This was an uneven outing for the BBC Symphony Orchestra under its one-time principal guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Sandwiching Haydn’s Symphony No 83, The Hen, between the world premiere of a Concerto for Brass and Orchestra by Diana Burrell and Stravinsky’s The Firebird, the programme was a challenging as well as eye-catching mix. In such company, would Haydn be reborn as sensual and lush – a hen in Technicolor?
No, as it turns out. The BBCSO mutated from the large, percussion-heavy forces of Burrell’s concerto to a conventional chamber outfit for Haydn. But Saraste’s brisk tempi felt rushed rather than graceful, the ensemble too approximate, the sound too bland, as the players strove for Viennese courtly bonhomie amid a forest of music stands.
Burrell’s new concerto fared better. The BBCSO’s brass provided both the hard edges and the humour of this sometimes angular, sometimes disconcertingly tonal work. Dialogues raged between soloists (from Straussian horn flares and lyrical trumpet ramblings to fantastically nimble tuba) against a backdrop that shimmered and clattered by turn. The orchestra was never solely backdrop, either: it answered back with carefully controlled nastiness, intimate chamber textures and Copland-esque luxuriance.
It nonetheless seemed ungenerous to premiere Burrell’s colouristic concerto a mere interval away from Stravinsky’s Firebird. Saraste and the BBCSO came into their own here, a new level of musical commitment instantly evident from a hyper-focused, hyper-precise opening. Saraste drove constantly onwards – taking in impish woodwind solos and astonishing pianissimos – to the ecstatic, brass-driven close. It was a hard-to-beat performance.
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