United Kingdom Walker, Bernstein, Walton: Carolin Widmann (violin), London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor), Barbican Hall, London 7.2.2025. (JR)
George Walker – Sinfonia No.5 ‘Visions’
Bernstein – Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’)
Walton – Symphony No.1
African-American composer George Walker, who died just a few years ago in 2018, wrote his orchestral Fifth Sinfonia at the age of 94. It is a political work, which exists in two versions: one with recited text, the other without. Sir Antonio Pappano chose the purely orchestral version. The work was written soon after and in response to a young white American supremacist, in 2015, shot nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Walker channelled his feelings of anger into an orchestral work that reflects his sense of rage, bewilderment and grief. Unusually Pappano introduced the work – in American orchestra style – also wanting to thank Carolin Widmann for stepping in at very late notice for an indisposed Janine Jansen in the Bernstein Serenade.
The piece by George Walker was certainly angry in tone throughout, modernist with undeniable energy, only rarely discordant with arresting percussion (gunfire, one assumes). Not unnaturally, the piece was imbued with American flavour. There were signs that the orchestra members, who had probably never played the piece before, were struggling with the score’s notation, which therefore failed to make the work completely gel and make its mark. A lack of much discernible melody did not assist the listeners’ concentration.
Carolin Widmann (clarinettist Jörg Widmann’s sister) flew in from Germany at very short notice to replace Janine Jansen who caught the winter flu. The programmes had already been printed with Jansen’s name. (I always marvel at how orchestra management often finds a perfect replacement for an indisposed artist, especially in a rarely performed work – many frantic calls to agents and opera houses must be needed, and even a search on YouTube!). Widmann proved to be a complete match for what one imagines would have been Janine Janine’s performance and interpretation.
I heard Jansen play this piece in 2022 in Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Paavo Järvi (review here); I was very much drawn to Widmann’s performance, displaying very nimble fingerwork in the Presto, delicacy and refinement in the slow movements and fire and energy in the joyous Allegro molto vivace finale. It is a work which requires repeated listening to be fully appreciated. The London Symphony Orchestra strings were resplendent across the board (this is a work without woodwind or brass): I highlight Rebecca Gilliver’s outstanding cello accompaniment. The frantic percussion section were also a sight and sound to behold. Widmann did more than save the show: even though she required a score, she brought the piece to life and got a huge reception at its close. Pappano looked thrilled (and relieved) and we can only hope that the orchestra will bring Widmann back to wow us again next season.
Pappano is clearly keen to showcase British orchestral masterpieces and Walton’s energetic and melodic First Symphony is definitely one of those. It has discernible influences of Sibelius with his blocks of granite, but Walton’s musical language is foremost. Sadly, it is a work rarely performed outside Britain, especially not in Europe. Composed between 1932 and 1935, Walton must have had a sense of foreboding, knowing what was happening in central Europe at that time. There are shrieks of anguish in the opening movement (Agitato); the last page of that movement was thrilling. Pappano gave his all, and more, and the LSO responded with aplomb across all sections, especially woodwind and timpani. Movement endings needed (and got) precise control by Pappano, with their sudden stops and starts. The hugely enjoyable work, one of the greatest twentieth-century symphonies, was brought to a brilliant close and the audience simply whooped with delight.
John Rhodes