Photo, Chris Christodoulou

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Royal Albert Hall, London

Rachmaninov’s swansong Symphonic Dances (1941; Philadelphia/Ormandy) gets out a lot (if only the same were true for the even greater Third Symphony). Joshua Weilerstein led a well-prepared, closely-observed account that objectively impressed, yet, for whatever reason, failed to involve me emotionally, which I don’t feel with certain recordings such as those by Ormandy (1960, much more than a historical reference), Leonard Slatkin (both), Paavo Järvi, Previn; not a criticism of this Proms performance, more to do with a communication and receptive mismatch. I can report that all of the first movement’s writing for piano was included, that the coda’s nostalgic look-back to the First Symphony was touching, and that the last couple of minutes did affect me, Weilerstein handling the overhanging tam-tam (the work’s final sound, eschewed by Ormandy, and Järvi) with aplomb, not for once cueing intrusive applause, with even a second or two of silence before it arrived. (I should also mention a stunning LSO/Svetlanov rendition in the RFH many years ago – expansive, impassioned, on a knife-edge.)

Opening the evening, the Second Symphony by Parisian-born Elsa Barraine (1910-99). Pianist, orchestral cellist, teacher, administrator, plus other music-related talents; she studied with Paul Dukas and was mates with Messiaen. Her Symphony #2 (1938) is well-worth getting to know (already possible, there’s a performance on YouTube conducted by Măcelaru). It’s a compact three-movement work, spiky if not without wit (hints of Poulenc), yet with foreboding (wartime) shadows, an expressive heavy-hearted middle movement (reminding somewhat of the corresponding movement in Kurt Weill’s own Second Symphony – perhaps Barraine attended the October 1934 premiere in Amsterdam under Bruno Walter), and a lively spring-day festive Finale, all handled with unanimity and consideration by the BBC Phil and Weilerstein.

Martin Fröst’s playing of Aaron Copland’s Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (with harp and piano), for Benny Goodman, was decidedly spacious in the heavenly opening movement, here nostalgic, then giving the impression of extemporising the cadenza into the companion movement, jazzy, vividly characterised, scintillating; locked-in accompaniment. Bandleader Artie Shaw’s Concerto (1940, composed for his own artistry) includes four saxophones, drum-kit, and guitar, short but packed with incident, a chart-topper, swinging adventures in sound, Fröst brilliant, going on to mix the C-major ‘Prelude’ from Book I of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier (the ’48’ starts here) counterpointed with Gounod’s Ave Maria, a Fröstian singalong for the audience.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002g22z