Beethoven and Birtwistle @ The BBC Proms

There was perhaps some extramusical serendipity that brought Beethoven’s Eroica and Birtwistle’s Earth Dances together in Ryan Wigglesworth’s second and final Prom this season with his BBC Scottish Symphony. It turns out that there is difference of 120 Proms performances between them: the Birtwistle heard for the fourth time tonight, the Beethoven, the 124^th time, the latter first appearing at the Proms in Sir Henry Wood’s second season.

And perhaps the BBC Scottish achieved a Proms first too. Tonight was their fourth consecutive performance on the Royal Albert Hall stage over three days, having played both Traitors’ concerts on Saturday, and last night’s Mozart and Bruckner. I can’t think of another three-day residency in modern Proms history (unlike the early days when all concerts were largely played by the same players under Sir Henry Wood). As chance would have it, I was sitting next to Nick Kenyon, and he couldn’t recall any other three-day residency either.

Composed just over 180 years apart (1804 and 1986, respectively), we started with the Birtwistle, 39 years young, but sounding as old as time itself, a 360-degree musical panorama of earth’s shifting strata in all its aural complexity. Starting with the deepest growl, aided and abetted by pleasingly mirror-image tubas, one left-handed, the other right-handed, up at the back row of brass, to Wigglesworth’s right, Earth Dances essays a slow trajectory of many sections, eschewing linear musical development, but rather resurveying music already heard from a different angle (a typical Birtwistle trait). As Jonathon Cross pointed out there are similarities to Stravinsky’s elemental The Rite of Spring from 70 years earlier, but it’s harder to conceive Earth Dances for actual dancers. At times the pace slows and becomes hushed, with real beauty to instrumental sonority. I caught a glimpse of a putative fugue on lower strings, to which upper strings are added, but they soon go their own way as Birtwistle moves the viewpoint.

And above all is the phalanx of percussion to Wigglesworth’s left, its seven players rising above piano and two harps up the Royal Albert Hall’s stage risers, offering an almost-constant ticking accompaniment to indicate the passage of time. It’s how this mighty work ends, some forty minutes in, with the orchestra eventually falling silent and Wigglesworth beating the final ticks into silence.

Of late Wigglesworth and his Scottish players have proved their mettle in contemporary works – they gave the UK premiere of Kurtág’s Endgame two years ago. Tonight, they collectively showed they are now peerless in major scores of today, and it’s hard to imagine Earth Dances better played. Wigglesworth’s control was masterly and the players’ contribution hardly less so. It’s been a long wait – 31 years since last at the Proms – but it’s been worth it, and hopefully it won’t be so long until we can hear it again.

Last Friday we had a Scottish Beethoven 5, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Tonight, we had a Scottish Eroica. With the stage virtually cleared of percussion and superfluous stands and chairs during the interval, there was still a sizable band on stage, built up from six double basses, and Beethoven’s genius effortlessly filled the Albert Hall. This is linear music, developing in Beethoven’s inimitable style, given afresh and for the moment, whatever jaded memories you might have of the music. Even with music over 200 years old, the power and majesty of the opening movement hit home, before Wigglesworth’s flowing account of the funeral march and fleet-footed Scherzo. The performance was topped by a gripping finale, the sudden shift to slow tempo building inexorably to the final bars. 

So, two orchestral masterpieces delivered masterfully. If Wigglesworth had conducted the Eroica from the score he perchance would have lifted it as he had the score of Birtwistle’s Earth Dances. Perhaps the achievement was lost on some people. I overheard a lady say to a steward on the way out, ‘No encore tonight, then?’ – as if one was needed after the supreme stamina on show from all the players. Bravissimi!