BBC Concert Orchestra and Alistair McGowan, Lakeside, Nottingham, 20 April 2024. 5✩✩✩✩✩ Review: William Ruff.

BBC Concert Orchestra and Alistair McGowan, Lakeside, Nottingham, 20 April 2024.

5✩✩✩✩✩ Review: William Ruff.

“Vivid, unsettling music-drama in which the Devil has all the best tunes.”

Nottingham’s reputation as one of the UK’s most musical cities has been further enhanced this year by an enterprising partnership between the BBC Concert Orchestra and both of the city’s universities. All sorts of production and composition experiences have been on offer as well as a wide range of performances.

The latest took place at Lakeside on Saturday, featuring seven of the BBC CO’s players, conductor Martyn Brabbins - and Alistair McGowan as narrator (and all the characters) of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. If you missed it, you’ll be able to hear it on Radio 3 in the near future.

The Soldier’s Tale was conceived in 1918, at a time when war had made large-scale performances impossible. Stravinsky originally had in mind a show for two actors and a dancer who would share the stage with the seven instrumentalists.

But who needs two actors and dancing when Alistair McGowan is available? His vocal virtuosity is extraordinary: razor-sharp in marrying words to music; split-second timing in transforming himself from narrator to character, even when one character is the Devil and the other happens to be an old washer-woman, or any of the other guises that Satan assumes.

The story is a variant on the old Faust legend, centred around a bargain struck with the Devil. The music reflects Stravinsky’s musical obsessions of the time, including a tango and a ragtime. Above all it is notable for the music given to the violin, the instrument that the off-duty soldier sells to the Devil – and superbly played in this performance by Nathaniel Anderson-Frank.

Both words and music of The Soldier’s Tale abound in wit and pathos. It’s a morality tale with serious lessons to impart, its combination of clever words and characterful music offering an entertainment unique in the classical music world. Conductor Martyn Brabbins ensured that every detail emerged new-minted from Stravinsky’s score and Alistair McGowan was everything (and everyone) you could possibly wish for.

Alistair McGowan and members of BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins: (Nathaniel Anderson-Frank (violin), Dominic Worsley (double bass), Nicholas Carpenter (clarinet), John McDougall (bassoon), Jack Wilson (cornet), Matthew Lewis (trombone), Stephen Whibley (percussion)