There’s something very special about attending an orchestral concert where the players all appear to be loving every moment. Such was the feeling at the London Symphony Orchestra’s delightful Christmas Swing concert at Barbican Hall this week, which was a fitting finale to its 2024 season.
The program offered a joyful celebration of festive music that spanned traditional classical pieces, modern jazz and sentimental show tunes all played by the LSO in fine form alongside a couple of stellar soloists.
First up was a colourful and playful interpretation of George Gershwin’s wonderful overture from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. Featuring refrains from many well-known show tunes, including most obviously ‘I Got Rhythm’, this is classic Gershwin and it was a delight to see and hear. It literally opens with a bang and closes with crashing cymbals.
A less familiar work, the Piano Concerto No 4 by Nikolai Kapustin, came next and the LSO was joined on stage by the talented young German pianist Frank Dupree and drum master Obi Jenne. Kapustin’s music is an explosive fusion of jazz and classical, a genre known musically as ‘third stream’. Dupree is fast becoming a Kapustin maestro having recorded his Concertos to great acclaim.
He says this work is ‘fiendish’ for both soloist and orchestra, and it was clear to see as they rose to the many challenges of the rapid-fire score. Written as a single-movement concerto that goes for more than 20 minutes, there is no respite for the players or the conductor. No surprise then that Sir Antonio Pappano looked like he’d just done a workout and more than a few players were wiping their brows at the end. But, more than anything, they all looked thrilled with the performance and the enthusiastic audience showed their appreciation.
After some regrouping, it was into the decadent Prelude, Fugue and Riffs by Leonard Bernstein. Full of passages that are oh-so-clever, this features superb moments for the piano and drums and wonderful clarinet, with solos by the LSO’s own Principal Clarinet Sérgio Pires. This was a muscular and athletic performance that really demonstrated Bernstein’s flair as a composer.
The rest of the program was more organically festive, featuring a jazz arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite contrasted with a traditional rendition of four selections from the ballet. The jazz Nutcracker, by the legendary Duke Ellington with Billy Strayhorn and Jeff Tyzik, was still recognisably Tchaikovsky, but as if he’d been led down a dark alley to one of the great jazz clubs of the 1950s.
Pappano then reminded us that the LSO is a serious orchestra with the more usual playing of this Christmas classic. The four pieces highlighted the changing moods of The Nutcracker and gave the audience (and players) a moment to catch their breath.
Read: Ballet review: Nutcracker, London Coliseum
The concert ended with Sleigh Ride, a perfect Christmas song that premiered in 1948 and has since featured in over 160 movies. Composer Leroy Anderson had lived in Iceland during the war and wrote this as an evocation of winter climes and snowy scenes. It made a fun-filled finale to a delightful concert that showcased the musical magic that can happen when jazz meets classical. Christmas Swing was the perfect way to close out a successful year for the LSO and its Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.
Program
George Gershwin: Overture to Girl Crazy
Nikolai Kapustin: Piano Concerto No 4
Leonard Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn, arr Jeff Tyzik: The Nutcracker Suite
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Selections from The Nutcracker
Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano: conductor
Frank Dupree: piano
Sérgio Pires: clarinet
Obi Jenne: drum kit
Christmas Swing ran for two performances, 18-19 December at Barbican Hall. The concert was recorded for future broadcast by Marquee TV and Mezzo.
