Music / Reviews
Review: Bristol Classical Players, St George’s – ‘Professionalism, style and quality’
To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Bristol Classical Players is this year launching BEETHOVEN+ – a five-event programme whose first performance was yesterday evening.
Conductor Tom Gauterin – crowned by St. George’s striking iconography and flanked by his string section – reminds us that “It is rare to see all nine Beethoven symphonies performed by the same orchestra”.
BEETHOVEN+ offers this and more, with each of the five events opened by a showcase piece from a local composer.
is needed now More than ever
We commence – as one might – with Beethoven’s 1st. Rather, though, than moving chronologically, the 1st symphony is paired with the 3rd: Eroica. This coupling proves inspired, but more on that later. The event, as mentioned, opens with a new work by a Bristolian composer.
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An unsmiling survey of the audience will have alerted even the most incurious mind to the danger facing classical music: the need for new blood. This is true not only of its enthusiasts, but of its canon.
In many ways they are the same problem. With that in mind, I think it is positively wonderful that Bristol Classical Players is showcasing new work at each of these events.
Steve Pain’s Apollonian Overture is up first. The piece marries some sophisticated call-and-response motifs with an especially sweet flute – or was that an oboe – melody. The percussion felt, to me, sometimes unearned and slightly melodramatic.
Bristol Classical Players performed at various locations last year including Wells Cathedral and Cheltenham Town Hall – photo: Anneka Sutcliffe
That Beethoven’s 1st is composed in C Major takes a while to figure out, as the symphony famously opens with what is essentially a twelve bar joke: a series of dominant-tonic (first and fifth) chords in the wrong key.
Beethoven – because he is Beethoven – adds a B flat pitch to the opening C Major chord, creating a dissonance that resolves instead to F Major.
Bristol Classical Players is an incredibly impressive orchestra. This was especially apparent as we entered the third movement of the 1st symphony. The movement is fast – very fast – and changes key after maybe twenty seconds up to D Flat Major, something exceptionally rare for an opening theme during this period in symphonic history.
If the cellos wandered just slightly during the fourth, Guaterin brought them quickly back into the fray.
Following the 1st, we move onto Beethoven’s much-celebrated 3rd in E Flat Major: Eroica. This symphony is famous for marking essentially the beginning of the Romantic period, and pairing it with the 1st illuminates just what a monumental leap forward this composition was.
The first two movements are played beautifully, full of zip and panache. The opening theme of the third movement is again sensational, though I felt a little later in the movement that the horns lacked a certain authority.
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Probably the most impressive moment of the evening came during the fourth movement of the third symphony. The lead violinist, and orchestra leader more broadly, Anneka Sutcliffe’s string snapped midway through the movement.
To see her replace and tune by ear a new string within about forty bars, and make it back in time for the fugue was an unbelievably impressive display of poise and composure.
While unfortunate, it was in a way a fitting example of the professionalism, style and quality of Bristol Classical Players. I would highly recommend getting tickets for the remaining four shows.
Main image: Tom Dewey
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