The BBC Symphony Orchestra's latest concert at the Barbican Hall presented a programme of striking contrasts, unified by the world premiere of a compelling new cello concerto. Under the baton of German conductor Clemens Schuldt, the evening ranged from Tchaikovsky and Mel Bonis to Richard Strauss, with Joseph Phibbs's concerto for Guy Johnston emerging as the standout centrepiece.
A Cohesive Premiere
Commissioned for cellist Guy Johnston, Joseph Phibbs's concerto received its first performance to strong acclaim. The work is structured in five distinct movements, each showcasing a different facet of the instrument against a warmly tonal and skilfully orchestrated backdrop.
Scrupulously crafted, the piece features rich string writing and imaginative effects from the wind, brass, and percussion sections. Johnston's solo line, characterised by a pensive and unshowy quality, was elegantly framed by the orchestra, with Schuldt demonstrating mindful control over the ensemble's dynamics.
The concerto journeyed from a shimmering, dance-like Aubade to a mournful Elegy, where a long cello threnody unfolded over a pulsing orchestral heartbeat. An eerie and tense Nocturne evoked nocturnal sounds, before a wistful Vocalise brought the attractive new work to a radiant conclusion.
An Inconsistent Surrounding Programme
The concert's other offerings proved less consistent. The evening opened with Tchaikovsky's rarely heard tone poem Hamlet. Schuldt delivered a clipped and brittle reading that was exciting but somewhat lacking in warmth, briskly navigating the work's prolix structure, which includes a stentorian ghost and a brusque military intervention.
This was followed by Mel Bonis's brief but evocative Ophélie, a five-minute sketch of Shakespeare's tragic heroine. Despite its captivating atmosphere, created by rippling harp and melancholy oboe, the performance was criticised for being overly loud, somewhat overwhelming the piece's delicate nature.
A Strauss Suite Lacking Flow
The second half was devoted to an anonymously assembled suite from Richard Strauss's comic opera Der Rosenkavalier. While Schuldt appeared more in his element here, delivering idiomatic waltz sequences with a nice swing, a tendency to micromanage the music was noted.
This approach, coupled with a persistent high volume, robbed the score of some of its natural flow and grace. The suite's patchwork construction—lurching from one excerpt to another—was difficult to disguise, resulting in what the review described as a sense of "misguided bluster."
Throughout the evening, the orchestral playing itself remained of excellent quality, demonstrating the BBCSO's high standards. However, the concert's overall impact was hampered by its frenetic and disparate programming, which the new Phibbs concerto successfully, if temporarily, resolved.
