★★★★☆
If a concert planner is seeking a polar opposite to Stravinsky’s tumultuous The Rite of Spring, then a work inspired by the peaceful sounds of recorders and the delicate art of origami must be a contender. Anna Meredith’s quirky Origami Songs, now ten years old, certainly earned its place in this rousing BBC Symphony Orchestra concert, conducted at short notice by Ryan Wigglesworth after Ilan Volkov had to withdraw.
With Meredith’s work — in weight and substance the modern equivalent of an inventive baroque suite — there was much to smile about. The trilling and gliding of Erik Bosgraaf’s recorders of every size and register obviously took first place, though with strong competition from the chamber ensemble’s piquant harpsichord, pizzicato strings and quietly torn paper. This was fun to listen to and watch, and Meredith received the kind of warm applause that most contemporary composers only experience in their dreams.
Applause was also abundant for the UK premiere of Ison II, an arresting slab of shifting textures and glimpses of melody from the adventurous Romanian Stefan Niculescu, who died in 2008. Wigglesworth functioned mostly as a traffic cop, summoning blocks of flutes, trumpets, horns, trombones and percussion, and letting them interweave. The piece lasted all of 18 minutes, and not one of them found me bored.
Once past the concert’s only dud, the fruitless crescendo of Arvo Part’s early Perpetuum mobile, we arrived at the Rite itself, 110 years old, yet trailed in the programme booklet as being “as visceral as ever”. Well, that depends on the performance. Wigglesworth’s beginning might have been a bit tepid, but rhythmic tension grew and grew, with genuine bite and fury ending part one, and finely judged textures leading us on to the thumps and slashes of the concluding sacrificial dance. This time the audience seemed set to applaud until dawn.
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