United Kingdom PROM 38 – Dukas, Coll, Puccini, Stravinsky: Sol Gabetta (violoncello), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Tianyi Lu (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London, 18.8.2024. (AK)
Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Francisco Coll – Cello Concerto (BBC co-commission, UK premiere)
Puccini – Preludio sinfonico
Stravinsky – The Firebird suite (1945 version)
I am overwhelmed by the large audiences which BBC Proms concerts continue to draw. I am particularly astonished by the attendance at this event. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning with a pleasant slight breeze, perfect weather for outdoor activities. Yet the large Royal Albert Hall was packed from top to bottom, so some five thousand people came to listen to a classical music concert which included the UK premiere of a new cello concerto.
The programme was conceived (and marketed) as musical storytelling; it was framed by Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite. Both compositions were presented with high quality musical performances but the music on its own does not really tell the story to those unfamiliar with it. The programme notes told us the storyline of the Dukas composition but not that of The Firebird. However, even if one reads the notes prior to the Dukas performance, it is not easy to follow the plot while the music unfolds.
With such a large audience of varying previous knowledge, including great many children of various ages, it would have been very helpful to have some surtitles to signpost the story.
As all Proms, this concert too can be heard on BBC Sounds for thirty days. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – recognisable from Walt Disney’s Fantasia – was inspired by a Goethe poem (Die Zauberlehrling). The apprentice commands a broom to fetch some water but the broom is not up to delivering the task satisfactorily. Unable to control the magic, the apprentice breaks the broom which multiplies into many brooms causing havoc. The sorcerer returns, reestablishes order and chides his apprentice.
The gentle beginning of the story features an oboe solo (beautifully rendered by Tom Blomfield), which is followed by an also excellent clarinet solo delivery (Richard Hosford).
Conductor Tianyi Lu was economical with her gestures, paced herself well for the climaxes. With admirable posture on the conductor rostrum, Lu presented an interesting and exciting musical story.
The Firebird suite, dated 1945, is the third of the three orchestral suites which Stravinsky arranged from his highly successful ballet of 1910. The ballet was the result of collaboration between impresario and ballet company director Sergey Diaghilev, choreographer Mikhail Fokine, stage designer Alexandre Benois and the composer. The ballet was created for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and intended to be a Russian ballet. Indeed, Stravinsky’s music is full of Russian motives, real or imitated, and Russian spirit pervades the whole composition.
The ballet’s story also draws from Russian folklore. The programme notes tell us the story of how the ballet Firebird came about but not the storyline of the ballet.
The story of the Firebird is set in the kingdom of the evil sorcerer Koschei who keeps his subjects captive. Prince Ivan happens upon Koschei’s garden and the Firebird, who he captures for sport but saves her life. In exchange, the Firebird helps Ivan to free the thirteen princesses who have been imprisoned by the spells of Koschei. Through dancing, the Firebird casts her own spells on Koschei and his guards, who dance themselves into exhaustion and fall asleep. The finale is the joyful celebration of Ivan and the rescued princesses.
As with the Dukas composition, The Firebird also presents lovely oboe solos right from the beginning, again beautifully played by oboist Tom Blomfield. We heard lovely flute solos (Daniel Pailthorpe) and excellent all important horn solos (Nicholas Korth). Conductor Lu drew some magical pianissimos from the orchestra but also tight rhythms as well as joyous ensemble celebrations.
The centre piece of the concert was the UK premiere of Francisco Coll’s Cello Concerto, written for Sol Gabetta. The demanding four-movement piece is played as one entity, requiring the cellist to be playing almost non-stop for about twenty-four minutes. Gabetta is a non-fuss, fully professional artists of high quality. She enters the stage without any artificial graces, she is elegant in her outfit and elegant in her sub-servient delivery of the musical material. The composition is of the essence, Gabetta places herself into the service of music. Coll’s concerto needs a cellist of Gabetta’s calibre.
The piece starts in very high positions on the cello, presenting barking rhythmic passages, not a million miles from Vivaldi’s Winter from the Four Seasons. The rhythmic motives are present throughout, either in the solo cello or in the orchestral contribution. However, Coll provides beautiful cantilena passages too for the cellist, often in high positions of the instruments but also in the lower cello registers. The middle movements are often movingly beautiful, the outer movements – the fourth movement in particular – are driven by strong rhythmic passages. An extended cadence for the solo cello includes difficult double-stop passages but also goes through low as well high positions on the cello. Gabetta plays with unforced tone, whether the cantilena sections or the rhythmic dance motives.
The orchestral texture is well balanced; it never covers the solo cello but feeds it with similar motives. There is a transparent dialogue between solo cello and orchestra, often with humorous contributions (including sliding wind motives) from the orchestra.
As an encore, Gabetta played a solo piece written for her by Francisco Coll. A nice gesture towards the composer and very well played but it felt like more of the same.
The oddity in this concert was a Puccini piece which the composer wrote for his end-of-year examination in the Milan Conservatory. Starting with a lovely flute solo (Daniel Pailthorpe), the piece is a long aria for orchestra. Conductor Lu did not use a baton for this piece and allowed the orchestra to breathe with the music as a singer would.
Shanghai born but brought up in New Zealand, Tianyi Lu studied in the UK and in the States. In spite of her youth, she is in full control of the musical material and the orchestra on hand.
Her posture is well balanced, as are her musical interpretations as well as her economical movements. An excellent conductor to carry the torch.
Agnes Kory