I certainly don’t regret going to the concert - the programme and performance turned out to be underwhelming but seeing the Southbank in a festive mood and having a chance to have a glass of decent wine and a proper chat with Martin made it eminently worthwhile. 

VW’s finest moments are some of the most moving for me in the entire classical catalogue and they are completely timeless. These songs however I would happily not inflict on my ears again, as they are firmly rooted in the more mediocre early 20th century British choral traditions and have not stood the test of time, in spite of the valiant efforts of baritone Simon Keenlyside. As Martin said, the final song was leagues above the others in terms of its interest and raised my mood for the Bruckner.

Only recently I had been waxing lyrical about a performance of Bruckner 7 in Salzburg and was hoping this might be up to the same standards. How wrong I was. Here is how to make your own Bruckner 9. Start with a theme at pianissimo and then develop a very long but steady dark orchestral crescendo with muted brass and strings, eventually reach a climax, unleash hell with the brass section and have the entire string section bowing furiously in unison to underline the point. And then? Do it again. Not just once, but for the entire symphony!! Good grief the structure just doesn’t change and I was desperately looking for something to hold onto in terms of the development in the musical themes, but it just did not come. And as Martin quite rightly pointed out, there were too many deficiencies and wobbles in the performance, most seriously with the LPO really failing to maintain some kind of tension in the slower passages and weave it all together, but stone me they were certainly up against it with this score. 

Excellent - a kind of elongated French Horn.

Damn, wish I had managed to get tickets for the Wang / Kavakos recital ...

www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/05/leonidas-kavakosyuja-wang-review-shared-detail-and-purpose

Nice clip there, from the 9th.

LOL you are Mr Infoweb, Paul.

A most educational film it was too.

Ok I'll give it one last go seeing as this is the Original 1894 version in 3 movements... Let's see how it compares!

Do tell!

Was Wang wearing something even more astonishing than usual? Did she break into some jazz? Did the Barbican disguise its normal concrete brutalism?

Barbican - Sun 15 Jan 2023

BBC Symphony Orchestra - Kirill Karabits
Anna Fedorova - Piano

Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 3
Boris Lyatoshinsky - Symphony No 3

By the end of this concert, I was reeling from the impact of the performance. But not in the way you might have thought because whilst the Rach 3 was very good, the Lyatoshinksky Symphony just took me somewhere else completely.

But let’s start with the PC. I thought it took the Ukrainian soloist Fedorova a little while to find her range and relationship with the orchestra in the first movement but when it came to the unaccompanied section which develops the main theme, I started to understand what she is really about. Her control of acoustic dynamics was absolutely startling, but not just that, the emotional dynamics and pull of the music were delivered with such grip and clarity. The second movement was handled in a most saccharine-free manner without any excess of romantic indulgence. If I can sum up Ms Fedorova succinctly, she is a very natural, unforced communicator of music and you won’t get any extravagant phrasing or questionable tempos. However, you mustn’t mistake this approach for a lack of flair, power or panache - the way she kept building and building the tension in the third when there was seemingly no more to be wrestled from it very much moved me. She was playing from the absolute depth of her soul in this movement with fervent support from the orchestra I felt, as did the Barbican audience, who were very generous in their reception of the work with many rising to their feet to salute a performance of exceptional stamina, both emotional and physical. A most satisfying start to the concert.

The first thing to say about the symphony is that both the work and the composer were entirely new to me. Let’s see what the Barbican had to say about this -

Kirill Karabits has been an outspoken champion of neglected Soviet-era composers, and he’s convinced that the music of this major Ukranian symphonist is powerful enough to speak on its own terms. 'If only Lyatoshinsky had lived in Moscow during Soviet times, instead of staying in Kyiv, his name would stand next to Shostakovich' he says 'It's just great music. Really great music’.

Well on the basis of this work and performance Karabits certainly makes a persuasive argument for Lyatoshinksky. In the opening salvos of the first movement I immediately thought we might be in for some Shosta-lite, such was the similarity of musical theme with elements of Shosta 10. We were then even treated to some wistful Rach-lite musings! However from then on in the first it gets much more interesting and idiosyncratic as he develops such a monolithic, 'Stalinesque' theme if you will, which hits you squarely between the eyes such is its violence, force and bristling kinetic energy. The second movement actually has a distinctly Hitchcockian atmosphere with a sustained three note motif of brooding tension and danger, almost an Iron Curtain in itself, which then develops into a Tim Burtonesque fantasy thorough the third movement - fascinating stuff!  The final movement conjured up an image for me of a Roman Triumph with powerful celebratory brass, revelling in a Hans Zimmer / Holstian 'The Planets' atmosphere. The orchestra deeply impressed me here, they played the $h1t out of it, digging so deep with every sinew stretched.

Many thanks to the conductor for introducing me to this work, it’s a wonderful discovery for me. And how marvellous to see the Barbican nearly full, the bars and cafes so busy!

Here’s the symphony as recorded by Karabits with the Bournemouth Symphony.