SCO, 26/04/2013

Birtwistle : Carmen arcadiae mechanicae perpetuum
Suckling : storm, rose, tiger
Britten : Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (John Mark Ainsley, Alec Frank-Gemmill)
Mozart : Symphony No. 40

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
George Benjamin

This second concert in the SCO's celebration of the Britten centenary was a very rare opportunity to see George Benjamin, much better known as a composer, in the guise of conductor.  On the few occasions I've heard him conduct, it's usually been his own music, with perhaps that of some of his contemporaries, and never anything as 'standard' as a Mozart symphony.  Indeed, in this context, it was the Mozart that seemed like something from another planet, the alien element in the programme, which was a decidedly novel experience.  As far as the actual reading went, the two inner movements were a shade leaden, but the outer movements fairly vibrated with a nervous energy, all sharp attacks and pointed silences.

I've always considered Birtwistle more of a successor to Tippett than to Britten.  His sound world is more rhythmic than melodic, his use of orchestral colour adversarial and strongly contrasted, with that Baroque sense of groups playing against each other.  It's Jackson Pollock music, apparently randomly scattered across the canvas, yet making an obscure sort of sense, and not without a subtle sense of humour, as the threads of musical subject bounced around between the instruments.  The Suckling piece, on the other hand, did indeed show its heritage from Britten, as I had felt on first hearing it 18 months ago (here).  This time, I found a much clearer sense of structure in Crumb's reading.  There's still a passage that seems overlong, just before the start of the final passacaglia section, and I still think the ending is really too abrupt - it sounds like the piece isn't finished - but the overall impression was positive.

The key piece of the evening, however, was the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.  Composed more or less at the same time as Peter Grimes, it is one of Britten's finest non-operatic compositions for voice and orchestra (even, arguably, the finest), intensely atmospheric settings of six disparate poetic texts on nocturnal themes, from a 15th Century anonymous dirge to Tennyson.  Both soloists, in their respective ways, displayed a fine range of tone and colour, and Ainsley is certainly a worthy successor to his former teacher Anthony Rolfe Johnson in this domain.  The SCO strings supplied a shimmering, silken support, beautifully shaped and shaded by Benjamin, the whole haunting and evocative.

[Next 27th April]