This evening the massed talents of RNCM student Symphony Orchestra gathered in the concert hall to play four works, all quite considerable pieces, and all very different.
To start the evening, Jack Sheen, a young conductor with an obvious passion and talent lead the orchestra through the tangle of notes that is Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of 'Tristan Und Isolde'. I am not really a fan of Wagner, and his popularity on the concert platform has declined somewhat in recent years [I wonder if this has anything to do with the rise in Right Wing politics??] and I find his music inaccessible at times as with his dense scoring, it does seem to take forever for him to change themes and finally decide to end a piece. I think perhaps you either have to 'get it' or pass it by, and in general I have preferred to do the latter. Sheen however managed to convince me otherwise this evening. I found the piece moving and lyrical, and actually enjoyed listening to it as well as watching his impassioned control over the instruments.
After this followed a piece of music which again, I have to admit, isn't in my list of favourites; although there are works from this composer that are. It was Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto. All three movements have moments of pure genius and beauty in them but for me they are surrounded by a lot of raucous and eclectic sounds. The beginning of the second movement - a stately court dance is absolutely beautiful; as is his very theatrical and dramatic almost orgiastic climax and finish to the third movement. It's a very strange work, and highly unconventional in a rather conventional way. - ie: three movements with the second movement starting slowly and softly; a standard orchestra formation, and allowing the soloist solo spots to show off. However, the feel of the work is very unconventional as is his use of orchestration (the trombones sat silently through majority of this work - and the French horns didn't do much either. The addition of castanets was interesting too!]
This evening's soloist was Russian born Anna Denisova. Currently studying as a post graduate at the RNCM, her credits and accolades are already quite astonishing; however after having heard her play this evening, not surprising. Technically superb, and - might I even be bold enough to say, despite current climates and opinions and -isms! - that Denisova also cut a very beautiful dash dressed in a red ball gown and looking very feminine and demure. {Ok, I am ready for the feminist backlash!} Her playing was irreproachable and despite my not particularly liking the piece, I think I might just have heard the definitive version this evening!
After the interval and we came back to listen to a brand new work by RNCM composer Aaron Breeze called 'Alchemy Of Dreams'. After the composer's brief introduction to the piece we learned that not only did he find a piece of fine art to inspire his composition {'Oko' by Dasha Papysheva} but his fascination with ancient medicines (and of course making gold!) as well as dreams brought this work together. His influences are vast and various from Japanese Pop-Rock music to modern electronic, and he also likes the idea of desynchronising parts which was evidenced in the string section in this work. A little bit of everything seemed to have been thrown at this composition. Everything from Alban Berg to Military Marches, sometimes harmonic and sometimes ultra-dissonant. A rather disjointed and fragmented piece with some nice ideas seemingly left un- or under-developed.
The final piece of the evening was a true show-piece and one with which I am very familiar. Mussorgsky's brilliant and exuberant musical responses to Pictures At An Exhibition. Ravel's orchestrated version is the one that most people will be familiar with, and plays all the 16 short movements together without a break making it a kind of 'tone poem'. Starting with the main theme on trumpet and ending with this wonderfully patriotic and stirring melody repeated several times each time louder and slower to make a finale of deafening but breathtaking beauty.
The last three works were conducted by renowned guest conductor En Shao. It was lovely to watch his technique -a very traditional conducting style using a baton and marking time in the conventional way when not attending to sectional dynamics.
The evening was hugely enjoyable and once again I am amazed at the amount of talent coming from musicians still in training. The dedication necessary to be at that standard so young is unthinkable, and I cannot praise this evening's orchestra and solo pianist, Anna Denisova, enough.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 2/11/18
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