Tebogo Monnakgotla (born 1972)
Friday, December 8, 2023
Barbican Hall, London
Following last Friday’s ‘Eroica’ with this conductor and orchestra, a week later two further great examples of the Symphony genre, Sibelius’s final two (Opuses 104 & 105), Sakari Oramo once again demonstrating his seasoned prowess with his countryman’s music. Rapt and deeply expressive counterpoint introduced the Sixth – cool and introspective at the outset, then stepping out crisply (footprints in snow) if, throughout, not without passions and enigmas, at once lucid from Oramo yet tantalisingly leaving something new to be revealed next time – one definition of a masterpiece from the profoundest recesses of a composer’s creativity, this particular work not lacking animation if not obviously heart-on-sleeve, a sensibility that doesn’t seek an ovation, rather a space for reflection or, as here, a pregnant silence emerging from the quiet ending with which to go straight into Symphony Seven, a single movement of symphonic ingredients welded into a concentrated whole, given with largesse by Oramo, the music’s course assured, yet with a sense of new discovery, the BBCSO (leader Stephen Bryant) in top form, with another silence to welcome the sighting of Sibelius’s searched-for-and-found C-major harbour.
Opening the concert was Carl Nielsen’s Imaginary Journey to the Faroes, the dawn-like first pages full of expectation, characteristic pulsations and woodwind & brass skirmishes suggested busyness, then came the pride of a full-sail navigation to the islands, greeted on arrival by an exuberant dance, and rounded by some post-party slumber, all given a fine and sympathetic performance, followed by Tebogo Monnakgotla’s Globe Skimmer Surfing the Somali Jet (BBC/Royal Stockholm Philharmonic co-commission; UK premiere), a Violin Concerto for Johan Dalene, the solo instrument representing the dragonfly of the title. It’s an impressionistic and iridescent score (sometimes reminding of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto) that holds the attention over its twenty-five continuous minutes in terms of colour, invention and suggestion, the violin embedded within the variegated orchestra, Dalene superb with the tailor-made writing heard as integral to the chameleon-like activity, rendered with clarity and subtlety by the BBCSO, of what is a fantastical work of stature. As an encore Dalene offered Fritz Kreisler’s Recitativo & Scherzo (dedicated to Ysaÿe) in masterly fashion – technical challenges overcome, music made.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sw2t
https://www.colinscolumn.com/chandos-releases-volume-one-of-grazyna-bacewiczs-orchestral-works-with-the-bbc-symphony-orchestra-conducted-by-sakari-oramo/
This is a picture of me from my Twitter profile @kibialacannelle
I am Tebogo’s older sister Makibi.
Thanks for letting me know, the photo is now replaced. Colin
Thanks 🙏
I too sat in row P.
It did nothing for my ability to hear the soloist. He was drowned out in the first five minutes and when sounds came from his violin I found little or no interest in what he was given to say. A terrible waste of his time to learn the score enough not to need it in front of him.
No. The Sibelius was the thing. Deeply serious and yet touching the heart strings throughout.
My own review will be headed by Dylan Thomas.
Col, you say things that go to the heart of the matter.
A wonderful review, simply wonderful.
Thank you.
Thank you for identifying the encore, Colin! In the hall it was as impressive as your sensitive review states: the string sound Oramo achieved is a tribute to his past as a violinist, to the orchestra’s musicality and, I presume, to the BBC being able to give decent rehearsal time. Your description of the concerto is masterly and captures its special qualities. Again, without the BBC would we have had this in London? The modest licence fee also helps keep ticket prices affordable: less than £10 for my subscription seat in the stalls (row P), though, to be fair, I paid a pound less for the BSO in Portsmouth the night before, albeit in a more distant seat. That concert (in the day before performance) is a recommended listen on R3 next week though nothing on broadcasts can convey the thrill of seeing the horns stand at the end of Mahler 1.
But home listening does avoid the train strikes (got home at 12-30 am).