A rousing performance of Holst's The Planets, a gem by the short-lived French composer Lili Boulanger and the European premiere of a trombone concerto made for a delightful evening with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Wilson. The British conductor, who is a regular at the BBC Proms, brought a showman's flair to the National Concert Hall.
The concert opener was D'un matin de printemps by Boulanger, the first female winner of the Prix de Rome in 1913 at the age of 19, and the younger sister of the music educator and conductor, Nadia. Composed in 1917 for violin and piano, it was refashioned as an orchestral piece that could easily pass for Debussy shortly before she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24.
Written in 3/4 time, the short Scherzo is a dance expressing joy in nature – a world that Boulanger knew she would soon be leaving. Wilson and the NSO brought out the airy brilliance of the piece, whose opening measures are filled with soaring flutes and tinkling triangles. The sound world is darkened by the lower strings, with a lovely cello line emerging, followed by a violin solo, before flitting flutes reclaim their dominance. The more audiences can hear of Boulanger's small but inventive output, the better.
Australian jazz pianist and composer Joe Chindamo's Ligeia (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra) received its world premiere in 2022 and was given its European premiere here by the NSO. The piece was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia, about a man whose dead wife seems to briefly return by inhabiting the body of his second wife. According to the composer, the piece “reflects this idea of psychic struggle through its highly energetic and virtuosic character for the orchestra and soloist”.
Whatever the underlying programme, in the fast-paced first movement it appears to follow in the footsteps of John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The slower second movement gives the trombone a more romantic voice while the third is an Allegro with hints of Shostakovich. All this was skillfully played by the 28-year-old Belfast-born Peter Moore, Principal Trombone of the LSO. Moore gave a masterclass, including trills that took the listener's breath away.
The concert concluded with Holst's seven tone poems for orchestra that the composer later called The Planets. Although Holst maintained he was inspired by astrology, it is difficult after seeing the films not to imagine Darth Vader and battalions of Stormtroopers whenever Mars is given as rousing a performance as the NSO did under Wilson.
The other movements were equally well-shaped and controlled, concluding brilliantly with Holst's surprise touch of a hidden female choir singing an ethereal wordless chant, adding real mystery to Neptune, the Mystic. Choral director Bernie Sherlock's singers from her New Dublin Voices and the TU Dublin Conservatoire Chamber Choir were well concealed and in their first entry could barely be heard. But they soon gained in volume and dominance, then faded away to inaudibility... spellbinding moment, perfectly captured.
