By now in this centenary year of 2013, Stravinsky’s revolutionary Rite of Spring has been performed on period instruments and two pianos, maybe even on tin cans. The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Sunday concert only featured a conventional modern orchestra, but it still sounded exhilarating, fresh and wild, which is all you could want from any Rite.
Part of the punch came from hearing the score in something like its original context. For its Paris premiere by the Ballets Russes, Diaghilev had paved the way for Stravinsky’s onslaught by programming three ballets to daintier 19th-century scores in the first half. Aside from substitute Chopin, with the pianist Alexei Volodin, we heard the authentic sounds of Weber’s Invitation to the Dance and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, delivered with glitter and stomping energy by the BBCSO and Alexander Vedernikov, a conductor drenched in theatrical panache after spending eight years at the Bolshoi. Stravinsky popped up, too, with his 1909 orchestration of Chopin’s Grand Valse Brillante, almost choking in colour.
Then came the Rite and its sky-high bassoon solo, beckoning us towards startling angular melodies, brutal fortissimos and rhythmic dislocation. Shock! Horror! Yet the night’s biggest punch came from the BBCSO’s performance. Vedernikov inspired the musicians to discover their inner savage, propelling the most explosive sections with an elemental thrust.
At the same time, in all that heat Vedernikov still balanced and shaped textures and phrases with a manicurist’s precision. The woodwinds’ introduction, wondrously virile, told us that. Through all the rhythmic pandemonium the ensemble sense was terrifyingly exact, making the couple of brass fluffs insignificant, flies on a lion’s back.
Furore over, Vedernikov worshipfully patted his score. Quite right too. Then, feeling raw but rejuvenated, we stepped into a brave new world.
Source.
Part of the punch came from hearing the score in something like its original context. For its Paris premiere by the Ballets Russes, Diaghilev had paved the way for Stravinsky’s onslaught by programming three ballets to daintier 19th-century scores in the first half. Aside from substitute Chopin, with the pianist Alexei Volodin, we heard the authentic sounds of Weber’s Invitation to the Dance and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances, delivered with glitter and stomping energy by the BBCSO and Alexander Vedernikov, a conductor drenched in theatrical panache after spending eight years at the Bolshoi. Stravinsky popped up, too, with his 1909 orchestration of Chopin’s Grand Valse Brillante, almost choking in colour.
Then came the Rite and its sky-high bassoon solo, beckoning us towards startling angular melodies, brutal fortissimos and rhythmic dislocation. Shock! Horror! Yet the night’s biggest punch came from the BBCSO’s performance. Vedernikov inspired the musicians to discover their inner savage, propelling the most explosive sections with an elemental thrust.
At the same time, in all that heat Vedernikov still balanced and shaped textures and phrases with a manicurist’s precision. The woodwinds’ introduction, wondrously virile, told us that. Through all the rhythmic pandemonium the ensemble sense was terrifyingly exact, making the couple of brass fluffs insignificant, flies on a lion’s back.
Furore over, Vedernikov worshipfully patted his score. Quite right too. Then, feeling raw but rejuvenated, we stepped into a brave new world.
Source.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Vedernikov at the Barbican
Geoff BROWN, The Times, September 24 2013
