Sakari Oramo Nielsen 6...23/05/15 barbican 1930 hrs...

[jayne lee wilson]

A great Nielsen cycle reaches its end in the same week as Mad Men, with Nielsen's maddest symphony. Oramo's live 5th last month was a truly great performance, and his recent Stockholm BIS release of this 6th is outstanding too.

Intriguing programme of Sibelius, Rachmaninov and Foulds before the Nielsen...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ejwbj5#p02rzplb

Eurovision or the BBC Symphony? A terrible dilemma...

[Pianorak]

. . .
Eurovision or . . . A terrible dilemma...

A friend passed on a ticket for this, claiming to be unwell. Should I believe her?

http://www.readingarts.com/thehexagon/whatson/event.asp?id=SXCF5A-A7825128

[jayne lee wilson]

This 320 kbps webcast of Nielsen's 6th may not have had the almost supernatural precision and transparency of Oramo's 24/96 Stockholm recording (hardly a fair fight after all) but it was still remarkable in all other respects. Musically it went further in at least one detail: the very free-and-easy phrasing the bassoon soloist brought to the variation-finale's theme was so joyfully tipsy I wondered if the interval refreshments had involved a tequila or three.

Oramo's reading of this disjunctive yet visionary masterpiece dares to take the symphony to all the extremes it seems to ask for, but crucially does so (whether with the BBC or Stockholm Orchestras) with startling beauty, intensity and definition of the musical line and detail. We've heard accurate, polished performances and recordings of No.6 before (SFSO/Blomstedt); and warmer, more sonorously affectionate ones (DRSO/Blomstedt, which I prefer); but none which marry this unnerving control with such a blaze of emotion. The music needs it, presenting a stark confrontation with death - then laughing in its face; seeing the skull beneath the skin - and cocking a snook. Oramo realises it as the truly great, classically modernist vision that it is. Perhaps peculiarly that of the earlier 20th century, with its yearning anguish and savagery of the grotesque.

(It's worth adding that the recent BIS release of 2 and 6 is simply one the finest Nielsen recordings EVER; you soon realise, listening to the 6th, so complete is its expression that comparisons are pointless; it sets new standards.)

[BBMmk2]

Im glad that this was a really good cycle. I ofcourse be doing catch up.

[edashtav]

Commitments have limited my exposure, so far to Tapiola and the first half of Rachmaninov's 4th Piano Concerto but I'm relishing the the prospect of hearing on iPlayer Oramo's interpretations of Foulds' hymn of praise to "Inextinguishable" Spring and Nielsen's affecting analysis of the final things in life, his "Extinguishable" Symphony,a work that for me points a path to to Honegger's final "Di Tre Re" symphony..

I must write an warm appreciation of Oramo's understanding of and hugely powerful projection of Tapiola. Misjudge the piece and it can seem grey and glutinous and live up to its nickname: Tapioca. Right from the start Oramo established his vision: a powerful tale set in a bleak, storm-tossed sub-artic forest. I loved the contrasts between streams of music that co-existed but lived almost independent lives: smooth, brass chorales juxtaposed against jagged, inconclusive, fearful motifs thrown out by strings. I was reminded of Harrison Birtwistle's craggy landscapes. This was glorious music-making, with the BBC SO set on fire by its chief conductor. The final storm scene was projected with terrific violence & force. The violins "scrubbed" as if their lives depended on their making the loudest screech of their careers, for all the world as if a hurricane was threatening to uproot the"scrub" beneath the forest's high trees from an exposed, scree-littered mountain landscape. Pure violence that seemed about to go out of control but was, in fact, precise and savage. Frightening and cathartic. An absolutely terrific performance - well done, one & all!

