Ireland Boulanger, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov: Barry Douglas (piano), Darren Moore (trumpet), National Symphony Orchestra Ireland / Anna Sułkowska-Migoń (conductor). National Concert Hall, Dublin, 16.1.2026. (RB)
Lili Boulanger – D’un soir triste
Shostakovich – Concerto in C minor for Piano Trumpet and Strings, Op.35
Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade, Op.35
The National Symphony Orchestra Ireland (NSOI) opened their new season with this concert of Russian masterpieces together with a short piece by Lili Boulanger. They were joined by the award-winning Polish conductor, Anna Sułkowska-Migoń who was making her debut with the orchestra.
The concert opened with Boulanger’s D’un soir triste which the composer wrote in the final year of her all-too-short life. It is a profound, sombre reflection on mortality that proved to be a musical obituary for Boulanger. It is a highly concentrated work with complex late-Romantic harmonies. Boulanger left no clue as to the meaning of the piece other than the title, although it is often seen as a meditation on faith in the face of her impending death. The work was composed in the final year of the First World War, so it is also sometimes seen as an elegy for the ‘Lost Generation’ of that conflict.
There was much to admire in this performance from Sułkowska-Migoń and the NSOI. The piece opened with a heavy funereal tread in the lower strings and woodwind that set the scene perfectly. Sułkowska-Migoń ensured that the feverish outbursts on the brass and percussion were successfully integrated into the orchestral fabric. Michael Atkinson played the solo cello line beautifully and the harp and celesta combined to create heavenly sonorities. The final bars of the piece provided a moment of calm resignation as the music subsided into quiet oblivion.
Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings was written in 1933. It went through several incarnations before the composer arrived at the final version. Shostakovich was a very accomplished pianist (he won a prize in the first International Chopin Competition) and he played the piano part himself at the work’s premiere. He quotes several works by other composers in the concerto, including Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Al Jolson.
Barry Douglas and the NSOI’s principal Trumpet, Darren Moore, joined Sułkowska-Migoń and the orchestra for the Shostakovich. The opening Allegro provided an opportunity for the two soloists to spar with one another. Douglas dispatched Shostakovich’s rapid-fire passagework with virtuoso élan while Moore’s cheeky sardonic interjections were perfectly judged. I wondered if there was scope for Douglas to have brought out more of the wry humour – occasionally, his performance seemed a little straitlaced and earnest. The NSOI’s strings played with enormous energy and vitality, while Sułkowska-Migoń ensured the warring parties stayed on track.
Douglas and the NSOI ushered in a more sombre, poignant mood in the Lento second movement. There was some gorgeous pianissimo playing from Douglas and I was struck by the weight of his octaves as the music gathered momentum. Moore’s final section on muted trumpet was highly atmospheric and infused with a jazz-tinged melancholy. Pianists often play the Moderato third movement in a free, improvisatory way, but Douglas pressed ahead with the tempo more in this performance. I am not sure that this approach completely worked but it was striking and unusual. All the parties upped their game one final time for the Rossini meets Mickey Mouse finale. Douglas, Moore and the NSOI captured the manic energy of the movement although there was one section where the ensemble was not as tightly coordinated as it might be. Douglas unleashed a torrent of notes in the technically demanding cadenza. The coda was a breathless adrenaline fuelled rush as piano, trumpet and strings drove the concerto to its exciting conclusion.
In the second half, we moved to the nineteenth century with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. With its dazzling array of orchestral colours, piquant melodies and rhythmic vitality, it has proved to be the composer’s most famous and enduring work. Scheherazade was influenced by the Orientalism which was very prevalent in the nineteenth century. While Orientalism is no longer regarded as politically correct because of its false understanding of the East, it influenced many nineteenth-century writers and composers, including Ireland’s W B Yeats.
The NSOI’s brass injected power and menace into the introductory bars as we were confronted with the brutish Sultan. The NSOI’s leader, Elaine Clark, greeted him with a sensuous extended melody that was completely bewitching. As we moved into the main body of the first movement, Sułkowska-Migoń’s pacing of the material was exemplary and she did an excellent job highlighting the contrasts and range of orchestral colours within the movement. The dynamic shifts were well calibrated and the accents in the strings cut powerfully through the orchestral textures. In the second movement, the audience were treated to impressive virtuoso displays from Greg Crowley on the bassoon and Matthew Billing on the clarinet as they skilfully dispatched the composer’s rapid swirling scales. Sułkowska-Migoń ratcheted up the tension as the NSOI’s brass and percussion came to the fore and the movement gathered momentum.
Sułkowska-Migoń and the NSOI’s strings did an excellent job bringing out the lyricism and fairy-tale elements in the pastoral third movement. The woodwind captured the distinctive oriental flavour and there were some gorgeous changes in tone colour. The finale opened with impressive double-stopping from Elaine Clark: she played the sinuous violin lines with perfect intonation and beauty of tone. Sułkowska-Migoń set the finale’s whirling dance in motion, and she succeeded in bringing a clear sense of structure and coherence to the fragmented movement. The music built to a thunderous climax before subsiding to a pianissimo whisper.
Great playing from the NSOI and the soloists and an auspicious debut for Sułkowska-Migoń.
Robert Beattie
Featured Image: Barry Douglas, Anna Sułkowska-Migoń and Darren Moore © Joanne Taaffe