BBCSSO: Elgar Symphony No. 1

City Halls, Glasgow - 23/11/23

Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor | Martin James Bartlett, piano

“Escape into Sweeping Melodies” – the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra returned to Glasgow’s City Halls and the ‘basket of goodies’ programming philosophy on the night of 23rd November, with Elgar’s epic First Symphony providing the “sweeping melodies”. Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, whose immensely satisfying reading of Elgar’s Second Symphony had closed the 2022-23 season back in May, directed again, raising expectations of another insightful performance.  Before the interval, the orchestra was joined by 2014 BBC Young Musician winner, Martin James Bartlett, for Mozart’s delicious D-minor Piano Concerto No. 20. The concert opened with Yorkshireman Jonathan Woolgar’s intriguing ‘Canzoni et Ricercari’, in a new version for onstage string orchestra and additional offstage violins.  A world premiere of Woolgar’s ‘Symphonic Message in Memory of L.R.’ had opened the 2022-23 season, marking Wigglesworth’s debut as Chief Conductor of the BBCSSO, so this programme held a sense of having been curated to reaffirm dedication to a mission and commitment to excellence.  The concert was introduced by Kate Molleson and broadcast live on Radio 3.  The turnout was far from embarrassing, but I felt it was less than might be expected for such a popular programme.

If the programming linked to relatively recent events, the Woolgar piece had a longer reach, its title referring to 17th-century musical forms that saw the emergence of the foundations of classical canonical counterpoint and harmony, its asymmetric antiphonal string scoring inspired by Vaughan Williams’ ‘Tallis Fantasia’, with which it also shared a salubrious premiere venue: Gloucester Cathedral.  The two ensembles were sometimes at peace: sometimes in conflict.  The new version was adapted by the composer from the 12-instrument original at Ryan Wigglesworth’s suggestion.  The short two-movement work held the attention with its theatricality as much as its purely musical content.  An excellent concert opener, with some lovely solos from Acting Leader, Kanako Ito.  The composer was present and came to the stage to thank the performers and acknowledge the enthusiastic Glaswegian applause.

Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto has a special place in my heart.  For one thing, it’s the only Piano Concerto in which I have played, specifically the cello part in the first public concert given by the newly-formed amateur Festival Orchestra of Abu Dhabi in mid-April 1993, with Canadian pianist Tricia Edwards as soloist.  Later that month, the Vienna Sinfonietta visited the city to give a concert in the Cultural Foundation, and FOAD was invited to join them for some Strauss numbers and a reprise of the Mozart D-minor Concerto with our soloist.  So, I have played in the front desk of the cellos of the Vienna Sinfonietta.  True story – I have video evidence.  It is the cellos that drive the spooky opening with demonic rising figures under syncopated scrubbing from the other strings and Ryan pleasingly went for the melodramatic reading as the grim stormy orchestral introduction unfolded.  Martin’s entry exemplified that subtle hesitation in phrasing which I feel is the secret to perfect Mozart, sustaining the magic with gentle rallentandi at the transitions.  The movement unfolded as the perfect mix of muscular tutti and chamber dialogue.  Mozart lightens the mood with passages in the major key but always returning to the turmoil.  These were beautifully pointed.  The Hummel cadenza was unfamiliar to me, but a happy discovery and to my ear, rather Beethovenian. The cellos returned the music to the Stygian gloom from which it arose.  Magical.  The Romanze, a gentle B-flat major rondo serenade with two contrasting episodes, featured the same lovely phrasing in an elegant andante tempo.  The second episode, in the relative G minor, was as turbulent and dramatic as you like, making the final transition back to the major and the tenderness of the closing bars all the more delicious.  Back to turbulent D-minor for most of the finale, though the major episode that will form the coda makes an early cheery appearance.  The choice of cadenza for the finale was bona fide Beethoven and thoroughly excellent.  I can vouch for this concerto as a joy to play and there was undoubtedly a special chemistry between Martin and the BBCSSO – it was they who had accompanied his winning performance back in 2014.  A joy too for the enthusiastic audience, whose cheering applause drew Martin back for a sweetly nuanced encore: the first of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15 "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen".  Scrumptious.

Something puzzled me during the interval, which I feel I must share with the reader.  I heard principal trumpet Mark O’ Keeffe practising the solo trumpet part from Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto.  And indeed, in a fortnight, the orchestra will be joined by Federico Colli to play both of the Shostakovich concerti, under no less a maestro than Sir Mark Elder. But the advertised solo trumpet is Matilda Lloyd. So, what gives? Understudy?

Back in May, I wrote: “Elgar’s two completed symphonies are very different, yet inescapably by the same composer.  Where the First is predominantly introspective and exudes an air of noble stoicism, concluding with a triumphant sense of hard-won self-realisation, the Second is predominantly confident, exudes an air of striding ebullience, but concludes with an afterglow of deep contentment.  If pressed, I probably prefer the First, but I’d never knowingly miss an opportunity to catch either live.  And I am most definitely glad not to have missed Wigglesworth’s interpretation of the Second with the BBCSSO, as it was top-notch.”

So, did he answer my expectations with the First? Oh yes. And then some. The same appreciation of structure, form and ‘wholeness’ that he brings to Mahler, a consistent and compelling overview that allows detail and connectedness to be explored and pointed, without harming the forward drive of the music, that is essential to Elgar, informed every bar, and the orchestra were with him a hundred percent, with playing that was breathtakingly fine. The nobility of the opening march, the huge variety of moods, including excitability, tenderness, frenzy and brooding contemplation that follow were given full rein and the musicians ran with it.  Every part has some glorious music to play, but I always feel that in this symphony Elgar is particularly generous to the trombones – time and again they get to define the mood.  The frenetic scherzo with its demonic dance opening, turning to a grim march, fleeting moments of tenderness abandoned for more frantic scurrying, was a breathless thrill, winding down at last to an exhausted trudge, leading straight into the slow movement, another noble theme related to the opening march, whose tenderness slips in and out of anxiety.  The closing bars of the movement, with muted trombones and soft taps on the timpani, always cause me to hold my breath; this time with added goosebumps.  The big tune of the finale, derived from earlier material, tentative at first, then striding and confident, undergoes many transformations of mood until it becomes a hymn-like declaration of passionate devotion, with Elgar’s best counterpoint tugging at the heartstrings.  From there, the renewed vigour and confidence drives it to the triumphant conclusion.  We got it all, in spades.

There are a few very fine recordings of Elgar 1 out there. This performance would give them all a run for their money.  It is available on BBC Sounds for the next 4 weeks.  Highly recommended.  With a good Merlot or whatever floats your boat.