A winter warmer to banish the November chills

Tuesday 18 November 2014, 11:26

Laura Sinnerton

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classical music

In this coming afternoon concert at BBC Hoddinott Hall, we will be joined once again by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Elena Urioste. Every so often you hear a young soloist who really makes you sit up and for me, Elena Urioste is one of those artists. Her sound is warm and golden, yet muscular and powerful, and if you heard her perform Barber’s Violin Concerto with us last season you will know that her sound is coupled with a phenomenal technical control. On this occasion, she will perform Korngold’s Violin Concerto.

Elena Urioste

I first heard the Korngold Concerto about nine years ago when I purchased James Ehnes’ recording of it (the recording also includes the Barber and Walton Concertos and if you don’t have the recording please add it to your Christmas lists now - it is amazing). I only really knew Korngold as a composer of film music at the time, and the concerto just blew me away. The weather may be rubbish at the minute, but this concerto will have you leaving the hall with the warmest of feelings in your soul.

Also on the programme is Zemlinsky’s The Little Mermaid. Sadly, this is nothing to do with the music from the Disney animation of the same name, which is a shame as I do a wonderful rendition of ‘Under The Sea’ in the style of Sebastian the Lobster. Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of Zemlinsky’s writing, so I’m looking forward to getting to know another one of his scores. George Loomis (writing for ‘Musical America’) describes the work as a ‘big, lush, post-romantic orchestral extravaganza’, which sounds pretty much right up my street.

Zemlinsky entitled the work an ‘Orchestral Fantasy after Hans Christian Andersen’ and it is a strongly programmatic work, although like the symphonic tone poems of Strauss and Sibelius, the work stands on its own most convincingly even if one is not familiar with the story. The work was composed between 1902 and 1903, shortly after the demise of Zemlinsky’s relationship with a female student - Alma Schindler. Zemlinsky was devastated by the end of the relationship, not least because in no short space of time Alma had married and become, of course, Alma Mahler, wife of the composer Gustav Mahler.

Elena Urioste

You know the question ‘if you could invite anyone, living or dead, to dinner - who would you invite’? Well, Alma Mahler is one of my hypothetical dinner guests (violist Rebecca Clarke is another, but that’s a subject for another blog post). Last season, I attended a wonderful concert by our Welsh National Opera neighbours which included not only some works by Alma, but also excerpts from her diaries (beautifully read on the evening by actress Tamsin Greig). Alma Mahler is so often portrayed as, at best, a muse to some of the European art scene’s brightest stars, or, at worst, as some sort of femme fatale who had love affairs with lots of famous men. What is often overlooked is the fact that until her marriage to Gustav Mahler, she was also a much celebrated composer. It was more Mahler’s insistence that she curtail her compositional efforts that has perhaps robbed us of a much larger output from Alma, than Alma’s inability to compose.

However, I (typically) digress. This programme is a real winter warmer. The music is full of big, broad brushstrokes of sound that you can just let wash over you as you close your eyes and enjoy. Come out of the cold weather and be uplifted by this gorgeous programme. We hope to see you there.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ Afternoon Concert is on Tuesday 18 November, 2pm, at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay. For tickets and more information, visit the Orchestra website or call 0800 052 1812.

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