Sinfonietta, Peter Stark, Cadogan Hall, London 4.12.2008 (BBr)

Jonathan Pitkin: Mesh (2008)
Ravel: Piano Concerto in D (1930/1931)
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.4 in F minor (1931/1934)


It’s a brave concert promoter who starts a concert with a new work, but when the piece is as approachable as Mesh there’s no need to worry about scaring the audience away! Jonathan Pitkin, a new name to me, is currently teaching in the Junior Department at the RCM and he possess a fluent style, a real gift for orchestration and has the ability to keep you wanting to listen as you wonder what he might do next. Mesh starts with single wind comments, these are too short to be phrases, which are complimented by string trills. This is a most commanding opening. He builds a fine climax and then the textures thicken, some strong string writing here and the music speeds up – but the pulse seems to remain the same – until the whole orchestra, with some fine writing for the brass, overflows with an huge climax. The music ends, somewhat disappointingly for me, with a rather commonplace cadence which sits uncomfortably after the powerful, and original, language used before. Apart from this, Mesh is a major achievement for a young composer and it bodes well for what he will create in the future. I, for one, am already eagerly awaiting his next piece. What was most gratifying was that Stark didn’t have his head in the score, he had the score in his head and this allowed him full reign in his fine interpretation.

It’s always odd to watch a pianist play the Ravel Left Hand Concerto for you’re always thinking that he/she will hit to top note of a glissando with the right hand just to make things easier! Of course the music wouldn’t work if you cheated in such a way for it is so quintessentially music for one hand alone – as were all the works written for Paul Wittgenstein. Kumi Matsuo seated herself at the keyboard and threw herself from top to bottom of the instrument, always holding her right arm by her side, and made the most of this intriguing piece. I’ve always thought of this work as being malevolent, it’s dark and scarey, the music taking us into uncharted territory, with huge climaxes and some of the most tender music Ravel ever wrote. It’s a dilemma to be sure. The jazz he used so effectively, and with such delight, in the G major Concerto is here used as a dark and disturbing presence. And it all happens in about a quarter of an hour! Stark chose a slightly slower tempo for the opening tutti than is usual but he made it work as he gradually built the tension, and excitement, leading up to the first entry of the soloist. At her first appearance Matsuo attacked the piano with an heft I wasn’t expecting, and she made the most of the bravura writing, settling down to give a limpid account of the winsome second theme. It was wonderful. The middle, fast, section is all malevolence, with solo lines for bassoon and trombone, horn fanfares, the blues creeping sleazily through the music as the piano plays a seemingly innocuous jig. Of course, the blues has been with us from the very beginning with the initial idea for brass. There has to be a catastrophe and there is; the music subsides into a long cadenza after which the music is simply extinguished without ceremony. This was a performance of great power and insight, soloist and orchestra at one with the music and each other. Full marks to Matsuo for her astonishing performance – she’s a force to be reckoned with and, whilst I’d love to hear her in Busoni’s left hand transcription of Bach’s Chaconne, what a joy she must be to hear when using both hands!

Vaughan Williams’s 4^th Symphony is the unforgiving work in his symphonic canon. This is the third performance of the work I’ve heard this year and it could hold its own even against Sir Colin Davis’s transcendental performance at the Barbican in September. Again, Stark chose a slightly slower tempo for the opening movement but the violence and tension were well balanced, the march episode was especially hard hitting. The quiet coda didn’t let the tension slip, it was icy cold and dangerous. Likewise the slow movement, VW isn’t going to give us a pleasant idyll after what we’ve just lived through and Stark really brought home the heaviness of the strings pizzicato and wild callings of the woodwinds. The scherzo was quite diabolical, aided by some fabulous playing from principal bassoonist Lucy Webster. The finale capped the performance with terror and ferocity.

Another excellent programme from this wonderful college’s students.

Bob Briggs

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