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Queen Elizabeth Hall, January
2006
Britten Sinfonia
Tasmin Little
Martin Outram
Billed
as "Tasmin Little directs Bach and Mozart", the Britten Sinfonia's
programme was really a showcase for teamwork. The orchestra's leader,
Jacqueline Shave, and its principal viola, Martin Outram, who played solo
throughout the second half, also had key roles, but everything sprang
from focused listening throughout the orchestral string section.
Two
performances of Shostakovich by strings alone shared good balance and
ensemble. Little proved a dominant solo voice in the Prelude and Scherzo
for octet. Fully scored passages held together securely while remaining
fleet. With Shave directing, the Chamber Symphony began fuller-toned and
stayed forthright. The work is an arrangement by Rudolf Barshai of Shostakovich's
grim String Quartet No 8. It's full of obsessive and desperate references
to other pieces of his, originally inspired by a visit to Dresden in 1960
when he came face to face with the results of wartime atrocities. The
playing radiated commitment...
Best
in this half was the A minor concerto by Bach, done in a 1960s way with
the period elements consisting of light tone, a springy pulse, and harpsichord.
Little's conducting supported her playing with results that sounded alert
and precise.
The second half evinced an extraordinary quality of sharing, as you expect
to find in a trio or quartet. John Woolrich 's short piece Ulysses Awakes
is Monteverdi given a Stravinsky-type treatment, with the viola taking
the singer's part and a gradual, subtle invasion of lightly dissonant
elements - elusive and poetic in its halting phrases.
Shave
led the orchestra here, and again with both Little and Outram at the front
for Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. Usually this work feels like a double
concerto, but here the lead role passed around, with soloists determined
to cooperate rather than compete. All the performers succeeded, not only
in placing the work before its public but in drawing listeners into its
heart.
The Independent
In a world where there are
so many demands on time, attention and pocket, intelligent musicians have
recognised the need to be imaginative if they are to survive. An ensemble
that has successfully reinvented itself in recent years is the Britten
Sinfonia, which has combined traditional and cutting-edge repertoire with
a variety of high-profile collaborators.
Last night’s concert veered towards the conventional end of the spectrum,
celebrating as it did the anniversaries of Mozart and Shostakovich. That,
together with the presence of Tasmin Little as soloist/director, ensured
an impressive turnout in the QEH for a skilfully crafted programme of
old and new.
Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony Op. 110a, an arrangement by Rudolf Barshai
of a string quartet inspired by the destruction of the Second World War,
took some time to ignite. In the latter stages, however, its lugubrious
quality was captured convincingly and there was a palpable blaze of intensity
before the final retreat into introspective desolation.
Shostakovich’s less familiar early Prelude and Scherzo for string octet
set the scene with a characteristically barbed Scherzo following a surprisingly
Classical introduction. John Woolrich ’s evocative Ulysses Awakes is essentially
a reworking of a Monteverdi aria, subtly transmuting the declamation,
overlapping voices and melting harmonies of the original. The vocal part
is taken by a solo viola (Martin Outram).
Evening Standard
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