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Imogen
Cooper directs Beethoven
Bradford on Avon
Wiltshire Music Centre 31 November
Dartington
Great Hall 5 December
Norwich St
Andrew's Hall 7 December
Cambridge
West Road Concert Hall, 8 December
London Queen
Elizabeth Hall, 10 December
The
Metro Editorial with Imogen Cooper
Warwick Thompson, 10 December
2007
'It's
like a great buzz, a huge rush. It's completely life-enhancing,' says
pianist Imogen Cooper. She's talking about her work with Britten Sinfonia,
the chamber orchestra with whom she's performing Beethoven's Fourth Piano
Concerto tonight at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It's just as well she's
buzzing about the ensemble, because as well as being the soloist she's
directing the players from the keyboard, too. That sort of musical multi-tasking
is certainly not for the faint-hearted.
She's on firm ground, however.
Cooper, a pianist noted for her luminous musical elegance and classicism,
has been working with the ensemble for several seasons now, and the collaborations
have been hugely successful. What is the key to their chemistry? 'I think
it's that the players are really making the decisions when we perform,
and it means that they listen to each other in a very itnense way,' she
explains, 'Of course, all good orchestral players should listen to each
other - but somehow, this is special.'
Britten Sinfonia started life
in 1992 as a group of innovative musicians who all knew each other well,
and who all specialised in chamber music. It is now as highly regarded
for its Frank Zappa and Moondog projects as it is for its fine work on
the Viennese classics. This year it won a prestigious Royal Philharmonic
Society award. How does Cooper respond to this extraordinary intimacy
and flexibility? 'The rehearsals are very democratic, and everyone feels
happy at putting forth ideas,' she says, 'The result is that we never
have any crossed wires during a performance, and that's vital in the Fourth
Concerto. It's a difficult, highly structured work that demands complete
clarity.' She confesses that she couldn't do it without the support of
the leader (first violinist) of the group, Jacqueline Shave. 'I know I
can rely on her completely. We sit so close, we can feel each other breathe.'
Shave will herself be directing the orchestra from the violin in the other
two works in the programme: Harrison Birtwistle's Bach measures (a quirky
re-scoring of several Bach chorales), and Prokofiev's Classical Symphony.
Cooper says combining the roles
of director and soloist is a great challenge. 'I may need to make a gesture
which will create a cetain energy in the orchestra, but at the same time
keep my own playing even.' But the results are with it. 'I find that audiences
love seeing the interection of the players, the smiles between them. It's
so energetic and thrilling. If we're not here for that, we're not here
for anything.'
The
Evening Standard Four stars ****
Nick Kimberley, 11 December,
2007
Over the years, Britten Sinfonia
has quietly established itself as one of the country's most flexible chamber
orchestras.
In October it provided the music
for Michael Clark's Stravinsky Project; after that it was Miles Davis
and Gil Evans. Last night the repertoire was more conventionally classical,
with Prokofiev, Beethoven, and Bach as refracted through Harrison Birtwistle.
On top of that we got not one,
but two conductors, neither of them standing on a podium. Instead they
directed from within the instrumental layout, whether from the piano,
or from the leader's chair. It's an approach demanding an unusual kind
of co-operative attention that is as much about listening as about playing;
when it comes off, it's particularly involving.
The first half, with leader
Jacqueline Shave taking control, saw two composers disguising themselves
in period costume.
Birtwistle's Bach Measures,
originally written for dance, allow the composer to toy with melody, not
the first quality we expect in his music. Eight short Bach pieces are
refashioned for an expanded wind band that is by turns monumental and
playful.
The performance was precise,
nuanced and, indeed, danceable, qualities also present in Prokofiev's
Classical Symphony, which toys with the idea of being Haydn in the 20th
century. The playing had a conversational feel, but with a rhetorical
flourish that was just the right side of overstated.
Imogen Cooper, a pianist of
aristocratic taste, was both soloist and director in Beethoven's Fourth
Piano Concerto. She had clearly prepared the orchestra carefully. This
was the last date of a five-venue tour, and it showed in a reading that
had both tension and finesse.
The orchestral sound was not
the most lustrous, and Cooper's instrument had a slightly tough sound
to it but the palpable sense of shared pleasure in music-making was worth
more than merely superficial gloss.
The
Times Three stars ***
Neil Fisher 11 December
2007
Ever watch a football team
that could clearly outplay the opposition, but managed to lose anyway?
That was my frustrating response to the Britten Sinfonia’s latest
instalment in their Beethoven series, which showcases the pianist Imogen
Cooper in the dual roles of soloist and conductor. The result, in the
Fourth Piano Concerto, was a performance of more than satisfying cogency
and colour. Yet it failed to set the pulse racing; somehow, that edge-of-the-crater
tension with which Beethoven underscores even his most mellow moments
seeped away from Cooper’s lucidity and the orchestra’s vivid
musicality.
