Search - Penelope Walmsley-Clark, Ross Pople, London Sinfonietta :: George Benjamin: Orchestral Works - At First Light / A Mind of Winter / Ringed by the Flat Horizon - London Sinfonietta / George Benjamin / BBC Symphony Orchestra / Mark Elder

Evocative shapes and beacons of light

Rachel Abbinanti (tusai1@aol.com) | Chicago | 06/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"George Benjamin is a consummate craftsmen. He says he writes directly into the orchestral canvas, meaning he doesn't preconceive,( not always) the sound in his head. He orchestrates directly. And perhaps within the current mileau of after postmodernity, this endeavor the craft of pure orchestration is the most sustaining aspect of our era. Benjamin studied composition in Paris with Olivier Messiaen,a rich life-altering part of his life. He spent months constructing chordal tables some one thousand chords,so to examine the full scope of possibilities. All this work in a way set his musical creativity for life. His music is harsh,strident and piercing ,with sharp metallic instruments to project the sounds further into our sensibilities."A First Light" here is a great example of this. Inspired by J.W Turner's "Norham Castle Sunrise" is like a Debussy "La Mer" a composer animated by the sensual beauty of nature,well once removed in a painting. Yet Benjamin has his own voice. His music is well conceived and you hear it, always a deep sense of control and on-going goal oriented pace. The orchestration can be simply thought by itself, without the necessity of image. Here trombones set up impacted walls of gruff,brooding sound,for which the higher registers buttress themselves.Yet this gives way always to the ethereal,you always sense this concentration of sound can fly off irretreivably for ever.He also brings a sense of lightness,of gentleness to the Turner portrait,with frequent impassioned oboe solos simply interjected after a full orchestral violent passage. Likewise in "A Mind of Winter",soprano Penelope Walmsley-Clark's voice dives right into the sound. After a poem by Wallace Stevens. Again Benjamin knows how to shape a vocal line well into the orchestral canvas, you never sense "song" merely the voice as an extension from the web of the orchestral sonorities. The London Sinfonietta,with Benjamin conducting make a great marriage in music making. Finally "Ringed by the Flat Horizon" with Mark Elder conducting the BBC Symphony has again all the Benjaminian characters, highly strident,sharp piercing sounds,with low brooding depth-bound lower voices. Perhaps the French connection is not out of his system yet, for the gestures do resemble middle period Boulez or Messiaen."