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FIVE stars? Only five? I have a notion that over the last 30 years my reviews have not exactly been associated with the concept of understatement. So, in the spirit of that observation, let me record that the BBC SSO's concert on Thursday night with their conductor, Artist-in-Association Matthias Pintscher, was one of the most thrilling and provocative events it has been my privilege to review, and one of the most exhilarating and exciting to experience.
It centred on the SSO's blazing centenary performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, with the band playing out of its skin in a properly convulsive, fantastically detailed and violently volcanic account of the great masterpiece. Ultimately, one's reaction to a Rite of Spring performance is a personal affair, and, for my taste, Pintscher was a wee bit quick off the mark for The Augurs of Spring, the real launch pad of the piece.
But that stabilised and this Rite delivered its solar plexus kick, jab and punch to maximum effect. The playing was astounding and I was battered, shattered and wrecked by the pile-driving performance.
I thrilled to Pintscher's Chute d'Etoiles, with trumpeters Marco Blaauw and Tine Thing Helseth engaged not so much in competition with a noisy orchestra, as in intimate and whispered conspiratorial comment, ignoring the fact that they were being shouted at.
The light, graceful and lucid account of Bach's Second Suite, with Yvonne Paterson a discreetly dazzling flautist, was precisely artistic and raised some serious questions for another time. A glorious night.
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