Tuesday 9 December 2014

Season Opening- 14/11/2014- RLPO


Vasily Petrenko conductor
Mari Samuelsen violin

Hakon Samuelsen cello
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra


The RLPO's first concert in their newly refurbished home consisted of Debussy Ibéria, the world premiere of Horner Pas de Deux: Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.  The concert was conducted by Petrenko with the Samuelsen siblings playing violin and cello in the double concerto.

Before I talk about the concert itself, I feel it only right to give a brief review of the refurbishment of the Philharmonic Hall. The long-awaited modernisation, a job which desperately needed doing, transformed the Philharmonic Hall from a dusty, old remnant of the post-war period into a modern and stylish venue, finally bringing the orchestra's home into line with those of their competitors. It was a refurbishment that needed to be carried out, and one which I am mightily impressed by. Best of all that awful, moving, monstrosity of a sculpture has been removed from the behind the stage, and hopefully destroyed!!

Upon the Petrenko's entrance to the stage there was a timpani roll, to which everybody stood up for the National Anthem played by the orchestra- a ritual that I have never seen take place at the Philharmonic before. The rendition was nicely arranged though I don't wish to provide a review of that, as it probably won't make for good reading at all!

After the formalities where dealt with, the orchestra commenced with Debussy. It was a hard performance to fault, the orchestra were playing well and appeared to be engaging with the music. Petrenko on the other hand was getting on with his conducting in his typical exaggerated and unnecessary style (I am sure that my dislike of Vasily will become more and more apparent as the season and reviews go on!)

With the token Debussy out of the way, two soloists entered accompanied by two music stands. Yes that's right, the concerto soloists had to read off the music- a distinctive sign of very poor B-list soloists indeed. My impressions of the Samuelsens appear to have had some foundation- their playing went on to confirm my initial suspicions. Horner's Pas de Deux: Double Concerto was ghastly. The first movement was a boring, unoriginal attempt to rip-off Vaughn Williams. The movement dragged on, occasionally Horner excited the audience with a perfect cadence, signalling the end, only to start the whole sorry affair off again for what felt like another hour and a half. The soloists were the epitome of mediocrity and even managed to make Petrenko look like a semi-competent conductor! The second movement was perhaps even more arduous than the first and was musically bland- the Samuelsens didn't do much to counteract this at all. After those two awful movements came the third- an immature, rushed attempt at serious concert music by a film composer. It was during this movement that Horner's mask slipped and he was revealed as the cheesy, generic Hollywood composer that he is. A sorry attempt by Horner to try and be taken seriously. If I was to rate the concert based on this performance alone it would be struggling to get one star. The RLPO approached the work with a brave face and managed to keep it ticking over. This concerto is what prevented me from rating the concert four stars. Horner's attempt at writing a concerto was pitiful.

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 was the perfect piece to cleanse our ears after Horner's hack-job concerto. The performance was good but not remarkable. Petrenko managed to make himself look foolish with stupid, childish gyrations where they really weren't called for. Aside from this the orchestra managed to give a pleasing interpretation of the symphony. It was by no means one of the better performances of Tchaikovsky 5 that I have ever heard, but it was impressive and admirable nonetheless.

The concert was on the most part enjoyable, the RLPO seemed to be playing well and I congratulate them on this performance. Sadly however the concerto really ruined it for me, it was both composed by an amateur and played by two amateurs. My advice to James Horner, who was brave enough to take a bow after his piece was premiered, would be to stick to film scores- his attempt to be taken seriously as a legitimate composer was cringeworthy.











 

Monday 8 December 2014

Remembrance- 8/11/2014- RLPO


Yan Pascal Tortelier conductor
Daniel Müller-Schott cello
Christopher Purves baritone
Caroline MacPhie soprano
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Cantata Choir

For their first concert of the season, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and choir performed: Strauss Death and Transfiguration, Elgar Cello Concerto and Fauré Requiem Massin the Metropolitan Cathedral alongside the cathedral's choir, under the baton of Yan Pascal Tortelier.

The first half of the concert started with the bold Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss. It is a very typical Strauss piece and is arguably one of his best works. The acoustics in the cavernous Metropolitan Cathedral suited the brash, loud and mighty piece- the echoes created in such an environment definitely added an interesting and complementary effect to the Strauss. Yan Pascal Tortelier was on form, conducting passionately, gesticulating wildly at times and adding a certain character to this piece. The orchestra itself seemed to be a bit brass- heavy from where I was sat- but being Strauss that didn't really matter! 

After such a tremendous performance of the Strauss it must be said that the Elgar Cello Concerto was slightly disappointing. Müller-Schott was undoubtedly a good cellist but by no means first class. His performance was void of emotion and passion and the sound wasn't as clean as I may have hoped. This did have something to do with the acoustics in the cathedral, which definitely did not suit the concerto- the echo irritatingly obscured much of the piece. The cathedral wasn't the best venue for the concert in my opinion not only in terms of the sound but also in terms of the logistics of the performance. The orchestra seemed cramped and the soloist and conductor had to trek right from the back to the stage in the middle of the cathedral to take their bows! 

The Fauré Requiem Mass was also slightly underwhelming. It had its moments but the orchestra, soloists and choir seemed tired and uninterested. Poor Tortelier was still as energetic as ever though, trying ever so hard to gee up the musicians! The soloists yet again were technically sound but darest I say it, boring! The sound was lost quickly into the atmosphere and the echoes became genuinely unbearable. The Fauré was rather sadly nondescript. It lacked character and emotion- a main criticism of the concert on the whole. 

Boring interpretations from the orchestra despite the conductor's obvious enthusiasm. The acoustics sadly made much of the concert unbearable to listen to.