United Kingdom Saariaho, Prokofiev, Nielsen: Alina Ibragimova (violin), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Hannu Lintu (conductor), Royal Festival Hall, London, 26.3.2025. (JR)
Saariaho – Orion
Prokofiev – Violin Concerto No.1, Op.19
Nielsen – Symphony No.5, Op.50
This was an interesting concert programme, a pity that the audience was somewhat sparse. I suspect many in the audience were hearing some, if not all the works for the first time.
I did not know Kaija Saariaho’s work entitled Orion before this concert. It stems from a Cleveland Orchestra commission in 2002 (Saariaho died in 2023 of a brain tumour), the title referring to the hunter Orion, mortal son of Neptune, who in Greek mythology is transformed by Zeus into a radiant constellation. Orion reveals Saariaho’s interest in vast open spaces, using what one critic called ‘cosmic minimalism’. I was much taken by the piece. The first movement ‘Memento mori’ employs a battery of percussion to conjure weird and celestial effects to create a wondrous soundscape. There is a lot of eerie tinkling from a variety of percussion, but also explosions of sound from the entire orchestra including the organ. It was at times extremely noisy and very effective. The work puts the orchestra and conductor through their paces and the London Philharmonic Orchestra players did the work proud. The second movement entitled ‘Winter Sky’ is bleak but not unattractively so, the languid piccolo and oboe contributions impressed. The string sections were on top of their frequent harmonics, matching the bowed harmonics on vibraphone and xylophone. The final movement ‘Hunter’ is a wild chase and hugely enjoyable. The work has been described as a masterpiece of the twenty-first century and I would not disagree, certainly after a performance of this quality.
Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto is not one of his easy listening works, catchy melodies are not easy to fathom. It places heavy demands on the soloist – Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova had the work under her skin and no technical difficulties were too much for her. Tender when the passages were lyrical and brusque when the score became aggressively lively. Keeping soloist and orchestra together in the fast and furious passages was not always successful for Hannu Lintu on the podium but the performance went down a storm.
After the interval, Nielsen. I don’t think some in the audience knew what had hit them – the extraordinary confrontation between snare drum and the rest of the orchestra left them stunned. I spotted one viola player with ear protection and the Perspex screens behind the back desks of the violas should have been a clue, as should the prominent positioning of the snare drummer. After Mahler, then Bruckner, now Nielsen’s time for some limelight seems to have come: his symphonies with their rhythmic energy, bursting with vitality and humour, are overwhelming. His two-movement Fifth Symphony is a struggle for victory, composed just after the First World War. The snare drummer in the first movement is instructed by the composer to ‘improvise freely with all possible fantasy’, to be violently destructive, and the LPO percussionist did just that. The contributions from Principal clarinet (Benjamin Mellefont) and piccolo (Stewart McIlwham) were noteworthy.
Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, at last with baton in hand now, revelled in the brutal, militaristic onslaught of the first movement with its explosive energy and also brought out the dance rhythms of the second movement, whipping up an exciting final frenzy to close the work. Glorious.
John Rhodes