It is always a tremendous pleasure to see the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze back on stage at Philharmonic Hall, and in two concerts with the Phil this past week he again demonstrated his complete mastery of a score with characteristic modesty and warmth of personality.
Both concerts began with a Mozart Symphony (No.31 on Thursday and 32 on Sunday) and ended with Sibelius’ 1st Symphony. On Thursday evening these pieces accompanied the World Premiere of Gavin Bryars’ new Harpsichord Concerto and on Sunday afternoon the Organ Concerto by Poulenc.
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who is becoming a favourite to Liverpool audiences, has had several new works for the instrument commissioned either for or by him. Gavin Bryars’ offering is a co-commission between the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Orchestre Nationale de Lyon. Scored for a sizeable orchestra by harpsichord concerto standards, including a complement of tuned percussion, it is also a large-scale work, running to almost 30 minutes in a more or less unbroken span.
More than anything, Bryars’ concerto calls to mind that of Frank Martin, with its sinuous, almost insidious winding figures for the soloist that chase their own tails around and around amidst the eerie backdrop of orchestral sound. Playing on his own bespoke, modern instrument, which was subtly assisted by some electronic amplification, Esfahani brought a wide range of colour and texture to the sound, but the musical material itself remained almost static and unchanging throughout, making for a mesmerising rather than thrilling effect overall, finally disappearing into the same swirling mists that it emerged from. In tribute to the concert’s dedicatee Maurice Henry George, Esfahani played a short Elegy by Richard Rodney Bennett as an encore.
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| Mahan Esfahani and Andrew Manze in rehearsal with the RLPO for Thursday's concert |
On Sunday, in complete contrast to the meditations of Thursday’s Bryars, organist Ian Tracey quite literally pulled out all the stops in an attempt to blow the roof off Philharmonic Hall in a performance of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. Delayed from last year, this performance was planned to showcase the hall’s Rushworth and Draeper organ, which has recently undergone a major two-year refurbishment by Henry Willis & Sons. And what a showcase it finally proved to be, with Poulenc’s music affording opportunities for light and shade, melodic beauty and real theatrics. It is a work that has all the Gallic sophistication of some of the greatest organ masters, but also manages to fit in good doses of Poulenc’s own trademark wit. There might be a touch of the Keystone Cops here and there, but there is a much bigger presence of the Abominable Dr. Phibes in some of its declamatory fanfares. It is great to hear the organ punching back at its original weight again after decades of being under-powered and Tracey, who had a major hand in the refurbishment and re-voicing of the instrument, was clearly having enormous fun in showing off its range of colour. The orchestra, too, appeared to be having huge fun alongside him, with Manze’s direction matching Tracey’s shifts of mood in a work that is largely dark and mysterious with flashes of wicked humour.
The concerto was preceded by an arrangement for organ and orchestra of Gigout’s celebratory Grand Choeur Dialogue. A great organ showpiece, this arrangement oddly gives much of the weightier parts to the orchestra, leaving the organ to revel in the fanfares and complicated fingerwork. As an encore, Tracey played Garth Edmundson’s Toccata from ‘Vom Himmel Hoch’, with its dazzling carillon like scales accompanied by the glorious indulgence of heavyweight pedals.
It’s in pieces like these where it would be nice to follow the modern trend for training a camera on the organist to enable the audience to see the soloist at work, rather than just the top of their head behind the console – a note for future concerts perhaps?
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| Philharmonic Hall's organ in the process of removal for refurbishment - Photo: Henry Willis & Sons |
Mozart’s Paris Symphony (No.31 in D Major) is perhaps one of his most popular but for some reason not that frequently performed nowadays, and its little sister (No.32 in G Major) is even less frequently heard. Not much longer than many concert overtures, they provided sprightly openers for Thursday and Sunday’s programmes, and Manze gave them as much attention to detail as all the other music on display. Light on their feet and bubbling with energy, the symphonies got both concerts off to a refreshingly cheerful start.
Then to Sibelius’ Symphony No.1 in E Minor which formed the second half of each programme. Sibelius is one of Manze’s specialities, and his performances aim at authenticity and getting to the heart of the composer’s intentions. Much like Bruckner (another favourite of Manze) Sibelius frequently revised his scores after their first performances, resulting in more than one known, if not published, version. He was also known to praise performances which deviated greatly from his own markings, which has led to wide variation in performance styles.
The first symphony is widely thought of as one of Sibelius’ works to show the greatest influence of Tchaikovsky, and many performers tend to emphasise the similarities. Manze, however, has clearly aimed to focus more on the emergence of Sibelius’ own unmistakable and unique voice, which is already well formed in this work, composed in his early thirties. Unusually, Manze chose to ask clarinettist Victor de la Rosa to play the opening clarinet solo in an extended version, believed to be as it was in the original, unpublished score. This longer, slower introduction set a tone for the entire first movement that felt much darker and more emotionally charged, and when its theme returned at the orchestral opening of the final movement it seemed to have gained more dramatic weight than usual. After the continued simmering emotions throughout the two central movements, this finale is often played with exaggerated romantic expression, but Manze maintained the tension to the final pair of pizzicato chords. This was met with an appropriately stunned silence in the hall before the rapturous applause at both performances, during which Manze, who was entirely focused on acknowledging the work of the players, was finally cajoled into taking a brief solo bow.
Here were a pair of concerts that amply demonstrate why both audience and orchestra eagerly await Andrew Manze’s visits here. It is worth mentioning that, as well as the heavy schedule of preparation for these two concerts, he also set aside time to work with the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a performance of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto on Saturday. That’s dedication for you.
Star rating: Five Stars
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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