United Kingdom Thorvaldsdottir, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky: Sir Stephen Hough (piano), Iceland Symphony Orchestra / Eva Ollikainen (conductor). The Anvil, Basingstoke, 28.4.2023. (NB)
Thorvaldsdottir – METACOSMOS
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No.2
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.5
This concert – another in the enterprising Anvil Arts International Concert Series – was the best attended that I have seen there since the Covid pandemic. A large and enthusiastic audience were treated to a concert of fine musicianship and technical skill. In recent years the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, via a series of recordings on major labels, has emerged as a highly competent orchestra so this was an interesting opportunity to hear them live. They performed under their enthusiastic and energetic principal conductor Eva Ollikainen to which post she was appointed in 2019.
The concert opened with the quarter hour METACOSMOS by Iceland’s leading composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. This work has travelled the world since its 2018 premiere and according to the programme note has been well-received. It is scored for a fairly standard orchestra supplemented by a pair of antiphonal percussion groups each containing drums and gongs. Extended performing techniques are kept to a minimum – horns and flutes blow down instruments, the gongs are occasionally played with bows. The work emerges from a murky representation of ‘chaos’ in the lower reaches of the orchestra with melodic and rhythmic cells performed against a very steady ‘standard’ beat by the conductor. A consonant chord is reached before a fairly brief central section in double time – again without any great metric complexity – driven by the antiphonal drums. Another consonant chord ushers in the closing section where the music continues to ascend with birdsong-like gestures from the woodwind and the bowed gong adding a ghostly aura to the orchestral sound as the music continues to ascend before fading into silence. I think it is important for an orchestra on tour such as this to showcase works by their country’s leading composer and it is good not to always serve up a diet of crowd-pleasing ‘pops’. Not having heard the work before it is hard to get an accurate sense of structure and form on a single listen. Neither is it possible to get any true sense of how well this performance represents the composer’s intentions. Thorvaldsdottir was in attendance and appeared to be pleased with both the performance and the reception.
A major coup for the orchestra on this tour is to have Sir Stephen Hough as their concerto soloist. His performance of the ever-popular Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was simply masterly. Hough plays as he performs as he sits, with calm unaffected authority and an absolute control over the music and his technique. In an age when performers seem to have to have extra-musical gimmicks to promote careers and personas, what a joy to see such a consummate musician focus on the music and just the music. Of course, this concerto is awash with big tunes and opportunities for musical emoting. Hough always phrases sensitively and with remarkable touch and poise, but he never indulges the music. People who are familiar with his cycle of these concerti from Hyperion will recognise this consistent approach. The orchestra under Ollikainen were attentive accompanists. Just a couple of times – the fugato section in the finale was a case in point – when Hough pressed impulsively forward the ensemble momentarily rocked. There was a sense here – and elsewhere in the concert – that the string group do not produce the sheer weight of tone that other orchestras do. The trade-off for this is a subtle change in balances within the orchestra between the wind and string groups – certainly solo lines from the clarinet and flute emerged in a lyrical and unforced way. But the absolute star throughout was Hough and the winner was the concerto which emerged as the genuine work of genius it is as opposed to the over-heated pot-boiler it can be. Hough is scheduled to perform the First as part of this year’s BBC Proms celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth. In the light of this live performance, it is a concert I am keen to attend. This performance was rightly warmly received and as a consequence Hough played Chopin’s Nocturne in F sharp, Op.15 No.2, as a disarmingly intimate and beautiful encore. Again, the poise and easy grace of his playing was a joy to behold.
Another sure-fire crowd-pleaser completed the programme – Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5. Characteristics from the first half of the orchestral tone and timbre continued. The string sound focussed but not weighty, wind solos (including the famous horn melody in the slow movement) beautifully taken. The brass group rarely dominated the big tutti climaxes in the way they can. As with the whole programme Ollikainen was well prepared and clear in her musical intent and technical execution however this was not the most individual interpretation. Ollikainen’s Tchaikovsky seems to focus on extremes with brooding introductions leading to impulsive allegros. It has an echo of some of the old-school Russian style but without the razor-sharp playing or bludgeoning brass that can make those performances overwhelming – for good or ill. The difference between Hough and Ollikainen is the way the former can tweak a rhythm or a chord voicing in the most nuanced way to an extraordinary effect where Ollikainen is very good but ultimately a tad generic. But that is not to diminish the fact that this was an exciting and well-played performance by an orchestra clearly in tune with their principal conductor.
The concert was book-ended by another Icelandic contemporary work – Air to Breath by Daniel Bjarnason was given as an encore. This is a genuinely beautiful miniature for strings alone which featured solos for all the string principals as a nostalgically lyrical theme rose up through the orchestra. After the emotional outpourings of the Tchaikovsky this was a poised and reflective – and very effective – end to a wholly enjoyable concert. Another excellent evening at Anvil Arts.
Nick Barnard