Intriguing Walker, Rushed Beethoven by the Chineke! Orchestra

Pace and Precision by Kevin John Edusei
Photo credit: BBC

Urban myth holds that the reason why the CD can play 74 minutes of music is in order for it to hold the full length of Wilhelm Furtwängler's legendary 1951 Bayreuth recording of Beethoven's 9th: 74 glorious minutes. Had Kevin John Edusei been around in the 1980s, perhaps we could have shaved a whole centimetre off the 12cm disc with this performance that came in at a sprightly 61 minutes, even with the second movement repeat, indeed possibly dipping beneath the hour by sparing the pauses between movements. The Chineke! did not hang about.

Unfortunately, it was often this speed which seemed to cause issues in the performance. Despite the best efforts of timpanist Jauvon Gilliam, whose rumbles and cracks were delivered with thunderous vigour above the orchestra, the first movement lacked drama, opting instead for a clear and crystalline directness which produced results that were certainly neat, and, to the credit to the playing of the Chineke!, they were effortlessly so. 

This was Beethoven efficient and rational. These were bywords of the first three movements as Edusei prioritised a driving tempo, often feeling as if there was little room for the orchestra, particularly the woodwind soloists in the third movement Adagio to grow under Edusei's often too inflexible baton. 

However bloodless the first three movements were, any sense of disfigured looseness was blown away by the entry of Ryan Speedo Green's booming bass voice, filling the Hall and energising both audience and orchestra into what could only be described as an inspired finale. Nicht diese Töne indeed! It was here where the vigour and energy that all hoped for erupted.

Freude! 200 singers energise the Ninth
Photo credit: BBC

The Chineke! Voices were on fine form, singing from memory. Being trained well by the eminent Simon Halsey, their diction was precise and fresh, and the ensemble thrilled in how unified they were in the sudden drops of volume and eruptions of freude. 

Here, we finally saw the inspiring message of Beethoven: the empowering nature of an ethnically diverse orchestra speaking his message to many who have been poorly represented in classical music, composers and musicians alike. Indeed, is so much of the work that the Chineke! have done since their founding in 2015 that we have to thank for the recent 'rediscovery' of unjustly neglected black composers, notably including Florence Price, whose Symphony No.1 will finally get its Proms Premiere next week by the Philadelphia Orchestra.* The Chineke! started the evening with George Walker's Lilacs, Celebrating his centenary this year, Walker was similarly unheard at the Proms before the debut of the Chineke! here in 2017. 

The movements of Lilacs are short, and may not make comfortable listening, but Walker distinctly spins a dark web over Whitman's elegiac poem; the lilacs that represent a fresh renewal after the death of Abraham Lincoln are clouded for Walker under jagged strings, with Nicole Cabell's gleaming soprano tone elegant and rich throughout. More Walker please.

* This concert, planned for September 8th, was cancelled following the death of Queen Elizabeth II that evening.