[edashtav]

Now to April-England by John Foulds. I first encountered and fell in love with this piece in its earlier piano garb and I have to admit to finding that version the more compelling of the two. I think that's to do with virtuosity. There are few mainstream English piano works that exploit and test the capacity of instrument and player to the full. Many English composers sound uncomfortable in their piano music - Elgar for instance. The exceptions tend to be the mavericks: Foulds joins Sorabji in pushing the envelope of what is possible on a concert grand. The bucolic outer sections and April-England's fairy fanfares can lull the unwary listener into thinking that the piece is trivial. It is not. The manner in which the "rite of Spring", the ground bass that erupts inextinguishably from the soil disrupting the "twee" peasant revelry on a typical English Village green is a moment of such elemental force and power that however many times I hear it still hits me in an emotionally disturbing and shocking manner. In the orchestral version, the subsequent cumulative complexity is not so absorbing because the composer can throw extra instrumental resource at the situation. In the piano version, I revel in the burgeoning difficulties as Foulds asks more and more of the player.

Oramo set a slightly slow pace for the ground bass and I didn't feel that the climax had quite the elemental power that I needed. Nevertheless, great to hear the piece live and in such a cleverly planned programme. I do hope that Radio 3 sets this "realisation" in context by persuading some virtuoso pianist to tackle the Foulds' first vision.

[jayne lee wilson]

Excellent reading Ed., thank you - and totally agree about that magnificent Tapiola! From the first bars, you just knew...!
Excellent sound too on the live webcast, more immediate and dynamic than is usual from this hall.

Domesticities, cats & coffee-making distracted me from April-England, but I'll try to catch it up (in England in May...)

[edashtav]

totally agree about that magnificent Tapiola! From the first bars, you just knew...!
)

So right, Jayne: FROM THE FIRST BARS YOU JUST KNEW!

[edashtav]

Gosh, Jayne . I've just read your apercu:
<<Excellent sound too on the live webcast, more immediate and dynamic than is usual from this hall.>>

I've spent years excoriating the broadcast sound from the Barbican, and this time, I so enjoyed what I was hearing that I failed to note how wonderful the sound was!

Acoustic problems can be conquered when there's a determination and a united will!

Well spotted!

[teamsaint]

Gosh, Jayne . I've just read your apercu:
<<Excellent sound too on the live webcast, more immediate and dynamic than is usual from this hall.>>

I've spent years excoriating the broadcast sound from the Barbican, and this time, I so enjoyed what I was hearing that I failed to note how wonderful the sound was!

Acoustic problems can be conquered when there's a determination and a united will!

Well spotted!

....although not, of course for the introduction and interview with Oramo before the Sibelius which was inaudible in parts , drowned out by the band warming up.....not great work from those twiddling knobs.

anyway, yes, fabulous sound for Tapiola.

Just catching up with the rest of the show............

( Edit, personally speaking, I find the sound of random orchestral warming up really rather irritating at times, whether drowning out radio interviews, or just generally. Not all orchestras do this in public......)

[Pulcinella]

I too was taken by the Foulds, and so have just ordered this 2CD set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foulds-Apotheosis-Triptych-April-England-Pictures/dp/B00DEOTR30/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1432494258&sr=1-1&keywords=Foulds

At just over £3 new (+ £1.26 postage) should this be on the bargains thread?

[Roehre]

I too was taken by the Foulds, and so have just ordered this 2CD set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foulds-Apotheosis-Triptych-April-England-Pictures/dp/B00DEOTR30/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1432494258&sr=1-1&keywords=Foulds

At just over £3 new (+ £1.26 postage) should this be on the bargains thread?

This is IMO a real bargain.
I've got the original 2 CDs, and most of it is/was on a Lyrita CD as well.

[edashtav]

This 320 kbps webcast of Nielsen's 6th may not have had the almost supernatural precision and transparency of Oramo's 24/96 Stockholm recording (hardly a fair fight after all) but it was still remarkable in all other respects. Musically it went further in at least one detail: the very free-and-easy phrasing the bassoon soloist brought to the variation-finale's theme was so joyfully tipsy I wondered if the interval refreshments had involved a tequila or three.

