RSNO: Romantic Valentine’s: Romeo and Juliet
Usher Hall - 16/02/24
Simon Trpčeski, piano | Thomas Søndergård, conductor
After a very long gap, the RSNO was back at the Usher Hall, with Thomas Søndergård, for its first concert of 2024, and what a fine concert is was! My only tiny caveat was billing it as Romantic Valentine’s. Apart from slightly dodgy grammar, and the fact that Romeo and Juliet is a famous, but tragic, love story, there was nothing particularly romantic about any of the music. I assume the reference was to Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ a selection of music from the ballet forming the second half of the concert, but it must be said that much of that score is heavily doom-laden, and any prospective Valentine’s couples should be warned how that particular affair ended. It wasn’t happy!
The evening began with ‘Symphonic Fantasy on King Roger’, an arrangement by Iain Farrington of music from Karol Szymanowski’s 1926 opera, ‘King Roger.’ I really enjoyed this tone poem, but there was a dearth of information about its origins. How much was Szymanowski and how much Iain Farrington? Who is Iain Farrington? Apart from his name, there is nothing about the arranger in the programme. Some research revealed that Mr Farrington is a British pianist, organist, composer and arranger, aged 46. He appeared at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 alongside Rowan Atkinson and Sir Simon Rattle, composed music for a Wallace and Gromit Prom and wrote a piece for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. He has also made orchestral arrangements of several operas, and this apparently was the UK Premiere of this Symphonic Fantasy on King Roger. This rarely reformed opera, premiered in Warsaw in 1926, tells of the mediaeval King Roger II of Sicily, of his devout Christianity and of his conflict with pagan licentiousness, as represented by the mysterious Shepherd, who seduces, or is seduced by, Roger’s wife, Roxana.
I can’t tell you more about the piece we heard, other than that I found it marvellous, a wildly expressive early 20th century combination of the influences of Debussy, Scriabin and Richard Strauss, superbly played by the RSNO, conducted by its principal conductor, and with fine solo contributions from woodwind and strings. We are indebted to the Adam Mickiewicz Institute for their support for the Symphonic Fantasy in this concert. I must now find a recording of ‘Król Roger’!
We were back on more normal ground with Camille Saint-Saëns’ 2nd Piano Concerto, but there was nothing normal about the performance of Simon Trpčeski, the phenomenal piano soloist in this extraordinary work. This was one of the most fantastic demonstrations of virtuosic pianism we have seen and heard for a long time, and the Macedonian musician received long and ecstatic ovations at the end of his performance.
Saint-Saëns was a most under-rated composer, perhaps most famous for his Carnival of the Animals, a suite of 14 movements representing different animals, which the composer refused to publish until after his death, for fear of tarnishing his reputation as a serious composer! He wrote a vast amount of music and having started life as one of the greatest child prodigies of all time, he became renowned as a conductor, pianist, organist and composer. Franz Liszt called him the greatest organist of his age, and he was fêted everywhere he went. His opera, ‘Samson et Dalila’, in which I sang at the Grand Theatre of Geneva some years ago, is a fantastic work for the stage, and the Second Piano Concerto, which we heard tonight, is a masterpiece.
Despite Saint-Saëns’ reputation as something of a traditionalist, who despised the modernist French composers of the turn of the century, like Debussy and Ravel, this piano concerto is a quite revolutionary piece, starting with solo piano in a sort of cadenza, and, unlike most traditional concerti, with fast- slow fast movements, it gradually gathers speed throughout its three movements, ending up in a whirlwind Presto. The solo piano part is fiendishly difficult. The story goes that the famous piano virtuoso, Artur Rubinstein, was visiting Paris for a series of concerts in 1868, conducted by Saint-Saëns. He decided that he wanted to show off his conducting skills and challenged the French composer to come up with a new concerto that he could conduct, while Saint-Saëns played the solo piano. In a matter of only 17 days, the concerto was written, in which the composer created a piece of virtuosic splendour to demonstrate his playing prowess, and le tout Paris was ecstatic.
Certainly, the audience at the Usher Hall was in ecstasy after the thrilling performance of Simon Trpčeski on Friday, whose flamboyant and expressive style won over the large audience immediately. His whimsical playing, like a modern day Dudley Moore or Chico Marx, endeared him to the spectators. He was obviously having a great time, and his rapport with Søndergård and the leader, Maya Iwabuchi, was fantastic to behold. His playing was a miraculous combination of a gossamer touch and full blooded sonority, and I am sure that the spirit of Saint-Saëns was hovering over the platform adoringly. I have rarely enjoyed watching a pianist play a concerto more, both for the bravura of his technique and the childlike delight he took in his own brilliance. He endeared himself even more to the audience, by bringing forward the principal cellist for the evening, Betsy Taylor, to play ‘The Swan’ from the Carnival of the Animals with him, as an encore. This selfless act, honouring the composer rather than himself, was a classy touch. As Artist in Residence with the RSNO for 2023/24, we can look forward to welcoming him several more times to Scotland this year, and we will also be able to hear his recording of this concerto with the same forces when it is released soon on Linn Records. Haste ye back!
After the interval, we were able to bask in the glorious sound of a selection of movements from Suites 1, 2 and 3 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Sergei Prokofiev. I have always loved this score, and although I have never seen the full ballet, I feel I can imagine the stage action through the clear arrangements of the scenes in the music. Once again, the rationale for dimming the lights in the Usher Hall during the performance eludes me. Indeed, I fail to understand the instructions in the programme (which I could only read afterwards) which expressly discourage the audience from reading the notes during the performance, were they able to do so. Since two of the works in this concert were related to stage pieces (King Roger and Romeo and Juliet), we were obliged to listen to various dramatic scenes with no clue as to the context of what we were hearing. Surely, without visual prompting, in the absence of any stage action, the audience is entitled to know what’s going on?
After a splendidly dissonant opening, immediately dispelling any lovey-dovey thoughts about the final outcome, we are plunged into the famous street fight between the Montagues and Capulets, with the fantastic bass notes hammered out by trombones and tuba, overladen with the shining brightness of the trumpets. It was great to see, at the end, that the splendid tuba principal, John Whitener, received a specific and much merited solo bow!
The RSNO showed how good they now are, by playing this difficult score with apparent ease, and I must commend the strings for their unanimous brilliance, especially the first violins, who have to play together often at a stratospheric height, achieving a gorgeous quality of tone throughout the piece. The peaks and troughs of the young couple’s love story were searingly beautiful, and the terrible sadness of the end was moderated by the sublime sweetness of the music. Thomas Søndergård clearly adores this work, and knows it inside out, and we were treated to a deeply moving performance. It was noticeable that, quite often, Thomas conducted without his baton, moulding sounds from the orchestra with both hands like a sculptor. We are indeed fortunate to have him as our principal conductor.
