New World Symphony, CBSO, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 15 May 2024.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.

“A longing for home meets the wonder of a new world” @ Lucy Walker, CBSO Programme Notes

Haas, Study for Strings

Bernstein, Chichester Psalms

Shaw, Music in Common Time

Dvorak, Symphony No.9 (‘New World’)

This was a concert where the excellent CBSO chorus were given not one, but two opportunities to shine. Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ is a piece which truly highlights the composer’s place as a cross-over composer. It throngs with melodic echoes of his more popular stage works and is charged with rhythmic, jazzy vibrancy. Conductor, Joshua Weilerstein, exuded infectious energy from the podium. The percussion section was in fine form and the chorus delivered rich textures, strong dynamic contrasts and clear diction.

The gorgeous opening melody of the second movement got very lost, sadly. Possibly nerves got the better of treble Michael Mulroy. But the tune took flight when taken up by the choir. The rhythmic complexity involved in the juxtaposition of texts was well handled and the whole performance was nicely shaped and brought to a thoughtful conclusion.

Having ended the first half with a choral piece, another work for choir and orchestra opened the second. Caroline Shaw’s ‘Music in Common Time’ is an arresting piece which asks the choir to perform a demanding range of vocal effects, and - of the orchestra - a rich variety of colour. As in the Bernstein, the CBSO chorus sang with control, sensitivity and rich tone. Complex counterpoint in the orchestra was delivered with precision.

The opening work, Hass’ ‘Study for Strings,’ written while Hass was a prisoner in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, shortly before the composer’s death in Auschwitz, is a surprising vibrant piece. However, its dark textures and spikey thematic material hint at the horrific situation in which it was written. Conductor, Weilerstein and the CBSO strings delivered the piece with energy and intensity - particularly during the middle, fugual (fughetta) section.

The performance of Dvorak’s ‘Symphony No. 9’ (‘From the New World’) was superb. Weilerstein’s interpretation, physical agility and sense of control of the band was second-to-none. The overall, deeply integrated, motivic, structural & tonal architecture of the work was clearly communicated and understood by all; and not just by conductor and band, but by the audience as a whole.

One gripe – but it’s a recurrent gripe with the CBSO, so it needs saying: at those moments of a whole-orchestra/orchestral section chord-placement “downbeat”, the brass and horns need to remember that a conductor’s downbeat means that they, like their fellows, play whatever note it is they are supposed to play at the precise point of downbeat, and not fractions of a second later; if you don’t do this it results in a fudge of chord/note placement – and people notice this kind of thing, and it sounds rather amateurish. This, together with the frailty of the treble soloist in the Bernstein, is a shame, because it takes an otherwise five-star performance to four-stars. I guess the moral of the story is: in Weilerstein you have an amazing conductor who clearly values accuracy and precision, so watch him and do what he so very clearly wants you to do, and at the precise moment he asks you to it. Gripe over.

However, this was otherwise an excellent and exciting performance. A special word of tribute must go to Rachael Pankhurst, whose cor anglais solos in the second movement were quite simply sublime. It was one of those moments when the whole crazy world seems to stop turning and one is lifted into some kind of altered state of perfect bliss. Thank you, Rachael; the world needs more of this.

Joshua Weilerstein – Conductor

Michael Mulroy – Soprano

CBSO Chorus

Simon Halsey - Chorus Director

Julian Wilkins – Associate Chorus Director

Beth Taylor, Hannah Komedera, Luke Swatman and Matthew Pandya – Soloists from CBSO Chorus