United Kingdom Maconchy, Mozart, Higgins, Sibelius: Ben Goldscheider (horn), London Chamber Orchestra / Christopher Warren Green (conductor, except Mozart). Cadogan Hall, London, 7.2.2024. (CC)
Maconchy – Music for Strings (1983)
Mozart – Horn Concerto No.4 in E-flat, K 495 (1786)
Gavin Higgins – Horn Concerto (2023, London premiere)
Sibelius – Symphony No.5 (1914-18)
A wide-ranging programme here, for sure, but its centre was the London premiere of a major new Horn Concerto. New pieces come and go, but Gavin Higgins’s new Horn Concerto looks set to enter the repertoire: compositionally, it exhibits knife-edge precision.
My recently published dual interview (click here) with both Gavin Higgins and Ben Goldscheider provides much background to this fascinating piece. A (lapsed) horn player himself, Higgins writes with a pure expertise. The solo part is terrifyingly difficult, without doubt, but impeccably based around the capabilities of the horn – including gestures which seem based in the harmonic series yet are moved into more chromatic pastures. A bit like Richard Strauss’s Second Horn Concerto, but on steroids.
The three movements reflect the life of a forest, and although the generating impulse may well be the Forest of Dean, the music speaks more generally of the wonders of these woods. The first movement is entitled ‘Understorey’, an exploration of life on the forest floor; the second, ‘Overstorey’, is an exposition of life in the canopy; while the finale, in time-honoured fashion of horn concertos a rondo, is labelled ‘Mycelium Rondo’: an exploration of the ‘Wood-Wide Web,’ a network of fungus that lives, breathes and communicates.
There are many references, from Wagner (Das Rheingold: the clear E-flat of the opening) to the top C-B natural (for Horn in F) nod to Britten’s iconic Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (and, by implication, to the lineage of Dennis Brain).
Higgins’s scoring is masterly. His orchestra includes four ‘other’ horn soloists – the horn section itself, a deliberate nod to Ligeti’s Horn Concerto. There is the option to have the quartet upstage near the horn, but here they remained in place at the back of the orchestra – less immediately impressive, perhaps, but a layout that ensures that call-and-response gestures make maximal impact. The four horns can also be used in unison as one ‘super-line’, angular, imposing.
Higgins laudably avoids over-use of effects. Some are not used at all (horn ‘chords,’ for example, famously used in Weber’s Concertino). The soloist is asked to be a virtuoso when it comes to hand stopping – though that Goldscheider is – and there is a sparing use of mute (the two are very different sounds), and Higgins takes advantage of this – the harder edge of hand stopping against the softer mute. The former is tougher for the soloist as they have to transpose everything down a semitone (as the stopping takes the note up a semitone) and play on the harder F side. None of that technical speak matters in terms of what we heard, for Goldscheider played with the utmost ease. That he had played a Mozart concerto just before the interval made it more remarkable still, for Higgins’s piece is one long blow. It is one of the longest concertos in the repertoire (around 27-29 minutes).
As a piece, on this showing it was the outer movements that were the most impressive. The first movement has – to use one of the composer’s favourite words when relating to this piece – real grit. The scoring is itself often chthonic, the melodies often jagged. Occasionally the music veers towards jazz (or so it felt in this performance). All credit to Christopher Warren-Green and the London Chamber Orchestra for their attention to detail, most particularly to matters of rhythm. The finale, punchy, fast, is the perfect close (and includes a muted passage at speed despatched as if it were the easiest thing in the world by Goldscheider).
Higgins’s concerto is approachable enough to ensure repeat performances but profound enough to give a deep sense of satisfaction. It is only in retrospect that one realises that it is so expertly constructed, a vital element in that feeling of a ‘complete’ work. The central movement, with its drooping descending lines is beautifully atmospheric, but was the one panel that felt a touch less memorable. Texture seems a primary determining factor; that said, the climax is absolutely awesome (in the true, non-American sense of the word).
The first half began with a 1983 piece by Elizabeth Maconchy: her superb Music for Strings. This was a more mixed performance of a piece that deserves greater recognition than it receives (some might know the excellent, vibrant Lyrita recording: see MusicWeb International’s review here by Rob Barnett). Tender phrasing in the first movement boded well here at Cadogan Hall, but high strings were an occasional but recurring problem in terms of both unanimity and tuning. The second movement could have benefitted from more bloom to the sound; the finest movement was the third, with particularly impressive contribution from the leader.
Prior to the interval was Mozart’s conductorless Fourth Horn Concerto (the one with that rondo), with Goldscheider on extraordinary form. There is ultimate ease to his playing: high B flats (sounding E flats) are simply part of a line, and never ever strained. Communication between horn and orchestra was always superb, any awkward corners expertly negotiated, while the cadenza was masterly. Again, it was the central movement that asked questions: a slightly off first attack, and was that vibrato or just nerves? The finale, jaunty, eminently familiar yet as fresh as the day it was written. Yes, Goldscheider played on a modern valve horn, but parts of his performance nodded towards the more raucous, earthy world of the natural horn.
Finally, Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. Not everyday chamber orchestra fare, one might suggest, and Warren-Green’s brisk way gave it a palpable lightness. His grasp of Sibelius’s long-range harmonic processes was never in doubt, certainly, and neither was his awareness of the importance of the orchestral deep bass of Sibelius’s music. Playfulness in the scherzo and true pianissimos in the finale were high points. The horn-saturated close (Thor swinging his hammer, some say) retained much of its power.
But it was the Horn Concerto – Higgins’s – that stood out a country mile here. And I for one cannot wait to hear it live again!
Colin Clarke