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Over a century of British music was on display at this smartly programmed Prom in which the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic proved you don’t have to hail from Berlin to hold a London audience spellbound. Principal guest conductor Andrew Manze bookended the concert with career-spanning works by Vaughan Williams, there was a world premiere from Carmel Smickersgill, and Simone Lamsma was a commanding presence in Britten’s Violin Concerto.
Smickersgill’s A Brick Thrown With Love imagines an act of protest from three perspectives: the idea itself, the affected community and the person responsible for lobbing said brick. The opening movement featured a cheeky clarinet theme, mocked, distorted and ultimately hijacked by a subversive orchestra. A shiver of bells built to an elated climax in part two before shifty, syncopated brass propelled the third section to a brutal catharsis. The musical impasto was applied a little thickly in places but the imagination was impressive.
Lamsma won the Britten International Violin Competition in 2004, and her interpretation of the composer’s angst-ridden concerto felt like an act of total identification. Silvery legato and fiery theatrics were the order of the day, ably supported by Manze (himself a violinist) who knew the importance of balancing soloist and orchestral forces. Imperious yet lyrical in the opening movement, Lamsma brought a whiff of brimstone to the whirligig scherzo with a cadenza that exuded pure witchcraft. The finale’s tortuous mood swings were nimbly charted through to the bleakly inconclusive final trill.
Manze has a deep understanding of Vaughan Williams, evident at once from the orchestra’s cushioned account of the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. It was a shame though that no real attempt was made to separate the antiphonal string groups as the composer intended, something the sonorous Albert Hall might have been made for. No cavils regarding his cohesive reading of the Ninth Symphony, which here emerged as the visionary masterpiece it most certainly is. Flugelhorn, cor anglais and a louche saxophone trio added baleful atmospherics to a dark and detailed interpretation that highlighted the work’s kinship with the Sinfonia Antartica as well as its terse interior drama and brooding orchestral weight.
