MUSIC REVIEW: London Symphony Orchestra: Bacewicz, Haydn and Beethoven. - St Luke's Church, London.

Another superb and hugely praiseworthy concert streamed live from St Luke's Church in London by The London Symphony Orchestra. They, like all of us, are struggling under enormous difficulties both actual and financial, and seeing the orchestra sitting around the church some wearing face masks, and all socially distanced from each other with no live audience is truly a heart-breaking sight. But better that than not playing at all. Better that than not having any live music coming into our homes. So bravissimo I say!

In this concert, there were three rather substantial works performed. The first of which being the most modern, and yet perhaps the most retrosepctive of the three. Grazyna Bacewica was born in Poland in 1909, a violinist and composer, and she was instrumental (excuse the pun!) during her brief 60 year lifetime in the resurgence of Polish composition after World War 2 and the role and place of Polish music in the repertoire.

Her Concerto For Strings (1948) has a very Baroque feel to the piece. Indeed it has the standard three movements (fast / slow / fast), and even utilises the idea of having a string quartet playing solo melodies within the body of the piece; an idea that was carried through from the Baroque era into the early Classical. However, the piece also has many Romantic ideas and early 20th Century ideas thrown into the mix too, so perhaps it is a modern version of an old form.

I have never heard the piece before but its thickly orchestrated, multi-layered, many-melodied second movement was very interesting.

Following this, and we go to the period in musical history the first piece took as it's inspiration, and to the music of Joseph Haydn. Here the orchestra played his Sinfonia Concertante in Bb Maj (op84). Again, the piece is in three movements (fast / slow / fast) and here we see the full utilisation of a quartet of soloists, working both as a unit and as part of the whole. 

The soloists were Roman Simonov (violin), Olivier Stankiewicz (oboe), Rebecca Gilliver (cello), and Daniel Jemison (Bassoon). 

And finally we come to the Beethoven. My father's favourite composer and so more or less every single note that Beethoven ever wrote is forever stamped into my brain as it was all I ever head on the radio when I was a child. His 8th Symphony however, was not one of my dad's favourites... or at least, I am assuming it mustn't have been, since I don't recall much of this from my childhood at all. It's almost as if this symphony went unnoticed. That, I find out, was a shame, because it is a very interesting, beautiful, and in many way atypical piece of Beethoven.

I am familiar with his eartly jocular and playful music, as well as his 18th piano sonata; but did not know that this, his 8th Symphony, was also composed in such a vein. The symphony is in 4 movements, and instead of the conventional slow second movement, there is a somewhat faster scherzando (a little joke), which has been said that Beethoven was trying to imitate the sound and rhythms of the latest invention of a metronome. The final movement too is full of jokes and surprises, including false endings and the occasional deliberately wrong-sounding note. Music purely and simply for music's sake. 

The London Symphony Orchestra sounded amazing. Social distancing and live-streaming technologies notwithstanding, it was quite an amazing concert, and the whole was conducted with obvious passion and intellect by Paavo Jarvi.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall

on - 29/11/20