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How to describe it? Parts of it reminded me of (don't laugh) Yes, where you get a rhythmic, chaotic band passage stopping dead to give way to a quiet, reflective piano solo. It's got half-familiar Scottish themes running through it, including a jig (or is it a reel?) where the pianist turns around and plays a snare drum! There are beautiful parts where the music is almost lyrical... then it goes completely off it again...
And Joanna MacGregor is incredible. I've never heard (or seen) piano playing quite like it. She also played a (well-deserved) encore piece: Piazzolla's Libertango. Which is... quite literally... indescribable. I would go and see her again, playing music like this.
By the interval I was well pleased.
But I freely admit that I was only there to hear the Durham Concerto for the second time, and I got more than my money's worth in the second half of the concert. It was even better the second time round. But I'll try to forget that Jon Lord has been my musical idol for my entire adult life, and give an unbiased view of the concert.
As I mentioned to Jon (*cough* name dropping) after the show, the atmosphere of the Cathedral wasn't there. Philharmonic Hall is nice enough but there's no way it can match Durham Cathedral as a building. But as he quite rightly responded, what the Hall loses in atmosphere it more than makes up for in acoustics and sound clarity. It doesn't have the enveloping reverb of the Cathedral but I'm sure that the clean, precise sound in the Hall was a lot closer to what the composer wanted us to hear. Every solo instrument stood out perfectly and I heard a lot of new subtleties (particularly from the organ, which plays a bigger role than was first apparent).
(There was an annoying hiss from the auditorium's right-hand speaker stack all through the first half of the concert but this had been cured by the second half. I Assume they didn't need the PA for Jon's music!)
Familiarity with the music also helps. When you know what's coming next, what you're hearing now makes a lot more sense. (Does that make sense?)
And finally, I was in a perfect seat to watch the orchestra — centre of the front row of the circle, so I could look down on the entire orchestra. It's much more interesting to see who is doing what, and that was impossible in the Cathedral.
It's true, great music really should be heard live.
So overall the second listening was definitely worth the trip. I'm already looking forward to a third, and many more.
Do I need to describe the music? I don't think I can... from the first notes to the last crescendo, it's beautiful. There are recurring themes that tie the movements together. The violin solo parts are exquisite. The percussion is as dramatic as you would expect from a man who spent 35 years in the world's greatest rock band. There's a beautiful harp contribution that I never even noticed before. And there's a Hammond organ.
Why is there a Hammond organ? It's not exactly a conventional orchestral instrument. There has to be a more compelling reason for including it than because it's "the composer's instrument". The Northumbrian pipes — yes, essential to the concept of the music. But the Hammond organ?
The piece has, effectively, six movements. The traditional three movements of a concerto are each divided into two distinct parts. This means that there are two slow movements.
Think about this for a minute. After the tension of a slow concerto movement, you need the release of the big finale to balance things out. Jon's structure means that after the achingly beautiful violin-led slow third movement, you get an even slower fourth movement, and this one features long solos from the most melancholic instrument in the orchestra — the cello. By the time it's all done, and you've been listening to 20 minutes of this quiet, introspective music, you're wound up so tight that you need something to let your breath out again...
And then the fifth movement starts and you hear:
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
And that's why there's a Hammond organ. Nothing else could have done it. It's the most joyous sound on the planet, and the whole orchestra responds with the most uplifting, foot-tapping, scherzo sort of thing that... well, for me, this movement makes the whole piece. From the organ swell to the dance tune, to the bombastic horn tune, to the drunken bassoon player (!), all underpinned by thunderous marching-band percussion — the movement seems blatantly inspired by Malcolm Arnold (I'm sure Jon won't mind me saying that), and it's pure listening perfection. If I had to hold up one thing to show people that Jon Lord really knows how to put music together, it would be this movement.
Then it's all over, and the smallpipes lead us into the beautiful finale.
It's music that makes me want to hear it all again immediately.
That's all I can say. It's not much like my usual reviews but I don't really know how to write about classical music.
After the show Jon sat out and signed CDs for what seemed like an hour. He didn't just sign and move on — for every person, he shook their hand and found something to say to them.
A real gentleman.
Thank you.