Watery masterpieces from Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms

With Edward Gardner securely at the helm, theLondon Philharmonic steered us through the choppy waters of a rich programme of H2O-related pieces. The opening work, The Oceanides by Sibelius, depicts the nymphs of the Mediterranean cavorting in the waves. It is a concise work which paints the scene with the composer’s usual economy. In Gardner’s hands, there was an intense undertow and a firm grip on the structure, with the textures moving from the LPO's delicate woodwinds to their heavy rounded brass.

However, the first half of the concert was dominated by the strange and wondrous swansong by Michael Tippett, The Rose Lake. At its premiere in 1995, it was recognised as a major work and one which had partly returned, almost nostalgically, to the lyrical idiom of the composer’s early works. I vividly recall warm applause Tippett received that evening. Since then, the work has been taken up by several conductors and has been recorded several times.

Gardner has been including at least one Tippett piece in each of his his seasons with the LPO and his deep understanding of the composer’s technical challenges and, more importantly, his emotional depth are now second to none. He brought to his interpretation delicacy and power in equal measure. The work depicts a lake in Senegal which Tippett visited with the light shifting constantly creating different moods.

There are wildlife and people bustling away in the strange deviations of the score, but the core of the work is the long melody that is ‘sung’ by the string section three times across the score. The pace seemed slow but giving full value to every block of material, enabling the combinations of these blocks to create interest and contrast. The LPO were superb in every section and special mention should be given to the athletics performed by the percussionists on rototoms. Despite all this colour and activity, the abiding atmosphere that was conjured up was one of sadness and death – the ageing composer transfixed by beauty for one last times.

Ravel was a young man when he wrote his song cycle Shéhérazade, very much inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov’s work of the same title. Its three songs have a heady sensuality, decorated by ultra-refined and detailed orchestral parts. The wonderfully rich voice of Aigul Akhmetshina was ideally suited to the first song “Asie”, which requires strength as well as delicacy at its great climax. The two mysterious short songs that followed were languidly sung with superb accompaniment.

The least convincing of the performances of the evening was that of Debussy’s La mer. Gardner’s way was to emphasise the beautify of the orchestral colours and not the drama of the work. The first movement seemed underpowered until the great peroration at it’s end and likewise the finale. The middle movement, “Jeux de vaques”, was delicate but not incisive to a sufficient degree. Undeniably the orchestral playing was stunning, but one was left feeling that there should be more excitement on offer in this powerhouse if a work.