Classical Music Review: BBC Philharmonic with John Storgårds at the Royal Concert Hall

One of the highlights of this year’s Proms season was John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic’s blistering account of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony in a concert that also included Schumann, Sibelius and contemporary composer Hans Abrahamsen. Swapping the Royal Albert Hall for Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall, they delivered an equally dynamic, exciting and intuitively programmed event.

Occupying the first half was Stravinsky’s Petrushka, in the 1911 version (the composer reorchestrated it thirty-five years later to include fewer instruments). Written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company, it tells the story of romantic entanglements and jealousies between three puppets. Generally speaking, there are two interpretative approaches when performing Petrushka as a purely instrumental piece shorn of narrative and dance: a witty and propulsive approach, lending a carnivalesque atmosphere to the piece; or with an undertow of melancholy, a sense of frustrated longing.

Storgårds went with the former and it was a winning choice. The orchestra played with drive and urgency, yet never lost the opportunity for humorous interplay. Storgårds bristled with energy on the podium, baton often jinking in a technique reminiscent of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, while the clenched fist of the left hand urged on the more propulsive passages. In all, Petrushka was an attention-grabbing opener shot through with vigour, but the real fireworks came after the interval.

With originally-announced violinist Jennifer Pike indisposed due to injury, the BBC Philharmonic were joined in the second half by Simone Lamsma for two virtuoso set-pieces. Lamsma is no stranger to the Royal Concert Hall, having aced the Brahms Double Concerto here with cellist Victor Julien-Lafferrière and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Domingo Hindoyan in November 2023.

Leading off with Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Lamsma displayed flamboyance, charm and technical precision, qualities equally apparent in the follow-up, Ravel’s brisk and entertaining Tzigane. Presented with the traditional bouquet after acknowledging the audience’s wholehearted applause, Lamsma made a gift of it to the Philharmonic’s concert leader - a lovely moment from a performer who is clearly a class act.

Storgårds and his orchestra concluded the evening with another Saint-Saëns composition, possibly his most famous - the Organ Symphony. At the keyboard: Jonathan Scott, an affable-looking, almost diffident chap - sharp suit, neat haircut - who, the moment he cut loose on the organ, might well have been a rock star. The floor reverberated. The walls shook. The Royal Concert Hall might want to call in a civil engineer to check the structural integrity of the building. Scott’s bravura rendition of Widor’s Organ Toccata as encore may have created a few extra hairline cracks. 

As purveyors of big orchestral showpieces, Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic take some beating. This was music-making at its boldest and most exciting. 

The BBC Philharmonic with John Storgårds played at the Royal Concert Hall on Tuesday October 1st 2024.