Tonight I heard a performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of their Music Director, Andris Nelsons, at St David’s Hall, Cardiff in their International Concert Series 2012/13.
The evening opened with the overture from Richard Wagner’s (1813-83), The Flying Dutchman. This overture opens with a bit of a bang, as Wagner gives one of the best orchestral depictions of a sea storm. This leads to the motif that represents the sailor of the title of the opera, followed by gentle woodwinds in the middle of the overture which introduce the theme that is connected with the heroine, Senta. Other themes are then alluded to in the overture, that will occur during the action of the opera. Wagner was inspired to write The Flying Dutchman, when the ship he was on, whilst fleeing Riga, coincidentally the birthplace of Nelsons, sort shelter in a Norwegian fjord.
The second work on tonight’s programme was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-91) Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K488. The soloist was the excellent pianist, Paul Lewis. Composed in 1785 this is an example of one of Mozart’s mature compositions and is a very fine piano concerto, one of the best of the classical era. Two bright movements frame a slow and mournful middle movement, where Mozart used the key F # minor on the opening solo. It was the only time Mozart would use this key in any of his works. The opening movement starts with an orchestral introduction, before the soloist is introduced, repeating the themes set out by the orchestra. The opening movement ends with one of the few cadenzas that Mozart ever included in his concertos. The finale brings the work to a bright and joyous finish, possibly influenced by the spirit of his recent comic opera, Marriage of Figaro. Mozart did not use large orchestral forces in this concerto, with only flute, clarinets, bassoons, horns and strings accompanying the soloist.
Following the interval Nelsons and the orchestra turned their attention to Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92. Wagner described this symphony as “the apotheosis of the dance” (Reynolds, 2013), because of Beethoven’s brilliant use of rhythm throughout. I heard part of a recording of this symphony on BBC Radio 3’s Breakfast earlier this week and Petroc Trelawny compared it with the neoclassical works of the early twentieth century. Again Beethoven showing himself to be ahead of his time! This was a fine performance by the CBSO, with Nelson’s excellently guiding the players through this fine work. The best movement of this symphony is the third where the rhythm is at its most profound, the pulse interrupted by a couple of descents in to much slower passages, but the vibrant rhythm returns on each occasion. Beethoven ends this movement with another throwback to the classical period with its abrupt ‘joke’ type end, a mechanism Haydn was very fond of.
Watching tonight’s concert there were two elements that I would like to comment on. The CBSO featured a bassoon player of Afro-Caribbean decent. Even these days of a far more integrated society it seems rare to see this in an orchestra from Europe or North America. It was good to see this and I would like to see more orchestras include people of both Afro-Caribbean and Asian descent. The other thing that happened tonight was a young lady in the first violins broke a string during the first movement of Beethoven’s seventh and had to spend much of the second movement replacing it, having been handed an envelope containing spare strings by the leader of the orchestra, who was sat in front of her. I hadn’t seen this happen before, but I guess it must happen from time to time. I thought the young lady handled a difficult situation very well and held her composure, and was able to rejoin her colleagues before the end of the second movement, violin repaired.
Resources and Bibliography
Reynolds, P. (2013). City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. [programme notes]. St David’s Hall. Cardiff.