Javelin - Michael Torke
Piano Concerto No 2 in D minor, Op 23 - MacDowell
Symphony No 2, "Sinfonia India" - Chavez
Tangazo Piazzolla Three Dances from "Estancia" - Ginastera
There was a strong emphasis on colour and rhythm and melodies galore in last Friday week's concert in the NCH. Michael Torke's recently written Javelin was what in older times might have been called an Overture and was a fitting introduction to the works from Mexico and Argentina, for all showed an almost obsessive preoccupation with snappy rhythms. They were performed with the necessary gusto by the NSO, conducted by Colman Pearce.
In the middle of enough sonic excitement to enliven the most jaded ear, MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2 seemed out of place. Written just over 100 years ago, it has not borne its age well; an attempt to outdo previous practitioners of the genre, it succeeds only in salvaging some limp memories of the Romantic movement. Piotr Folkert at the piano injected some energy into its self-indulgent and sluggish progress, but it couldn't compete with the liveliness of the other offerings.
Chavez's Sinfonia India made the most use of unusual combinations of instruments and exotic percussion, and the Mexican/Indian folk tunes that supply the main themes are as attractive as the Russian folk tunes used by Stravinsky in Petrushka.
Piazzolla's Tangazo relied less on orchestral colour and more on melodic exploration, underpinned by the tango rhythm; but, for all its solemnity, it didn't convey as much musical feeling as the three Dances by Ginastera. These were full of strange sighs and howls, but everything was subject to the strong rhythmic impulse of the dances, orgiastic in intensity. The members of the orchestra played with masterly abandon.