Oramo's reading of this disjunctive yet visionary masterpiece dares to take the symphony to all the extremes it seems to ask for, but crucially does so (whether with the BBC or Stockholm Orchestras) with startling beauty, intensity and definition of the musical line and detail. We've heard accurate, polished performances and recordings of No.6 before (SFSO/Blomstedt); and warmer, more sonorously affectionate ones (DRSO/Blomstedt, which I prefer); but none which marry this unnerving control with such a blaze of emotion. The music needs it, presenting a stark confrontation with death - then laughing in its face; seeing the skull beneath the skin - and cocking a snook. Oramo realises it as the truly great, classically modernist vision that it is. Perhaps peculiarly that of the earlier 20th century, with its yearning anguish and savagery of the grotesque.

A marvellous piece of perceptive criticism, Jayne, proving , once again, that the most useful analyses come from those who love and need to know more about works. Yes, this was a searing account of a frank piece of appalled self-revelation. No wonder it stumped dear old Bob Simpson the advocate of Nielsen's "progressive" view of tonality. This symphony is a denial of most of what went before in Nielsen oeuvre: the Brahmsian complacency of the first, the triumphant affirmation at the conclusion of the 2nd Symphony, the sunny confidence of the Expansiva, the undying, unquenchable confidence of the 4th, the brutal, but successful,battle against doubt & evil of the 5th.

In the 6th every confident beginning, every recourse to academicism or the fugue is denied by sounds , initially "off-stage", that mock, deride and undermine. Then.... belief becomes overwhelmed with uncertainty, with mocking disbelief that tonality holds a valid answer. And, yet, throughout, Nielsen,exhausted and undermined though he may be, keeps coming back, trying to restore order although constantly vitiated by the laws of thermodynamic that assert that temporary order may only be achieved at the expense of greater chaos elsewhere. Each succeeding positive beginning is exposed to greater destructive forces than its predecessor. And yet.... and yet hope rises. Towards the end there's a passage which travels across some of the same territory that Havergal Brian etched a year or two earlier in the disintegrating third (purely orchestral) movement of his Gothic Symphony. And the end shakes handsa with Prokofiev and Shostakovitch. A remarkable essay!

Once again, a vivid and deeply thoughtful interpretation by Sakari Oramo, aided and abetted by his band of true believers, the BBC SO. A great ending to a provocative and illuminating concert. God bless Radio 3 {Show me the way to another concert promoter which would had conjured up and then risked this event.}

[ I've side-stepped writing about the Rachmaninov as my opinion of the performance has yet to settle - I've found the work, in the past to be long on filigree decoration and gesture but short of substance. This concert has caused me to review my position but I need time for my ideas too crystallise.

P.S. Many thanks to Jayne; without your enthusiastic "head-up" I'd have missed this important and satisfying event.

[edashtav]

Finally, I've caught up with Rachmaninov's 4th Piano Concerto in the safe hands of Denis Kozhukhin. He projected the work with precision and clarity. The orchestral's contribution didn't quite match the pianist. It may be that Sakari Oramo's vision of the work was different from Kozukhin's or perhaps the rehearsal time for the concerto had been limited in some way but things were not always in synch between soloist and the accompaniment. The encore - an arrangement by Sgambati of Gluck's Dance of the Blessed Spirits was delightful - full of the most sensitive pianism with lines spun as if from silk. In a concert containing three works riddled with angst, it was especially welcome to have this oasis of calm delight. I shall look forward to Kozhukin's next broadcast with increased expectation.

[jayne lee wilson]

Evidently not about to start a FoR3 Nielsen fan club anytime soon, but as a footnote here's the link to a truly exceptional album of this (or any) year...

http://www.eclassical.com/labels/bis/nielsen-symphonies-nos-2-and-6-1.html

...don't just take my word for it (oh, as if...)

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Mar/Nielsen_sys26_BIS2128.htm