Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Romantic Echoes

Penderecki's late style is practically post-Romantic in character: his music often seems to be a kind of throwback to another era, employing familiar devices of orchestration and dramatic effects that hearken back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While his conservative approach has not been without controversy, his ideas are still interesting and his ability to write for an orchestra is still strong. The Violin Concerto belongs to the flood of compositions that poured from Beethoven’s pen during what was the most productive period of his life, unleashed by his spiritual crisis of 1802 and the realisation of his oncoming deafness. Despite this, it feels like a celebration, a modest and reserved one, perhaps, but triumphant nonetheless. The third version of an overture for Fidelio is a fully worked out, essentially autonomous mini-drama that all but eclipses the tale that is supposed to unfold during the actual opera for which it was written.