BBC Proms at Perth
Perth Concert Hall - 03/08/23
The BBC Proms made a first appearance in Perth (and the only appearance in Scotland this year) on Sunday, as the penultimate concert in series of 12 stretching beyond the Royal Albert Hall and other London venues across the UK. The programme, introduced to BBC Radio 3 listeners from the stage by presenter Petroc Trelawny – who vowed at the end to return to this beautiful venue, featured an intriguing mix of chamber pieces to stimulate and engage a receptive local audience.
The Heath Quartet opened proceedings with a precise, joyful account of Haydn’s String Quartet in E Flat major, Op. 9 No. 2. Published in 1771, this life-affirming work is essentially a forerunner in the genre, eschewing an orchestral temperament for the intimacy of four instruments in harmony and dialogue. The Heaths, who have established a strong reputation over a varied repertoire and several iterations since they were established in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music, brought delicacy, dance and conversational richness to a piece which provided a showcase for first violinist Sara Wolstenholme in the inner two movements, and an opportunity for more interplay involving second violin (Juliette Roos), viola (Gary Pomeroy) and cello (Christopher Murray) in the outer ones.
Next to the stage was pianist Steven Osborne, who noted in pre-performance conversation with Petroc Trelawny that he had helped choose the piano for this particular venue (the one he was indeed about to play), some 20 years ago. His commitment to the passionate, complex music of Michael Tippett was poured into a compelling performance of the composer’s ground-breaking Piano Sonata No.2, which moves across a wide range of emotions and styles in mosaic-like blocs rather than through unfolding development.
Written in 1962 in the wake of Tippett’s stark second opera, King Priam, which it quotes briefly, and premiered by Margaret Kitchin in Edinburgh in September of that year, the sonata abandons the traditional sense of flow of traditional classical form. It also marks a dramatic change in the substance and style of Tippett’s own music, away from his heady early lyricism towards a more confrontational and fragmented approach.
Steven Osborne knows the work well and handles its considerable technical challenges with customary aplomb. After a violently dissonant opening, the sonata moves in short steps from moments of tenderness and heart-rending beauty to furious Beethovian runs, yearning meditative harmonies, sharp dynamic contrasts, angry outbursts, and passages in double and triple octaves between the five putative ‘sections’ of what is in fact a single movement work. Tippett almost called the 12-minute sonata ‘Mosaics’, and that is certainly one way of approaching it. Another is perhaps to imagine a series of dances in contrasting and eliding styles, occurring on stage in both simultaneity and sequence. Osborne brings a sense of rhythm and deep expressiveness to this challenging and rewarding sonata. This commanding performance he showed once more why he is its foremost exponent right now.
The final and longest work in this absorbing Prom occupied the second half of the concert for 36 minutes, and brought Steven Osborne and the Heath Quartet together, following their first half ‘solo’ outings. They combined for a wonderful performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57. Composed in 1940, the year before Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the quintet feels positive, playful and tender over much of the course of its five movements. Yet there are also moments of lingering tension and dark emotion, too.
For those who know Shostakovich mainly for the grand gestures, swaggering bombast, moments of irony and blazing orchestral and vocal power of his symphonies and operas, the chamber works provide a real contrast. They show how nimble and fleet-fingered he could be employing smaller resources. The Heath Quartet (who, incidentally, also provided a landmark live recording of the complete string Quartets of Michael Tippett in 2015) were in top form again here, and Steven Osborne similarly demonstrated his seamless prowess in an ensemble context.
The works in this imaginatively programmed Prom spanned a considerable emotional range. But there was also a joyousness, punctuated by moments of intensity and sweetness, in the way all three were delivered. A highly rewarding afternoon, which can now be heard for another five weeks on BBC Sounds.
