Royal Albert Hall, Tuesday 26 July 2016

A very strange programme, bringing together two choral works, a little known piece by Tchaikovsky and the world’s favourite violin concerto. This latter may account for the very full house, many of whom were obviously having difficulty with Anthony Payne’s BBC commission Of Land, Sea and Sky.

The evening opened with Tchaikovsky’s Symphonic Fantasy The Tempest. Written after Romeo & Juliet it is hard to credit that the composer should have reverted to such a pedantic approach to the narrative. Episodes are introduced, given some slight development and then passed over. Only the opening and closing sea sections have any real musical interest and there is much generalised romantic wash in between. The BBC Symphony Orchestra did their best under Sir Andrew Davis but it was very much a case of silk purses and sows’ ears.

Thankfully Anthony Payne’s Of Land, Sea and Sky was both more demanding and more rewarding. He had written his own text for the work which, if uneven, is a workmanlike vehicle for the score which obviously came first. It draws together a number of different images which reflect on the battle of the Somme, all hinging on Arthur Streeton’s enigmatic painting of the Somme Valley. This sense of illusion, of things half seen and half understood is very well captured in the score itself with fleeting images of horses, storms and eventually the obliteration of everything by the sheer force of nature – whether released by man himself or by the planet in answer.

The spoken passages are not as effective as the choral settings where he deliberately keeps the textures light, moving frequently between male and female voices, without complex harmony.

The orchestral score has reflections of Britten in the earlier passages but the underlying influence here seems to be Alban Berg at his most romantic. It is a work that will certainly be worth re-hearing and it is good it will be available for the next 30 days via the internet.

Ray Chen was the soloist in Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, bringing an easy charm to its familiar pages. Given the enthusiasm of the reception it was inevitable that he would provide an encore which gave him a chance to demonstrate his technique in Paganini’s Caprice Op21. The concert ended with Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region. The young composer studied with Bruch in Berlin but developed a style very different from the German Romantic. Toward the Unknown Region was his first major choral work and its spiritual depth in the setting of words by Walt Whitman was to set a pattern for much that was to come. It was, for me, the highlight of the evening, beautifully crafted by both singers and conductor.

Royal Albert Hall, Saturday 23 July 2016

Wagner and Tippett may not seem an obvious combination but, in the event, certainly made sense. Chunks of Wagner are equally rare these days, where we have got used to whole evenings given over to complete works. There is however some mileage in whole scenes, as this was, giving us the final half of the third act of Die Walkure. I did wonder if we were going to get the whole of the opening to the act as we launched into the Ride of the Valkyries though the subtle seque into the final scene was successfully accomplished without any obvious change of gear.

Tamara Wilson had impressed last season at ENO and proved her worth here as Brunnhilde. The voice is large when it really needs to be but she showed great sensitivity to the text and the growing relationship with Wotan in the final minutes. James Creswell is a familiar Wotan, his often gravelly tones mellowing as he gives in to his daughter.

Mark Wigglesworth’s approach to the score was remarkably fleet, making the magic fire music at the end crackle with intensity. A fine reading – and it would be good to hear more Wagner from him.

Tippet’s A Child of Our Time drew on the BBC National Chorus of Wales as well as the Orchestra. Both were on fine form for a work which has constant dynamic challenges. James Creswell and Tamara Wilson returned as soloists and were joined by Peter Hoare as the Boy and Susan Bickley for the mezzo roles. Though the work has been staged, its psychological shifts seem to work better in the concert hall and the use of spirituals is particularly moving. More so than when it was first conceived, the yearning of the displaced, the pain of the stigmatised was all too uncomfortably relevant to the news today. The work seemed to draw together our own pain and sense of impotence, and set it alongside both the ancient Israelites and the slave communities of the 19^th century United States. It was very moving.

Garsington Opera @ Wormsley, Sunday 17 July

Last year Garsington Opera linked up with the RSC for A Midsummer Night’s Dream; this year brought us a more complex presentation when they were joined by Ballet Rambert in Haydn’s The Creation. As Haydn’s text has a strong narrative line it would have been too easy to simply demonstrate the story in dance and Mark Baldwin used his dancers to reflect on and help us to see other aspects of the score as it progressed. Just occasionally the long lines of dancers – there were forty in total from the company – could be seen as fluid reflections of the elements, but for most of the time the dance seemed a more abstract emotional reflection on the unfolding descriptions. This was often highly effective. Awake the Lyre and the final chorus were particularly apt, as were the gently enfolded duos which seemed to lie at the heart of the interpretation. To take just one example – at the creation of Adam two male dancers gave us a sense of Adam awaking to the possibility of his own soul. It was very moving.

If I have started with the dance it is because the stage layout encouraged us to engage with it first. The large stage area was split by a vast gothic rood screen. Behind it the orchestra was placed, and the chorus were in raised galleries on either side. The gothic arches allowed the soloists to appear when they needed to sing, and Douglas Boyd was literally the centre of things under the central arch. As a result the musical impact was splendid throughout. James Glichrist was a thrilling and impactful narrator in the earlier scenes while Neal Davies and Sarah Tynan came into their own as Adam and Eve.

The chorus were obviously loving it and sang with fresh enthusiasm throughout. I can’t recall The Heavens are telling ever before sounding quite so much like Beethoven in its nobility and impact.

Douglas Boyd drove the score swiftly throughout though there was never any problem with diction or clarity for the text.

This was the last night of a fine season at Wormsley. Next year sees a another new departure for Garsington with plans to work with the Philharmonia Orchestra in a new production of Pelleas et Melisande, and a new community opera.