Dancing like a demented leprechaun
Storgårds/BBC Philharmonic
Royal Albert Hall
Only four days into the Proms, and already there have been four premieres. This one from the BBC Philharmonic had the most recent of them, by senior Austrian composer HK “Nali” Gruber. It was in the form of a percussion concerto, a genre that has enjoyed a mixed success rate. I groaned at the thought of yet another pointlessly virtuoso piece tricked out with a vast array of metal and wood-work, the soloist capering around it like a demented leprechaun, thwacking everything in sight.
Unfortunately that was precisely what this piece, entitled into the
open..., turned out to be. One had to admire soloist Colin Currie’s nimble skill, sometimes arriving at his destination with only a micro-second to spare. But there was no hiding the fact that, much of the time, Currie’s deft and sensitive playing was merely accompanying the orchestral music.
This aspired to the neon-lit, louche glamour typical of Gruber, but the undoubted sharpness of his aural imagination was blunted by the slackness of the pacing. The ending was signalled by a series of swelling gestures cut off by a silence, each tinged with a faint composed “echo”, like an aftertaste. A striking idea, if it hadn’t been so endlessly prolonged.
Thank goodness for the precision of Igor Stravinsky, who never composed a bar more than was absolutely necessary. We heard his ballet
Petrushka in the original 1911 version, which was a treat indeed. Conductor John Storgårds made each episode stand out vividly in its own tempo, and the principal players, above all flautist Richard Davies, gave their solo episodes a balletic, gestural vividness. Together they made this much-played piece seem brilliantly fresh and alive.
That was one highlight of the Prom, but its fantastically bright colours didn’t outshine the opening piece, Haydn’s 85th symphony. The physical excitement of the skyrocketing figures in the first movement were just as vivid as anything in Stravinsky’s ballet, and the witty tempo changes in the Trio had a similar peasant tipsiness. But nothing was overdone.
In the first movement, the little pause leading back to the opening music was barely perceptible, but all the more striking for that. With Storgards, instinct and refinement become one, which is a rare gift indeed.