{"id":7139,"date":"2023-07-17T17:56:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T16:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=7139"},"modified":"2023-07-17T17:56:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T16:56:22","slug":"bbc-proms-4-deutsche-kammerphilharmonie-bremen-pekka-kuusisto-16th-july-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=7139","title":{"rendered":"BBC Proms – 4 Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen Pekka Kuusisto 16th July 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pekka-kuusisto-four-seasons-and-four-seascapes.webp\"The high spot of this concert was a glorious, witty performance of Beethoven\u2019s first symphony<\/em>. Once we\u2019d got over the slight raggedness at the opening Pekka Kuusisto packed in the brio and I really admired the detail of those beautiful fugal moments in the andante which were played with exquisite, and quite unusual, dynamic contrast. Then we got excitement and palpable pleasure from players grinning at each other in the minuet and a top speed bravura performance of the finale. It was in short, full of light, air and joie de vivre, although I didn\u2019t feel the audience participation moment before the finale added much.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the interval came the much hyped up \u201cenhanced\u201d version of Vivaldi\u2019s Four Seasons<\/em> with Kuusisto on violin (you can\u2019t fault him for beaming energy and sense of fun) and Ale Carr on cittern. It\u2019s certainly a novel idea to intersperse Vivaldi with folk music but it\u2019s not how I would wish to hear this piece regularly. We got ever longer passages of folk music \u2013 the two men duetting, facing each other and almost dancing so that at times it felt as if we were at a completely different sort of concert. Despite, or perhaps because of, the evident musical chemistry between them, it became increasing self-indulgent as we proceeded slowly to the end of an hour long performance. The orchestra meanwhile played spiritedly even though they were, effectively, marginalised. I suspect that \u2013 complex as it is in this form with more than twenty movements \u2013 it was under-rehearsed too. At one point Kuusisto had to leave the stage (not long enough for a broken string so I was mystified) and he began one movement at the wrong time and had to joke with the audience that it would be edited out for the broadcast. Nonetheless it was fascinating to see and hear the cittern given such prominence and Carr is a stupendous and charismatic player.<\/p>\n

After all that one had almost forgotten the concert\u2019s opening work: Birds of Paradise<\/em> by Andrea Tarrodi which is a pity because it is an attractive piece, inspired by David Attenborough\u2019s Planet Earth<\/em>. It\u2019s music imitating life with the orchestra building to a rich texture and then offering tropical forest sounds such as glissandi from the strings and chattering sounds from the percussion \u2013 all quite eerie. It must be quite challenging to play but Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie is a fine orchestra and delivered it with panache and a fabulous morendo pianissimo effect at the end.<\/p>\n

Susan Elkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The high spot of this concert was a glorious, witty performance of Beethoven\u2019s first symphony. Once we\u2019d got over the slight raggedness at the opening Pekka Kuusisto packed in the brio and I really admired the detail of those beautiful … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7143,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions\/7143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}