The BBC Philharmonic played to a full and enthusiastic house on Saturday, in a programme consisting of Mahler's Second Symphony and a world premiere of a new work by young English composer Kenneth Hesketh.
At God Speeded Summer's End (the title comes from Dylan Thomas's Prologue) is, in the composer's words, a procession of scherzos constructed on the same formal ideas as Dylan's poem, complete with its own acrostic pattern. At a time when many new works declare affinities with a poem or a painting - even a line of philosophy - it was heartening to receive the composer's explanation of exactly how a piece of music relates to its supposed source of inspiration.
All the same, interesting and invaluable though this information is, it rarely impacts on the listener's experience, particularly at first hearing. Nevertheless, each section had its own character, ranging from mystical to hard-driven and climactic. Hints of a dance seemed to bubble beneath the surface, never coming up for air but breathing life into the fast-flowing stream of sound. Punctuated throughout with climaxes, all the music's accumulated energy exploded dramatically in the final moments.
The Mahler got off to a slightly shaky start with a few accidents that may have had an unsettling effect on the orchestra, although Sinaisky's approach was generally a little on the nervy side. Mahler's frequent tempo shifts occasionally caused problems. The graceful second movement flowed beautifully in Mahler's smoothest Austrian dialect, and the scherzo depicting St Anthony's sermon to the fishes was biting, with all his characteristically grotesque personae delivering their sarcastic commentary.
The fourth movement struggled to retain its magic in places, with the brass chorales just slightly too loud and fast for Mahler's carefully notated articulation to speak.
Mezzo soprano Jean Rigby and the principal oboist recaptured some of that magic in some beautifully crafted phrasing. Despite a heart- stopping incorrect entry at one point, the theatrical drama of the finale was suitably thrilling, with all off-stage effects expertly controlled.
The final few minutes were irresistible; the City of Birmingham Chorus, Rigby and soprano Susan Bullock declaimed Mahler's ecstatic text with passionate conviction. But somehow the sense of holiness and joy was never quite there.