In part this was a balance
problem. Conducting seemingly with beady looks and subtle modulations
in posture alone, Cooper’s instincts were to blend and mesh with
the Sinfonia players when she should have headed in different emotional
and dramatic directions; the result was sometimes too homogenised, notwithstanding
the characterful flair of the playing.
When Cooper seized her moments
at the Steinway the results could thrill. Those simple, calming phrases
that quell the angry strings in the andante unfurled with all the contemplative
force of a Bach sarabande: this is Cooper at her magisterial best. Otherwise
the only notice we had from her that the playful rondo was a joyful release
from all that introspection was a little shoulder wiggle and the ghost
of a smile; the sunburst never came, even while the players were grinning
happily at her during the home straight.
Still, it remains a treat to
listen to orchestral players who spark off each other with such enthusiasm.
That was as true in the Beethoven as it was in the first half of the concert,
when Jacqueline Shave directed from first violin. First came the pearly
luminosity of Harrison Birtwistle’s Bach Measures, Bach organ vignettes
laid bare in teasing arrangements for strings, brass and woodwind. And
then the acidic wit of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, poured out
with filigree dexterity, superbly controlled.
But would a detached maestro
not have been in a better position than the admirably hard-working Shave
to nip and tuck the dynamics? In the QEH, sometimes less can be more.
Eastern
Daily Press
Frank Cliff 8 December
2007
Playing without a conductor, as
the Britten Sinfonia did at last night's concert, seemed to sharpen the
orchestra's acute musical sensitivity. Directed in the first half by the
violin by Jaqueline Shave, they first negotiated a work by Harrison Birtwistle,
Bach Measures, with effortless ease. This is not Birtwistle at his most
avant garde, rather an imaginative arrangement of eight chorale preludes
from Bach's Orgelbüchlein, scored for woodwind, trumpet, trombone and
horn, percussion and string quartet. While keeping fairly strictly to
Bach's music Birtwistle creates magical sounds from this ensemble. Chamber
music on a large scale, it proved a perfect vehicle to demonstrate the
Sinfonia's quintessential quality of perfect ensemble playing.
It was not that long ago that a performance of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony
without a conductor might have raised a few eyebrows, yet few conductors
would have surpassed the Élan with which the Sinfonia tackled this piece.
Perfect ensemble, even to the rubati in the minuet; the orchestral sound
was brilliant throughout.
The distinguished pianist Imogen Cooper was the soloist in Beethoven's
Fourth Piano Concerto If there was little evidence of her direction from
the keyboard, with some noticeable fluffs in the last movement, it was
nevertheless a performance sensitive to the poetry in this most intimate
of Beethoven piano concertos, even though it missed a great deal of its
grandeur.
MusicOMH.com
Four Stars ****
Dave Paxton 10 December
2007
The trendy young couple down
in row C nod excitedly; the young children next to me are bouncing in
their seat; I'm almost tempted to hum along.
Led Zeppelin may have been
reforming across London at the O2 Arena, but the real fun on Monday night
was to be had at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Imogen Cooper was soloist in
Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.
The work, publicly premiered
by the composer in 1808 (Beethoven's final public appearance as a soloist),
opens with weariness, even sorrow, and the overall sense is of resignation
and calm. Yet beware, for storm clouds pass ominously over the surface
of each of the three movements, casting angular, minor key shadows, and
this pianist's reading was vastly successful in achieving a potent, dangerous
balance between the work's assuaging lyricism and its troubled introspective
rumblings.
Cooper's light, airy touch caressed
the initial thematic entries of the Allegro moderato and the Rondo, the
latter's opening dashed off with beautifully casual nonchalance. But the
right hand twinklings and rich, yearning chords often collapse, revealing
black menace lurking beneath. The dialogue here between orchestra and
piano in the Andante con moto was especially dramatic, the piano's reassuring
responses unable to quell the gutsy, biting string statements. Cooper
directed the Britten Sinfonia from the piano, not with her hands but with
her face: with a wistful sigh, an icy nod, a bitter headshake. The ensemble
could have been tighter in the final movement, but the orchestral sound
was rich and attuned to Beethoven's unpredictable tempestuousness.
Before the interval, Birtwistle's
Bach Measures was given an equally effective reading. The work
cleverly orchestrates eight of Bach's chorale preludes, staying true to
the original compositions but incessantly shooting melodic lines around
the reduced band. This quickfire patter is colourful and exhilarating,
the ear pleasantly assaulted by majestic trumpet lines, scrubbing viola
motifs and flute trills, coalescing in antiphonal splendour. The orchestra,
under leader Jacqueline Shave 's superb direction, played
here with great virtuosity, yet allowed the audience time to breathe during
the slower preludes.
