LPO/Benjamin Review – Music of Crystal Clarity and Delightful Enjoyment | classical music

SMysterious colours, translucent textures and luminous shafts of light were the order of the day as Georges Benjamin, resident composer of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, donned his conductor’s hat, bringing his trademark subtlety and precision to a meticulously programmed concert of Scriabin, Stravinsky, Ravel and Benjamin himself.

Sensuality dominates Scriabin’s “Ode to Ecstasy”, a one-movement symphonic poem of joy. The languid strings and woodwinds indulged in a sensual caress, driven by the wild brass, only to retreat again and again as if momentarily sated. Benjamin exercised impressive control over his immense powers – nine centuries, no less – perfecting the composer’s unrestrained texture before ramping up the adrenaline for a climactic blast of hedonistic pleasure.

He brought a similarly crystalline clarity to Stravinsky’s symphonies for woodwinds, highlighting their startling modernity as if he were dissecting the fleshless remains of a dismantled Rite of Spring. The LPO, impressive throughout, revealed the result with the precision of a surgeon’s knife. On the other end of the spectrum, Ravel’s Mother Goose is presented in its entirety and not in the usual suite form, with every detail clearly defined. Of particular interest were the rarely-heard connected passages as Benjamin led the way from the Pavan of Sleeping Beauty to the flirtatious chatter of Beauty and the Beast, the latter blasting away on a delightful, rambunctious contraption. The pentatonic resonance of The Empress of the Pagoda and the pulsating intensity of The Fairy Garden brought the music to its iridescent conclusion.

A palimpsest is a manuscript in which one or more later texts have been inscribed over an original piece of writing. It’s an idea that can be applied to a great deal of Benjamin’s own work as a composer, making Palimpsest I and its darker cousin, Palimpsest II, work distinctly. The unconventional orchestral design – eight harps but no cellos, harps, celesta, a large brass section and an ethereal array of overhead strings that at times sounded as if they were on helium – makes these visually unusual pieces, revealing their inner workings most effectively in live performance. Benjamin was reliable here, shaping the music’s tectonic shifts while highlighting its startling idiosyncrasies and rare beauty.