United Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [7] – Birtwistle and Beethoven: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 28.7.2025. (MB)
Birtwistle – Earth Dance
Beethoven – Symphony No.3 in E-flat main, Op.55, ‘Eroica’
This was a surprisingly disappointing Promenade, which promised a lot in programming, obtained wonderful enjoying from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and but was considerably let down within the first half, slightly greater than that within the second, by Ryan Wigglesworth’s conducting. Birtwistle and Beethoven supply in some ways a superb pairing: a lot in frequent, not least features of temperament, an indomitability of what we would nonetheless cling to as embodying human spirit, and far that contrasts too. The goal-orientation that Birtwistle usually – not at all times, and never at all times totally – eschewed is definitely central to Beethoven’s music, nowhere extra so than within the ‘center interval’ roughly inaugurated by his Eroica Symphony. By the identical token, the significance of continuity, it doesn’t matter what the obstacles, stays essential to each. Birtwistle himself pointed to the ‘great instance’ of Beethoven in ‘order or disruption of order’: ‘He by no means does what you assume he’s going to do. The shock is perpetual.’
We might have performed with extra shock on this event, in each halves, although Earth Dances fared higher. I shouldn’t be unduly harsh about what was in some ways a advantageous efficiency. Wigglesworth carried out The Minotaur at Covent Backyard twelve years in the past: very effectively, I believed, although I see now that I famous a sure ‘Classicism’ to his strategy, which is likely to be learn in multiple method. Right here, that translated, if certainly it had been the same factor in any respect, into obvious reluctance, probably furthered by the Royal Albert Corridor’s cavernous acoustic, to let the music have its head. Readability of element was admirable and the efficiency was not with out cragginess, however it got here perilously near drifting at instances, particularly throughout softer, slower passages. That stated, there was a correct sense of the primordial at first, of an aural panorama that had each at all times been and but was something however fixed. It’s tough to not summon up some type of photos right here, however the grit remained, because it ought to, within the music ‘itself’ and its tectonics, its dances not balletic however slightly stratified and hieratic successors to Stravinsky’s Ceremony by way of Symphonies of Wind Devices. Brute power and melancholy emerged as near-dialectical opposing forces in a world that lay past good and evil, a world that is likely to be that of Nature but is definitely not solely so. The efficiency was strongest when its dances registered as such, when fractures opened, volcanoes erupted; typically, although, it will have benefited from a stronger, not essentially extra interventionist however extra decided (even Beethovenian) hand in having them accomplish that. A due sense of return, not full, not merely cyclical, proved however needed and palpable on the shut.
The ecstatic reception accorded the Eroica within the corridor bewildered me. To my ears, it by no means a lot as stirred, at most skimming the floor in a efficiency that, to cite Dorothy Parker, ran the gamut of feelings from A to B. Put one other method, it moved from an amiable first motion to a merely inconsequential finale, with solely a touch of one thing extra fascinating in a Funeral March that disintegrated into one thing approaching stream of consciousness. It felt lengthy, though it was in all probability on the short facet. (The 2 are likely to go collectively, no matter metronome fanatics might inform you.) The primary motion was definitely Allegro, arguably greater than that, although brio was roughly fully absent. It was much less Bonaparte, not to mention the reminiscence of an ideal man, than Petit Trianon — with apologies to Marie Antoinette, in actuality a much more fascinating determine than which may indicate. It had line, although scant sense of concord, with just a little extra in the way in which of temperament as time went on. Sadly, although, it was a matter of too little, too late.
The second motion opened with better promise. Though on the swift facet, it was not unreasonably so; one sensed each better character and extra acceptable character. It was hardly granitic, but there was nonetheless a darkness rising from instrumental timbre with out being restricted to it. The flip to the foremost was odd, by turns tentative and insistent. With no stronger – a lot stronger – sense of concord, all of it sounded slightly episodic and empty. If designer Beethoven had been your factor, the Scherzo might need been it: smooth and, if not fairly empty, little greater than blithe. Beautiful horn enjoying however, the trio supplied little in the way in which of distinction. The finale supplied a disjunct if fairly set of variations, with little in the way in which of humour, defiance, exultancy, something Beethovenian. If ever there have been a time during which our world wanted to listen to from the symphonic Beethoven, it will be now. Alas, he appears extra distant than ever.
Mark Berry
