Matthew Taylor, image (c) David Baker
Poppy Beddoe clarinet, Mira Marton, Viviane Plekhotkine violins, Sinfonia Perdita / Daniel Hogan
Sinfonia Smith’s Square, London, November 22nd, 2024
This was a concert decidedly of two halves—and not divided by the intermission—yet dominated by the numbers three and six. Six works featured on the programme, to mark Matthew Taylor’s sixtieth birthday, all of them in three movements, three composed by Taylor and three by one of his compositional heroes (No, not Robert Simpson!), Malcolm Arnold, whose centenary fell three years ago. A succession of shorter works—Arnold’s Serenade, Op 26 (1950), Double Violin Concerto (1962) and Second Clarinet Concerto (1973-4), Taylor’s Concertinos for Violin (2016) and Clarinet (2021)—acted rather as a series of upbeats to the final, largest work: Taylor’s Sixth Symphony (also 2021).
I fell in love with the musical gem that is Arnold’s Serenade many years ago on a wonderful EMI LP by the long-defunct Bournemouth Sinfonietta, coupled with the two flute concertos played by with consummate elegance by Richard Adeney. It was the luminous opening Allegretto that made the most immediate impact and so it proved once again in Smith’s Square, despite a few minor intonational infelicities from Sinfonia Perdita. Daniel Hogan adroitly underlined the con moto element of the central Andante—its darker aspect, too—before the Allegro vivace finale burst in, rattling along in Arnold’s best ebullient vein. It was succeeded by Taylor’s sparkling Clarinet Concertino, composed for—and performed here with panache by—Poppy Beddoe (who has also recorded it for Toccata Classics, TOCC 0708). The opening sequence of duos with a viola, violin, two cellos, was delicately rendered, ahead of the central Largamente. The throwaway final Allegretto semplice was delightful; this is as fine a concertino as either of Maconchy’s.
Mira Marton was the scintillating soloist in Taylor’s entertaining, albeit unconventional, Violin Concertino (she has recorded the work on the Toccata Classics album cited above), her fabulous, flawless intonation and rich tone bringing the work, which plays continuously, to life. The unconventionality arises from the nature of the opening Deliberato, which is in the form of a Hornpipe. Taylor confessed in the note that writing such an opening to the Concertino was a long-held desire, though in the event proved as determined as it was jolly. Marton had the measure of the central Aria’s lyricism, as did the orchestra, and the Energico finale fair fizzed along. Viviane Plekhotkine joined Marton to round off the first part of the concert with Arnold’s Concerto for 2 violins and string orchestra, a great work rendered with stunning virtuosity and precision, especially in the central Andantino, with some wonderful interplay with the sections in the orchestra.
Daniel Hogan, (c) composer
Hogan’s pacing was spot-on, bringing out the subtle shifts of light and shade to great effect and drove the finale along with real vim. To my mind, this is Arnold’s finest concerto—though Matthew Taylor, I know, would cite the Second Clarinet Concerto in that place. Poppy Beddoe returned after the intermission to play (from memory) the latter in a rollicking, at times rather breathy performance, vibrant and edgy in the opening Allegro vivace, gloriously lyrical in the central Lento—which has one of Arnold’s warmest tunes—though offset by alternating darker sections. The jazzy finale (the work was penned or Goodman, after all) brought the house down and was immediately encored; despite Beddoe’s protestations, if anything even more splendidly than first time around.
The mood changed somewhat for the final half-hour of the concert, with the performance of Taylor’s Sixth Symphony, commissioned to commemorate Arnold’s centenary. Scored for a chamber ensemble, rather than the fuller orchestras for Nos 4 and 5, the work is a triumph of translucent scoring, where less is so often more. This is audible immediately from the outset, with the sepulchral sounding trio in the introductory Adagio teneramente of piano, harp and timpani—which group recurs at points throughout the work—and the luminous textures that follow in the main Allegro leggiero. As that progresses, the orchestration does fill out as the music gathers pace and power. Hogan and Sinfonia Perdita built to its final climax impressively before the easing-off of the coda. The marvellous slow fugue, Andante tranquillo, was perfectly paced and if Simpson and McCabe came to mind at times in the first two spans the spirit of Arnold burst though in the Vivo finale, something of a compound form as it also includes a scherzo.
Sinfonia Perdita acquitted themselves superbly throughout, despite some last-minute no-shows in the band (which reduced the viola section to just three players, for example). Hogan, proving to be an alert conductor throughout, was able to balance the orchestral sound very convincing to mask the impact and his rapport with the players was manifest in six first-rate accounts. Excellent in every way.