BBC Philharmonic: Simon Holt | Mahler at The Bridgewater Hall
Will Fulford-Jones
The BBC Philharmonic’s commitment to new music doesn’t just extend to the pieces it commissions from composers such as Mark Simpson and premieres at The Bridgewater Hall. The orchestra also makes a point of performing many other singular contemporary works as part of its regular season – and tonight is a case in point. Inspired by the composer’s Bolton childhood but evoking other worlds entirely, a table of noises was written in 2007 by Simon Holt for the dynamic Scottish percussionist Colin Currie, himself a tireless advocate for and performer of new music. Written in six movements interspersed with five orchestral interludes that Holt calls ‘ghosts’, it’s a thrilling, elemental explosion of sound – contemporary music at its most fresh and energetic. On the face of it, a table of noises has little in common with Mahler’s mesmerising Seventh Symphony, the mighty ‘Song of the Night’, but perhaps conductor John Storgårds will manage to find some connections between the two works on this unusual and intriguing programme.
John Storgårds – Conductor
Colin Currie – Percussion
