A/B Test: LSO play Birtwistle and Adams at the Barbican
Simon Rattle and London Symphony Orchestra
Barbican
Stalls Q39, £5 (thanks Richard)
1 May 2019
Barbican page
Programme
Stravinsky, Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Birtwistle, Shadow of Night
Adams, Harmonielehre
In one of those stupid puzzles where the ship is sinking and you have to choose which composer to save I’d go for Birtwistle over Adams, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of time for Adams. Indeed Doctor Atomic’s ‘Batter My Heart’ is on pretty much an eternal loop somewhere in one of the sideboards of my mind (slide open the door just a crack…). Nevertheless, his music is appreciated in a way quite different from the way of appreciating Birtwistle’s music, and the bizarre juxtaposition in this programme doesn’t really do Adams many favours. Fabulous a piece though Harmonielehre is, there Adams goes, down into the depths, as Harry and I snuggle in the lifeboat.
It’s particularly bizarre because the first half of the programme is all about Birtwistle. The wonderful Symphonies of Wind Instruments, spare, concise, glittering and brilliant, has ‘made to be admired by Harrison Birtwistle’ written all over it. Pleasingly Rattle and the LSO have clearly spent careful time on it – alright, it’s short and for small forces, but we know that often means it’s the first for the chop. The attention really pays off: the players are beautifully in synch with each other, entirely of a single breath, allowing ample space for the austere radiance of this piece to shine.
Shadow of Night could not have a better scene-setter than the Stravinsky; the pieces complement each other ideally, each expressions of the same thought process written in ways distinct but sympathetic. I know it’s wrong of me but Shadow of Night is not one of my favourites: while delighting, as ever, in the tectonic movement of rhythm and colour through the piece’s different voices, I lose my way about two thirds in, unsure where the piece is or how it can end: Birtwistle is going somewhere I don’t have the sophistication to follow. The LSO were polished and professional; I feel I’ve heard them play big Birtwistle better, but given their general standard under Rattle that’s a complaint borne of luxury.
I really enjoy Harmonielehre. It’s witty, it’s funny, it’s sassy, it’s jazzy, it’s silly, it’s fizzy, it’s all sort of loud ebullience but what it is not is a match for Stravinsky at his least playful and Birtwistle in any mood at all. There is depth there, I feel, but it’s in a completely different dimension, and it seems almost that the programmers have set Adams up to seem more lightweight and disposable than even his detractors must think. What does it matter? Not too much for me – perhaps given my struggles with Shadow of Night I’m happy to draw a line, kick back and enjoy life in the Adams dimension, distracted only by the sounds of worthier Birtwistle acolytes a-gnashing of their teeth.
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