Hallé, City Hall
HOPE someone was on hand to give the idiot whose mobile phone chimed in with the quiet ending of Elgar's The Music Makers a Leroy Jethro Gibbs-clip across the head.
An enigmatic work with many self-quotations – the excellent Michael Kennedy, in his programme note sums it up perfectly, "disturbing" – it may not be great Elgar but not deserving of the neglect that is its lot.
Pessimistic by nature with doses of optimism, it's almost as if the composer is seeing his life as a dream scenario finding the means of expressing it in music through Alfred O'Shaughnessy's rather bittely-worded ode, The Music Makers.
It's hardly great poetry: 'With wonderful deathless ditties we build up the world's great cities,' but its content struck a chord with Elgar.
The second stanza – beginning thus, lacked polyphomic clarity when the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus sang it, otherwise they tackled the work with vigorous intent, if occasional lack of projection, though not in the first sequence with Christine Rice, which quotes Nimrod, and after where their singing was uplifting.
The contralto-toned mezzo sang beautifully and movingly, especially at the end and her final words, "a singer sings no more." If only her diction had been clearer.
Conductor Martyn Brabbins secured a steady, solid performance not devoid of feeling and the Hall, often left to its own devices while he guided the Phil through the choral music, played its part excellently.
Earlier the orchestra offered a sprightly, soft-textured account of Poulenc's delightful Les Biches Suite, the strings a fabulously-wrought Five Variants of Dives and Lazurus by Vaughan Williams and a tremendously-evocative Four Sea Interludes from Britten's Peter Grimes.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -2 C to -0 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
