“A Percussive Explosion” with Sinfonia Newydd, 20/02/14

There’s nothing terribly cutting-edge about a concert headlining the music of Prokofiev… is there?  What if the great composer himself were to make an appearance? No, not the long-dead soviet virtuoso, but the dashing English grandson, well-known on the London DJ scene. Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Bass Drum received its Welsh premiere on 20^th February at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, alongside four world premiere commissions from young Welsh composers and Mark David Boden’s remarkable “Urban Loops”, written specially for the evening’s orchestra, Sinfonia Newydd.

A rocky start in which the star percussionist failed to appear on stage was quickly forgotten amidst the consuming, distorted serenity of Boden’s “Urban Loops”. An immaculate performance did the piece credit; the five solo percussionists assimilated marvellously into the texture, successfully skirting any crass juxtaposition.

High expectations rested on the shoulders of recent Royal Academy graduate Ed Scolding. His piece, “Thrown” was very ingenious, with clever use of dominant tonal centres providing stability under tricky, disconcerting rhythms. The orchestra conveyed it well, with a sense of unrelenting accuracy. I was, however, left pining for a brighter string sound (as I was in the Boden), which might have induced a more transparent texture.

Ray Leung’s “Totem” was characterised by a stravinskian feel of rhythmic frenzy – rhythms which could have been carried better. The music was melodically appealing though, and was the only piece which seemed to work well with the dry acoustic of the Dora Stoutzker.

“Go!” was an apt name for Yfat Soul Zisso’s commission, painting a picture of struggle between the dynamic and the static. The bizarre contrasts between implied major and minor tonalities were just as uncomfortable as I’m sure the composer intended, and the monotony and lack of direction (deliberate, I’m lead to believe!) felt curiously original, if a little tiresome (again, intentional). This time, however, it was the woodwind who were too peripheral – it was they who had much of the motivic interest, much of which was lost in over-zealous bowing from the violins.

Nathan James Dearden was also trying to depict struggle, in his commission “Friction”. His, however was built on a sense of unrelenting motivic development, which was extremely compelling. Indeed, the ‘friction’ seemed, cleverly, to occur within the motivic superstructure, rather than between segmented ideas, and sparse use of strings, primarily as a colouristic device rather than harmonic underpinning, added a satisfying clarity to the texture. What’s more, the orchestra handled the devilish rhythms admirably.

The climax of the evening was the young Prokofiev’s Concerto for Bass Drum and Orchestra. No gimmick, the programme note insists – the bass drum is capable of more than you might expect. In quite a coup for this young orchestra, virtuoso percussionist Joby Burgess was secured for the fiendish solo role. The dark sonority of the orchestral opening statements was a pleasant contrast against the bright, sometimes shrill textures of much of the evening’s music. The bass drum itself was cleverly manipulated by composer and player, though the use of a piece of twine attached to the drum skin and bowed like a violin was a little underwhelming. Clever use of all the areas of the drum skin created the convincing illusion of pitched tonality (aided by a parroting double bass). The nasty syncopations in the third movement were not absolutely accurate all of the time, with orchestra and soloist occasionally out of sync, but it was impressively executed nonetheless. The final movement was as much as show of orchestral virtuosity as soloistic, and the ensemble performance was remarkably strong.

Huge credit must be given to the orchestra’s new Music Director, James Southall, whose conducting was dynamic, precise, and did, I believe, do justice to every note of this extremely difficult music.

The stars of the evening were the composers, all of whom were present, all of whom have created pieces of exceptional craftsmanship. My admiration goes out to the Sinfonia Newydd institution for supporting such talent, and for executing it to such a standard.

Find out more about Sinfonia Newydd and its laudable aims here: http://www.sinfonianewydd.co.uk

Peter L. Wagstaff