6 December 2008 at 7.30pm
Michael Thompson (Horn)
Conductor: Brian Wright
Sibelius - En Saga
Richard Strauss - Horn Concerto No.2
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.5
Public tastes have moved on since the early1950s, but MSO’s December programme came like a memory from that pre-Glock BBC era. Sibelius and Tchaikovsky were the heroes of my orchestral awakening - but temptation to revisit the past must be held in check. Nostalgia is the opium of classical music. Every concert should come as a new experience.
Most MSO players would have known the Tchaikovsky and some the Sibelius, but I suspect that nearly all were new to the Strauss Second Horn Concerto – likewise the packed house that enjoyed Michael Thompson’s masterly but engaging performance. We – players and listeners – are the richer for the experience, which is how things should be. But can we, particularly those of my generation, listen with an ‘innocent ear’ knowing the year of its composition, of which Dr Ashbee’s characteristically informative notes remind us? Can we help but reflect on the world from which it came? Any thinking person will ponder its historical and philosophical implications. When this concerto was written the war, from the German perspective, was far from lost.
Nor can one help but contrast Sibelius (who composed little after the mid-1920s) with his contemporary Richard Strauss, who composed almost to the end. He had lived to see his beloved homeland brought to ruins under a regime he chose to trust. For Strauss that sad, complex masterpiece Metamorphosen was his solemn response, while the Four Last Songs (ironically first performed in war-scarred London) dream of what the end might have been. Is it only to the older generation that these later works are more palatable than the arrogant confidence of Eulenspiegel or Ein Heldenleben? Context aside, the Horn Concerto was the most demanding work for the reduced orchestra that deftly partnered soloist Michael Thompson, more of a local figure since taking over the City of Rochester orchestra.
The Tchaikovsky symphony may have sounded a bigger challenge, but to many of the players it was familiar ground. Gone is the apprehension a listener might once have felt when approaching a notoriously tricky passage. One listens with the confidence that a mature orchestra instils. Extravagant praise is out of place for an orchestra of professionals – albeit professionals of different callings. Sharing a pre-concert drink with a retired doctor, we discussed Hindemith and Shostakovich before he left to take up his viola.
Maybe there will be some at MSO’s next concert in February who will reflect on the Strauss concerto while enjoying two products of those same awful years from which Hindemith fled his German homeland and Bartok his native Hungary (then under Nazi control) to seek refuge in an America already embroiled in war.
The Fifth is my favourite Tchaikovsky symphony. Its performance was as compelling as any I have heard, yet, if I had ever felt it to be more free from inner turmoil than the Fourth or the Pathétique, the programme notes soon disillusioned me. Maybe there is consolation in recalling a less troubled Tchaikovsky receiving his honorary doctorate at Cambridge University, or enjoying the attention of lively company at one of artist Alma-Tadema’s renowned London parties. As the years pass some lose their hearing: others the ‘innocent ear’.
Don Goodsell
Michael Thompson is a member of the London Sinfonietta, with whom he has given premiere performances of works including Ligeti's Hamburg Concerto. He has recorded solo, chamber, and orchestral works and has played on movie soundtracks including The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter films. His work with Sir Paul McCartney led McCartney to compose Stately Horn, which the Michael Thompson Horn Quartet premiered. He has toured extensively and since 2003 he has been Principal Conductor of the City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra.