City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 01 February 2024. 4****: William Ruff
Nottingham
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
01 February 2024
4****: William Ruff
“The CBSO’s presents a fairy tale programme with plenty of Technicolor spectacle.”
This was a concert for musical bird-fanciers. However, some would have been puzzled that Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel, Stravinsky’s Firebird and Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending were joined not by Rossini’s Thieving Magpie but by the overture to his Cinderella opera.
But with Rossini it doesn’t really matter, as he tended to recycle his overtures anyway, so their titles are often arbitrary. And who cares when the music fizzes and sparkles as it does in his overture to La Cenerentola? It’s classic Rossini: slow introduction, witty first theme, charming second theme, lengthy crescendo - before a sprint to the finishing-line. It’s all great fun but it needs a high degree of polish to make it work. Luckily young Brazilian conductor Eduardo Strausser was in his element, ensuring razor-sharp ensemble from the CBSO and injecting just the right mixture of energy and elegance.
The Golden Cockerel was Rimsky-Korsakov’s last opera, written shortly before his death in 1908. It’s a thinly disguised satire on the corrupt court of Tsar Nicholas II and his incompetent military leaders. It’s highly unlikely that you’d ever have the chance to see it staged in the UK, but there is at least a suite of four orchestral pieces which survive to tell the tale of Tsar Dodon, the Queen he wants to marry and the Astrologer who gives the Tsar a magic, prophetic golden cockerel… which ends up pecking the Tsar to death! The score is a sumptuous example of Rimsky’s flair for Technicolor orchestration and exotic themes. Eduardo Strausser seemed to relish the bright colours, sensuous melodies and spectacular set-pieces to create a vivid sound-stage depicting the Tsar in his palace, on the battlefield, with the Queen of Shemakha, and finally the marriage feast and Dodon’s death.
After the interval came Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, the UK’s favourite piece of classical music (if Classic FM is to be believed). The soloist was Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux and she gave a beautifully poised performance in the role of the solitary bird seeking something unknown, swooping in free swirls of sound, rising and falling, sometimes playful, sometimes more predatory, in dialogue with the orchestra which introduces the highly evocative folk-like melodies. Charlotte created a sense of wonder from the outset, her trills mercurial and light as air. As she soared upwards into the infinite at the end her tone was steady and pure, even as the lark disappeared from view.
Finally came one of the suites which Stravinsky made from his Firebird ballet. Stravinsky had been one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s students, composing Firebird partly in homage to the great man who had only recently died. The story tells of young prince Ivan who rescues the victims of an evil sorcerer-king with the help of a magic bird. This is another orchestral showpiece, written for large forces and rich in vivid detail. Eduardo Strausser ensured that set-pieces such as the Firebird’s Dance and the famous Infernal Dance were perfectly paced and gleamed with a kaleidoscopic range of colour. However, it was the more hushed and mysterious moments which really impressed.
Classical concerts don’t have to include symphonies or concertos to be successful, of course, but this one could have benefited from something more substantial to offset all the fairy tale glitter. And there would have been room - in a concert which was over by 9.15.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Eduardo Strausser (conductor), Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux (violin)