MUSIC REVIEW: London Symphony Orchestra - St Luke's Church, London.

Had COVID not stopped play, then The London Symphony Orchestra should have taken up residency at The Aix-En-Provence Festival this summer. Instead, they managed to come together for the first time since lockdown started, with social distancing measures in place (including more perspex screens and several musicians standing in the galleries), to record one of the concerts they would have been giving in the south of France. The concert was filmed by French / German TV channel Arte and shown in July.

Guest conductor Duncan Ward took the baton, and 5 works from 4 composers made up their programme. A French Romantic sandwich between a jazz-era cross-over American bagel.

Starting with Leonard Bernstein's 3 dance episodes from his film Musical, 'On The Town', Ward showed his skill at precision conducting. I have to be honest, but I don't think I have ever heard those three pieces played so strictly and rhythmically so perfect before; they sounded odd. Even Bernstein himself when conducting his works allowed for, nay wanted, the orchestra to bend the notes or do a  little slide here and there when the jazz-influenced pieces came along. In this interpretation it was almost as if the work were being played by a computer. It made the sound very crisp and clear, and the tunes much more precise. An interesting interpretation.

We then came to the smoked salmon and cream cheese part of the concert; with first the complete 6 movements of Gabriel Faure's 'Dolly Suite'. The suite was originally written for piano duet and I had not, until now, heard it played by a full orchestra (arranged here by Rabaud). The pieces were written to celebrate important events in the life of the daughter of his mistress (perhaps his own daughter too?) and listening to the much fuller and more expansive soundscape given by the orchestration was most interesting; changing some of the sounds completely without losing the French Expressionism-ness of the piece. I enjoyed this very much.

Following this was another great French composer; one who was certainly not afraind of wearing his heart on his sleeve, and scoring his works for larger than usual orchestral requirements. His "Scenes D'Amour: Romeo Et Juliet" from his Symphonie Dramatique (a choral symphony) is a work of sweeping. grandiosity; sensual and plaintive in parts and heroic and tragic in others, whilst the piece has the most beautiful diminuendo to silence at the very end, mirroring the Shakespeare tragedy beautifully. Played here with great skill and understanding, it was the more sympathetic rendition of all the works in the concert in my humble opinion.

Two short works by George Gershwin ended the concert as we came to the sesame seeds on top of the bagel and back to New York. The first of these was a short piece written originally for the film Musical, 'Shall We Dance' and arranged here by Berkowitz, we heard his Promenade: Walking The Dog. Again, it seems that Ward had returned to the strict tempos and the piece was taken a tad slower than "normal" too which didn't really help. However, Ward must have forgotten to conduct so strictly for the final piece as this proved to be much more successful with the jazz influenced and bluesy scoring; although it still didn't really lift me from my seat and get me stomping along as it normally does. Gershwin's 1927 composition for the film Musical of the same name, the Overture to Strike Up The Band.

This hour-long concert had extensive and informative online programme notes to accompany it which was excellent, and I did enjoy the concert greatly. I just felt the American pieces didn't lift off the page quite as brightly and as alive as they perhaps could have done.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6/9/20