It was a great pleasure to welcome Principal Guest Conductor Mark Wigglesworth back to Lighthouse, Poole, for this imaginatively put together programme of slightly other-worldly November music.
Child-like stories but sophisticated harmonies were on show in the opening work: Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Such transparent writing needs pinpoint accuracy and beauty of tone – and that is just what it received from the BSO and Mr Wigglesworth.
Mahler’s settings of the folk poems in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, five of which were chosen for this evening by the electrifying British mezzo Dame Sarah Connolly, create a quite different soundworld, but share moments of whimsy, such as in the opening Rheinlegendchen. Das Iridishce Leben, though a much darker song, glowed in Dame Sarah’s performance, and the two voices of Verlorne Müh were brilliantly characterised. The two final songs, Wo Die Schőnen Trompeten Blasen and Urlicht are undoubtedly cast in a more profound mould. While they both gave the orchestra more scope to glow and shine, Dame Sarah’s projection of the tragedy of the first and the powerful assertion of eternity in the second was simply so moving. Urlicht, which is also familiar from the Second Symphony, was overwhelming in its impact.
After the interval Mr Wigglesworth introduced us to The Imagined Forest by top-flight young composer Grace-Evangeline Mason. This is a very engaging work – impressionist but lyrical, forthright but magically mysterious. Performed under Mr Wigglesworth’s sure-footed direction, it announced Ms Mason to BSO audiences as already a compositional force to be reckoned with.
The conclusion of the evening came with the suite of music from Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel and Gretel. Full of charming melodies, this seemed to be a lot of fun to play – it was certainly hugely enjoyed in the hall where the animated activity among the orchestra could be appreciated. The Dream Pantomime made a grand and noble conclusion to an enchanted evening with the BSO.
This concert is available to watch online until 9 December