this from newspaper The Guardian's archive. thought it might interest some...
Classical Prom 17: Turnage premiere <<...OLE_Obj...>> Royal Albert Hall, London/ Radio 3 Andrew Clements Friday August 2, 2002 The orchestral triptych that Mark-Anthony Turnage is writing as the BBC Symphony's associate composer will heard be heard complete next January. The first movement was introduced a year ago; the central and largest panel was the premiere in last night's prom, conducted by Andrew Davis. Uninterrupted Sorrow is the only section of this composite work to employ a full orchestra, and a big one at that: quadruple woodwind, four horns. Though the title, borrowed from a Joni Mitchell song, suggests music that is melancholy and introspective, the 15 minute piece turns out to be much more outward going and finally optimistic; moments of reflection are confined to the introductory sequence of chilly chords and the rather austere first theme, unfolded by a pair of flutes. What follows, as the rhythmic energy and the level of disssonance steadily increase, is a sequence of duets spotlighting sections of the orchestra in turn, in an almost concertante style. The clarinets pick up where the flutes leave off, the oboes take over, and eventually the brass cuts in, with bracing horn figures, stabbing trumpets, and an explosively virtuoso break for trombones. The perspectives constantly change, until the music suddenly finds itself back where it began, for a coda that attempts to return to the mood of the opening, delicate and subtly coloured. How Uninterrupted Sorrow will fit into the scheme of the completed triptych remains to be seen, but standing alone it is an effective orchestral showpiece. Davis's performance had the typical authority that he brought to everything he programmed when he was the BBCSO's chief conductor, and the rest of the concert was equally well presented. There was a supple, perfectly proportioned account of Debussy's Prilude ` l'Aprhs-midi d'un Faune, and a slightly less convincing one of Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, in which the soloist Louis Lortie seemed too intent on over-civilising what is one of Ravel's darkest and most threatening scores. Vaughan Williams's Blake inspired masque for dancing, Job - half ballet, half symphonic suite - is a Davis speciality, and he presented it as the fascinating transitional work it is. The conflict between modal God and chromatic Satan, with diatonic Job caught in between, looks back to the early pastoral works and forward to the violence and energy of the later symphonies; some of it is beguiling, some of it tendentious, but Davis clearly believes in every note. 7 Rebroadcast on Radio 3 next Tuesday at 2 pm.
