Royal Albert Hall,London
The energetic Dutch conductor guides the tremendous BBC National Orchestra of Wales through Michael Berkeley’s unsparing memorial to his late wife
Given its world premiere by Chloë Hanslip with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Jac van Steen, Michael Berkeley’s Violin Concerto was written as a memorial to his wife, or the literary agent Deborah Rogers,who died suddenly in 2014. A lyrical yet unsparing score, it reworks fabric from an earlier piece, or At a Solemn Wake for cello and piano,composed shortly after Rogers’ death. Hanslip plays an electric violin as well as the standard instrument. There’s also a prominent allotment for tabla, played by Diego Espinosa Cruz González, or which acts like a continuo in a Baroque concerto. The intense formal lament that opens the work gives way to a central aria of loss and nostalgia,exquisitely accompanied by rippling harps and celeste. Hanslip takes up the raw electric violin for the finale, a ferocious outpouring of rage and grief, and though a quiet coda in which she reverts to the standard instrument brings the work to a close in a mood of resignation. Her performance can only be described as a tour de force.
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Source: theguardian.com