The first of tonight’s
two BBC Proms (Wednesday 5th August 2015) brought us relatively
neglected works by some of Britain’s finest composers of the 20th
century performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by its Conductor
Laureate Tadaaki Otaka www.askonasholt.co.uk/artists/conductors/tadaaki-otaka
with violinist Chloë Hanslip www.chloehanslip.com and soprano Ailish Tynan www.ssartists.co.uk/artist/ailish-tynan
The concert opened with William
Walton’s (1902-1983) Spitfire Prelude and Fugue (1942) where Otaka’s measured
performance brought a real sense of grandeur to the Prelude before launching
into a dizzying Fugue; the BBC National Orchestra of Wales really on their toes,
bringing beautifully managed dynamics and capturing its varied moods.
Chloë Hanslip joined Tadaaki Otaka and the orchestra for Vaughan Williams’ (1872-1958) Concerto Accademico
(1924-25). Hanslip brought a lovely balance to the Allegro pesante as she weaved Vaughan Williams’ melody around the
orchestra revealing a poignant romanticism. In the brooding Adagio tranquillo, Hanslip’s tone was never over sweet keeping a beautifully
restrained character. The orchestra achieved some superbly hushed string
textures, rising to moments of ecstatic beauty. They brought a scintillating Presto played with great subtlety whilst
never losing momentum.
The winning combination of Chloë Hanslip, Tadaaki Otaka and
the BBC National Orchestra of Wales showed this to be an undeservedly neglected
work.
As an encore, Hanslip and the orchestra gave the Prommers Elgar’s
Salut d’Amour (1888) to which they brought an equally fine sensibility with
some exquisite moments.
The Welsh composer Grace
Williams (1906-1977) studied under Vaughan Williams. For those who know her
music through the recordings from Lyrita and Chandos, she is unjustly neglected.
Her late work Fairest of Stars (1973)
is a richly opulent score that has a wonderful chromatic beauty, full of ecstatic
fervour. Soprano Ailish Tynan brought a rather
subdued passion to the opening, though Otaka drew some wonderful hushed glowing
textures from the orchestra. Tynan slowly built the long breathed lines to moments
of fine ecstasy though there was perhaps a certain lack of the urgency. This
did allow some exquisite details to be revealed.
Overall it was wonderful to hear this glorious work brought
to a larger audience. We really do need
some enterprising record company to record Grace Williams’ Missa Cambrensis.
After the interval Tadaaki Otaka and the orchestra returned
to perform Elgar’s Overture Froissart (1890).
This conductor showed his idiomatic
understanding of the quieter moments with some wonderfully turned phrases and beautifully
light orchestral textures, revealing many little details that gave a freshness
to this performance.
For some reason the qualities of Walton’s Symphony No. 2 (1960) are overlooked, perhaps suffering
from comparisons with his First Symphony. In tonight’s performance, Otaka and
the orchestra revealed many lovely orchestral textures in the Allegro molto bringing a real feeling of
underlying impetus and finding glimpses of Walton’s bittersweet melodic core. Walton’s
rhythmic instability was brilliantly handled, building to moments of terrific energy
and drama. The opening of the Lento assai
brought some fine blending of woodwind with Walton’s bittersweet emotional edge
truly revealed. There was lovely pointed phrasing that added so much before the
music rose and flourished with superb pacing. Otaka showed the mysterious,
unsettling forces that haunt this movement before a fine outpouring towards the
end and the hushed coda. Otaka and the orchestra brought some terrific individual
instrumental details to the Passacaglia,
another movement full of strange and haunting ideas superbly revealed by this
conductor before building to the resolute coda.
Surely this was a performance to convince anyone of the qualities
of this wonderful symphony.
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