Mark Allen, photo
This Sunday-evening concert from just over a week ago consisted of a knockout programme in seasoned yet spontaneous performances attuned to the essence of each piece, those by Britten and Bernstein composed respectively either side of World War Two, the former’s Sinfonia da Requiem commissioned and then rejected by the Japanese Government (if allowing Britten to retain the fee), its premiere passing to Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall, March 1941. Sir Antonio and the LSO conjured a searing, intense and explosive account taken to emotional bursting point if concluding celestial consolation. As concert performances of Sinfonia go, this from the LSO ranks (for me) with thrillers from yesteryear by Alexander Gibson/SNO, Günther Herbig/BBCSO, and, also LSO, Previn.
Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No.2 takes its title, scenario and structure from W. H. Auden’s The Age of Anxiety (described as ‘A Baroque Eclogue’). Scored for piano and orchestra, the Boston world premiere, April 1949, featured the composer as pianist with Koussevitzky conducting. (Bernstein would record Symphony 2 three times, twice with Lukas Foss playing the piano, and, coming in between, Philippe Entremont.) Auden’s poetry (then recent) introduces four lonely strangers (three are male) who meet and share their circumstances and discuss the World situation. It’s a great piece – strong ideas of distinctive character, ingenious musical working out, and demonstrative descriptions, whether atmospheric or dramatic, music that can hit hard, and did so here. The pianist was Denis Kozhukhin (replacing Beatrice Rana, who recorded this masterpiece with Pappano in Rome for Warner Classics, alongside ‘Jeremiah’ and ‘Kaddidh’) and he was sympathetic to the piano’s role, as well as nimble and outgoing in the jazzy/booze-fuelled ‘Masque’ (piano & percussion). As this isn’t a piano concerto, whether Kozhukhin should have played an encore is a moot point. Nevertheless, it was ‘In the Church’ from Tchaikovsky’s Album for the Young.
The extra item made a solemn link to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, cohesive, impassioned, elegant, defiant and, finally, a dignified if very moving leave-taking, much made of the basses’ heartbeats, soon to stop, for ever. Beforehand, a purposeful march cued some of the usual clapping; as soon as it faded Pappano started the Adagio. He had told us that having recently toured the ‘Pathétique’, there were two audiences that didn’t applaud at this point, in Vienna and Saffron Walden. I can add Munich, with Mehta.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002w8pz
The bow-tied Bernstein & Koussevitzky, Tanglewood, 1940.
Saffron Walden, a market town in Essex.