There was, however, barely a
moment to inhale or exhale during the following performance of Prokofiev's
Classical Symphony . This was colourful, bouncy fun from first
bar to last, every theme stated with both wit and precision. The Allegro
's violin syncopations lightly dancing, providing effective dramatic
and dynamic contrast to the movement's bristling, confidently stated outer
sections, complete with precise, springing tutti stabs. Throughout, the
athleticism of the orchestra was admirable, as was the sense of forward
movement sustained, in the Larghetto by lilting string and woodwind
pulses. It was a very thrilling concert.
Classicalsource.com
Colin Anderson 11 December
2007
The first half of this concert
juxtaposed a contemporary composer looking back to J. S. Bach and Prokofiev
paying homage to Haydn.
Harrison Birtwistle’s exquisite revealing of Bach’s layers
and counterpoint (in eight varied chorale preludes) is respectful and
imaginative, economic yet variegated – the fourteen players a mix
of winds and brass with string quartet and double bass tinged by the ‘cool’
sound of vibraphone and the bright tinkle of glockenspiel. Bach’s
invention is not toyed or interfered with; rather Birtwistle clarifies
what is there, not afraid to pungently sound a particular idea or to pierce
the air. If the soundworld is recognisably Birtwistlian, Bach is exposed
in terms true to himself, the only notable extension being in the final
movement (‘Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV637) in which,
for a brief moment, harmony is deconstructed before a richly beautiful
if solemn pay-off ends the sequence.
Speculation in the programme as to whether this was the first time Prokofiev’s
‘Classical’ Symphony was being performed without a conductor
can be answered easily by saying: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on Deutsche
Grammophon. In Birtwistle, unobtrusively but decidedly led by Jacqueline
Shave, the musicians made wonderful chamber music with sensitive appreciation
and genuine rapport. The larger forces for the Prokofiev also displayed
first-class ensemble, lively attack, plenty of dynamic contrasts and gave
a performance of wit and affection, tempos well-judged, especially in
the first movement (moderate and articulate), but excepting the brief
third-movement ‘Gavotte’, which was rather pulled around and
‘danced’ with steel toe-caps; all a bit mauled.
And it was a similar bright insistence that, eventually, undid the Beethoven,
which became rather wearing. Imogen Cooper and Britten Sinfonia are working
their way through Beethoven’s piano concertos season by season (numbers
3 and 5 to go). She isn’t directing from the piano, but there is
interaction between her and the orchestra. Cooper played with much intelligence
and was always inside and serving the music, her vigour and clarity admirable,
her phrasing unaffected, her sense of direction undeviating. But rarefied
poeticism was in short supply and while athleticism and elan brought other
virtues, this was a rather two-dimensional account.
In the slow movement, the strings were certainly combative but took a
while to cower to Cooper’s (very effective) simple eloquence –
but then did so all too easily. Elsewhere, despite a fiery, gruff and
unanimous response from the orchestra, more subtlety and flexibility –
dare one say ‘direction’ – was needed, if only to remind
that Beethoven didn’t always thump the table when he had something
to say. Although the first movement was impressively vivid, there was
eventually ‘no escape’, a lack of wonderment finally undermining
both the work and this performance.
Cambridge
Weekly News/Cambridge Crier
Nik Shelton 29/30 November
2007 Editorial interview with Imogen Cooper
Pianist Imogen COoper continues
her association with Cambridge's Britten Sinfonia next month when she
directs Beethoven's Fourth Paino Concerto. The concert at West Road is
the lateste collaboration between teh renowned musician and teh ensemble
which displayed a close musical connection when they perofrmed the first
two Beethoven concerrtos together last year.
'You have to have a rapport
if you are doing the directing,' explains Imogen. 'But the one with Britten
Sinfonia is particularly strong in a very special way. You have a hieghtened
sensitivity to what's going on and you're listening like crazy, more than
if there's a conductor there because everyone is responsible for what
hthey are doing. There's a lot of eye contact, and i'm a very physical
player anyway so i move a lot when i play and i think that expresses what
is happening in the music.'
Imogen recently made a CBE
in the Queen's New Year's honours, studeied in Paris and Vienna and gives
performances across Europe and in the US. Well known for her interpretations
of Schubert and Schumannm, she has also premiered works by Thomas Ades
and Deirdre Gribbin. But even for someone with such a deep unterstanding
of music, performing contecmporary work is not something whicih has ever
come easily to her. 'I'm interested in what is goign on in music but i
can't commission a new piece tn once every two years because i'ma slow
learner for contemporary music. I grew up in a generation where iether
you playered solo, or you played chamber music, or you did contemporary
music - you were very compartmentalised. I was a soloist from teh start.'
Her most famours contemporary
music premiere was Thomas Ades' Traced Overhead at Cheltenham's
International Festival in 1996, and it stretched her abilities to their
limits. 'The Thomas Ades piece was given to me when i visited a friend's
house. I looked at it and i thought, 'My work is cut out here. It was
a 12-minute piece and it took me one month to be able toplay through it
fro beginning to end and another couple of months to be able to perform
it for a concert. It's an incredibly har dpiece, but it's also extraordinarily
beautiful so it was wonderful challenge.'
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