★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
World premieres can be twitchy, tetchy affairs, overloaded with the white noise of expectation. A local premiere has a different, more positive energy. First heard in Amsterdam in 2012, then revised for the violinist Barnabás Kelemen and the Hallé, Ryan Wigglesworth’s Violin Concerto sounded comfortable in its skin at its London premiere. Conducted by the composer in concert with Kelemen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, it’s a work that is spacious, measured, sweet and sad.
Wigglesworth has fashioned an alluring soundworld from modest resources. A harp and celesta are added to a classical-sized band, lending a Mahlerian melancholy gleam to the Introduction and Epilogue. These intimate sections for soloist and harp (with an afterglow of muted strings) frame a traditional fast-slow-fast structure, with suggestions of a fragmented passacaglia in the bass line.
It is rare to hear a contemporary European violin concerto that does not make reference to Berg. Wigglesworth goes further into the canon, alluding to Beethoven and Brahms in the cross-rhythms of the first tutti movement, the elegant melodic contour of the central serenade and the sprung dance of the second allegro. Kelemen’s playing was eloquent and unforced with pitch-perfect double-stopping.
A punchy, virtuosic account of Stravinsky’s Agon preceded Wigglesworth’s interpretation of Britten’s Sea Interludes and Passacaglia, and the London premiere of the video artist Tal Rosner’s visual response. Josef Albers-style blocks of colour danced in formation to Dawn. Images of Miami, Los Angeles, Philadephia, San Francisco and London were juxtaposed.
The exercise felt over-literal in its adherence to the rhythms of the score, but the playing was sublime: sensual, engaged and electric at the climax of Britten’s Storm. Only Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms disappointed, with the BBC Symphony Chorus sounding slovenly and unfocused.