Huw Watkins (b. 1976)
Fanfare for the Hallé (2020)
Symphony No. 2 (2021)
Concerto for Orchestra (2025)
The Hallé/Sir Mark Elder
rec. 2020-2025, Manchester, UK
Hallé CDHLL7569 [69]
Although he is not yet fifty, the pianist and composer Huw Watkins has been a major part of the British music scene for half his life. It is easy to see why with these three stunning works performed by the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder with whom the composer has a developed a particular rapport. All three works grew out of the dark days of the Covid Pandemic and its associated lockdowns. All three convey a feeling of defiant optimism. For Watkins even in the darkness he could see the light.
The Fanfare for the Hallé was commissioned to celebrate the players return to the concert platform, though without audience, following the first Covid lockdown. Scored for eleven brass instruments it moves from a questioning beginning to a brilliant defiant conclusion. The Hallé brass are superb in their unified approach to the sound they produce. Every nuance is perfectly balanced, and I do wonder if Sir Mark’s experience in the opera house anything had to do with the excellent balancing of this brass choir.
The Symphony No.2 was commissioned by the Hallé and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and it was the Hallé who gave the first performance, under socially distanced conditions. This is that premiere recorded on 24th March 2021 and broadcast on the BBC on April 15th. The composer said of the work, “I hope that this new symphony will challenge and entertain both them and their discerning audiences.” I do not think there are any challenges to the work, but there is much to admire. It is written in an immediately welcoming tonal/modal style with echoes of the technical brilliance of Britten and the virtuosic ebullience of Tippett. While I did not come away humming any big tunes the melodic fragments and gestures which make up the work are tremendously engaging.
It is in three movements, the outer two brilliant and virtuosic, while the long, central, slow movement gives plenty time for reflection. The first movement is incredibly economical with its material; the opening overlapping flute figure over sustained strings provides the material throughout. Watkins is ingenious in his transformations of this material and in his careful use of orchestral combinations. There is no padding and, in its structure, it is quite thrilling.
The slow movement in its elegiac optimism reminded me in part of Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Initial slow, sustained chords in the strings provide a base for the wind to dance. Watkins demonstrates his extraordinary talent for drawing together disparate material with sustained chords balanced against rapid flourishes. Glittering percussion colours the material and there is an overall feeling of expectation. It builds to a tremendous climax with bells prominent before dying away. The final horn solo with its octave leap and the strings coloured by crotales and glockenspiel is truly magical.
The finale seems to pick up and run with the overlapping figure from the first movement now transformed into a welcoming dance. The music builds and builds, with a few unexpected twists, before ending unexpectedly in a blaze of joyous optimism.
The outer movements sound as though they were put together by a master clockmaker, and overall, the work has a wonderful organic quality to it with a real feel of symphonic development. It also sounds extremely difficult, though hugely enjoyable, to play. All of the orchestral groups have moments of real virtuosity that under Sir Mark’s baton coalesce into a tremendously satisfying experience. It is the sort of music that cries out for an audience, and it is a real credit to the performers that this performance was given in an empty Bridgewater Hall.
The virtuosity continues with the last work on the disc Watkins’ Concerto for Orchestra which Sir Mark premiered in his first concert as Conductor Emeritus. The Concerto is cut from the same cloth as the symphony but with the defiance that coloured that work replaced by a sense of fun. There is of course music that brings to the fore different instruments and instrumental groups, but the overall feeling is that it is a work celebrating a great ensemble – and how well they play together. Here the orchestra show what an extraordinary group of players they are and how well they respond to Sir Mark’s conducting. They have a wonderful richness of sound and as one can switch speed or dynamic in a second. They sound happy when one or two of their number are able to break out of this homogeneous texture and shine. This is an orchestra of virtuosi who know the joy of playing together.
This is no clearer than in the second movement which is shaped A B A B A. The A is rich music for divided strings while the first B highlights the woodwind, and the brass get to shine brilliantly in its development in the second B. It is a simple piece of structuring material that works so well.
The concerto is one of those rare life enhancing works. The composer wears his compositional brilliance lightly and the orchestra use their technical virtuosity in service of the music. The celeste and harp get substantial solos in the finale before the work blazes to a rousing close which, as we can hear from the cheers, the audience enjoyed enormously.
I, too, enjoy the works enormously and I hope one day to hear them live. The orchestra under their conductor emeritus is an incredible band. The tightness of ensemble and the responsiveness to dynamic variation is extraordinary – but if I had to choose, it is the brass section which takes the prize. From pp to ff they have such stunning sound in the face of enormous technical challenges.
Paul RW Jackson
Previous review: Gary Higginson
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