United Kingdom Gavin Higgins, Parry, Brahms: Ben Goldscheider (horn), BBC Nationwide Orchestra of Wales / Jaime Martin (conductor). Hoddinott Corridor, Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 14.1.2024. (PCG)
Parry – Elegy for Brahms
Gavin Higgins – Horn Concerto
Brahms – Symphony No. 2
The principle attraction right this moment was what was marketed because the world premiere of Gavin Higgins’s Horn Concerto. Effectively, the identical performers had performed it the day earlier than within the Brangwyn Corridor, Swansea, however one can permit the slight elasticity of the terminology. Both means, the viewers ought to have been furnished with the best quantity of details about the composition. That might have enhanced what the composer had described thus: ‘Although summary, this three-movement piece is an exploration of forests and bushes and the undergrowth.’
At any price, we might have appreciated this description, if we might have learn it simply. It appeared in a digital programme accessible on-line – though not linked to the advance particulars of the occasion on the BBC web site – however there have been no printed copies. As an alternative, every patron acquired a card with recommendation: entry the programme on their smartphone. That, regardless of a agency injunction within the programme itself to ‘flip off all cellphones and digital gadgets through the efficiency’. I need to as soon as once more object to this most unhelpful apply. It does no credit score to the adventurous planning of the BBC programmes. I used to be provided with a printed copy on the interval, too late to assist me observe the concerto. A minimum of, I had the benefit of some reminiscences of an interview with the composer in The Guardian a few days earlier; a lot of the viewers won’t even have had that.
The concerto is to be broadcast twice within the coming month or so, as soon as from Swansea and as soon as from Cardiff. It might assist listeners if I give extra details about the music (the pre-broadcast bulletins had been hazy within the excessive). The three actions have programmatic subtitles, Understorey, Overstorey and Mycelium Rondo, none of them exactly self-explanatory. In any case, they undermine the composer’s rivalry that the work is solely summary. The truth is, the opening motion is meant as an image of the undergrowth within the composer’s native Forest of Dean. Right here, it’s portrayed as a kind of primeval Wagnerian forest, full with reminiscences of the Ring, in Fafnerian phrases. That accords considerably incongruously with my very own reminiscences of these woodlands as very stunning, tranquil and reasonably unhappy; my mom lived there for a few years. In The Guardian interview, Higgins drew comparisons with Tolkien, however the precise forest is certainly greatest described as gloomy, reasonably than the vengeful and stygian darknesses of the creator’s Mirkwood or Fangorn.
The second motion apparently is meant to explain the lifetime of the higher cover of the forest. Within the absence of this info, I had the impression of a cold winter snowscape of stillness reasonably than aerial lightness, with a reaving horn melody which rose to ecstatic heights. At a number of factors right here and within the first motion, the composer handled the solo horn as a part of a quintet with the 4 gamers within the orchestra. Passages within the larger register, the place all 5 devices rang out above the sonorous and enormous orchestra, supplied some thrilling moments.
The ultimate motion, a relatively brief Mycelium Rondo, is called after the community of fungus that connects all flora within the forest. Some participating passages of effervescent cadenza with rollicking timpani and percussion accompaniment surrounded the return of fabric from the opening. That truly established a tonal centre of E-flat for the work, though for a lot of the time this diatonic undercurrent was totally hid. Ben Goldscheider tackled his usually tough passagework with aplomb, and blended nicely within the concertante passages the place he interlocked together with his orchestral brethren. The work was unusually lengthy for a horn concerto, getting on for half an hour, however he displayed loads of stamina proper to the top.
Earlier than the concerto, we had a uncommon alternative to listen to in live performance Parry’s Elegy for Brahms, generally entitled Elegy to Brahms. He wrote it following the elder composer’s demise in 1897 however left unfinished. Stanford accomplished it after Parry’s personal demise in 1918, after which the rating was allowed to assemble mud till Sir Adrian Boult revived it one among his final recordings within the late Seventies.Afterwards, it has been revealed and certainly has featured on a number of additional discs of Parry symphonies and orchestral works. It’s unclear why the normally prolific and fluent Parry failed to complete the work. Maybe he realised that what he was writing was extra within the nature of a symphonic motion, presumably even a symphonic poem, than a easy elegy or lament. The work builds dramatically to a strenuous and positively Wagnerian climax, however the last broader pages – presumably the part Stanford added – appear to deliver the piece to a reasonably abrupt conclusion.
Early in his profession, Parry had sought to check with Brahms, so it was greater than acceptable to finish the live performance with the Brahms Second Symphony. Beecham as soon as described the rating dismissively as ‘appropriate for all weathers’, contrasting it unfavourably with Delius’s summer season landscapes. Sure, when it’s subjected to a lingering or over-affectionate efficiency, the primary two actions specifically can appear interminable. Brahms truly wrote extra bars to permit for an exposition repeat within the first motion. Fortunately, Jaime Martin moved swiftly forward into the event. That gave actually thrilling outcomes not solely right here however within the sluggish motion, which achieved an nearly Brucknerian grandeur full with some actually enthusiastic trombone deliveries. The lighter-weight Allegretto was actually grazioso as marked, and the ultimate Allegro had all of the spirito that one might want. The orchestra clearly totally loved their romp. Jaime Martin acquired hearty cheers from a sizeable Sunday afternoon viewers.
Katy Hamilton’s programme be aware made the hyperlink between the early historical past of the Brahms symphony, the Wagner of Rheingold, and Higgins’s Horn Concerto. That thematic connection will in fact have escaped a lot of the viewers, disadvantaged of this materials. Which brings me again to the vexed query of programme notes and the shortage of BBC budgetary provision to furnish them. The enterprising planners have scheduled an entire feast of uncommon and weird delights for the approaching season. That features, by my reckoning, no fewer than 5 world premieres; an additional three works obtain their first UK performances. It’s unthinkable that these compositions ought to merely be solid in entrance of audiences within the live performance corridor – and on the radio – with none background info to allow listeners to come back to phrases with what can be completely unfamiliar music.
On 26 January, 4 works on the BBC programme will all be fully unfamiliar to UK audiences: by Sir James MacMillan, Tan Dun, Ross Edwards and Gavin Higgins once more. I’ll put together myself, now I’ve came upon the best way to entry the web programmes (they’re nicely hid), with a printout prematurely – though the web format is specified by an extravagant design not readily or economically printable. On the finish of the day, nevertheless, my concern is with the composers themselves. They’re being disadvantaged of the chance which they’ve a proper to count on: that their new works are introduced beneath probably the most beneficial circumstances.
Within the meantime, this live performance is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 30 January. The Swansea efficiency of the identical works is scheduled for a date to be introduced. It should then be accessible on BBC Sounds for thirty days, and after that on the orchestra’s personal web site.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
