United Kingdom Respighi, Tubin, Falla, Ravel: Will Dearden (double bass), RCM Symphony Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko (conductor). Royal College of Music, London, 23.1.2025. (CC)
Respighi – Fontane di Roma, P.106 (1916)
Eduard Tubin – Double Bass Concerto (1948)
Falla – El sombrero de tres picos Suite No.2 (1921)
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloë, Suite No.2 (1913)
Under Vassily Petrenko, the RCM Symphony Orchestra showed themselves an ensemble of subtlety, of power, and of maturity well beyond their ages. The performance standard throughout was of the very highest level; plus, the concert afforded a rare chance to hear a piece by Estonian-born composer Eduard Tubin (1905-82).
The Tubin Double Bass Concerto is known for its technical difficulty for the soloist. Written for Ludvig Juht (1894-1957), apparently a large fellow, which has a bearing on the writing: there is even a dissertation at the Malmö University analysing the preparation ‘as a small-built double bass player’. Juht was eventually invited by Serge Koussevitsky to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra; more relevant to the Tubin Concerto was the impression he made on the composer while a member of the Vanemuine Theatre Orchestra in Tartu It was a musical marriage made in heaven: the combination of Juht’s technical ability and Tubin’s imagination resulted in a piece that redefined perception of the double bass and its accepted capabilities. The premiere was on October 2, 1948, in New York, but in a reduction (with Valentin Pavlovsky on piano; apparently Juht never played it with full orchestra). The premiere with orchestra was in Bogota, Colombia, in 1957 by Manuel Verdeguer with the Bogota Symphony Orchestra under Olav Roots.
Will Dearden is a fearless double-bassist whose future is surely assured. His confidence in delivery and his ability to artfully conceal the concerto’s fearsome difficulties were stunning. There was real care in evidence, too, in honouring Tubin’s directions: either of the commercially available recordings of this (Håkan Ehrén with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi on an early BIS disc of 1987 or the far more recent, but again BIS, Rick Stotijn and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and James Gaffigan).
Petrenko kept the strings on a proper pianissimo, while the soloist is marked forte, but he ensures the syncopated rhythms hold urgency at the same time. Dearden makes a truly lovely sound (even more so in the concert hall live than on the stream, available here) and when it came to the lyrical contrasting subject, Dearden’s double bass sang like an opera singer. Petrenko ensured that the orchestral contributions were perfectly aligned (some fantastic woodwind playing). Tubin’s concerto includes moments of real soliloquy, and in that, Dearden was spellbinding. There is orchestral extravagance, too (the RCM orchestra careful to avoid bombast). An element of dance and humour informed the latter stages of the work. Upper strings emerged triumphant at some of Tubin’s more extreme writing, but it was the combination of Petrenko’s grasp of the score and Dearden’s fearsomely virtuoso performance that impressed. From deepest emotion to slinky dance, Tubin’s concerto has it all; as did this performance. There is no doubt that Dearden is a master of his instrument. He is the winner of the RCM Concerto Competition and is a YCAT artist.
The concert began with some Respighi: Fountains of Rome, the first of his ’Roman trllogy’. Like the Ravel later there is a dawn, here at the Valle Giulia Fountain, a moment of great calm, painted in near-Impressionist colours by Respighi and beautifully realised here. Wind players shone. Ensemble was almost there, and some of the trickier gestures might have benefitted from just that soupçon more confidence. Petrenko’s reading highlighted the Impressionist aspect of the opening while later aligning the music more closely to the swashbuckling side of Richard Strauss: most laudable still was the retaining of orchestral detail a full tilt. Some lovely solo violin contributions from leader Sofía Gómez Alberto, too.
It was the perfect contrast to the Tubin as was Manuel de Falla’s second suite from Three-Cornered Hat. Both ballets in the second half were commissioned by famed Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev. the opening ‘Seguidillas’, ‘Danza de los vecinos’ (‘Neighbours’ Dance’) was bright and atmospheric. The fortissimo (at least) horn solo that opens the ‘Danza del molinero’ was dispatched with ferocity but no loss of control by David Wheeler. Brass playing in general was superb, and especially in the tutti moments. The pointed rhythms of the ‘Danza del molinero’ were superbly pointed and region-specific, the accelerando towards the end perfectly calibrated. And only the young (read unjaded) and super-talented could surely have brought such energy to the ‘Danza final’. Maybe just a touch more extravagance in the small crescendos would have sealed the deal, but the more orgiastic moments were heady indeed. Fabulous.
And finally, the second suite from Ravel’s magical Daphnis et Chloë. The evenness of delivery of the opening ‘Lever du jour’ was as impressive as the harmonic sensitivity leading to the sunrise itself. It was the perfect juxtaposition, a place of perfect peace, after the de Falla. Silken violins were but one element of a lush tapestry that sounded like it had been intimately rehearsed. Ravel’s gestures, too, were finely done. The finale is a ‘Danse générale’, a bacchanale of huge virtuosity and drive. The brass playing was massively impressive, especially the trumpets, balanced by an especially expressive flute solo from Samantha Power.
It is true I came for the Tubin, but the sheer brilliance throughout by these young players left me hungry for more. I will doubtless be back.
Colin Clarke