Bournemouth SO/Karabits overview – Ukraine’s musical previous takes centre stage | Classical music

Born in 1876 in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine, Feodor Akimenko is greatest remembered as the primary concord and composition trainer of the teenage Igor Stravinsky. Akimenko himself had been one among Rimsky-Korsakov’s favorite pupils, and within the first many years of the twentieth century he labored as a composer, pianist and choral conductor in a number of international locations throughout Europe earlier than lastly settling in France, the place he died in 1945. After his demise, his archives discovered their manner into the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and it was there that Kirill Karabits unearthed the total rating of a Cello Concerto that Akimenko had composed in 1922, however which for unknown causes had by no means been carried out.

Karabits had meant to conduct the work’s first efficiency in Kharkiv earlier this 12 months, however the Russian invasion put paid to that, and so it turned the centrepiece of the live performance with which he opened the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s new season. Victor Julien-Laferrière was the soloist, and two violinists from the orchestra that had been scheduled to provide the Kharkiv premiere joined the BSO for the live performance.

At little over 1 / 4 of an hour, the three-movement concerto is a modest piece. Its musical language is late Romantic, maybe owing extra to Tchaikovsky than to another composer, and for essentially the most half the solo cello is lyrical somewhat than showy, with the central Andante its expressive centre of gravity. Within the Lighthouse’s dry acoustic, steadiness was typically problematic, with the cello line frequently submerged by the orchestra, although whether or not by reticence on Julien-Laferrière’s half or miscalculations within the scoring was arduous to evaluate.

Karabits had begun the live performance with early Stravinsky, the Scherzo Fantastique, veering between a Russian model of a Mendelssohnian scherzo and anticipations of the magical world of The Firebird composed simply three years later, and he accomplished it with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Each of their very alternative ways had been excellent performances, the Stravinsky fleet and clear, the symphony steered faultlessly by Karabits and that includes some excellent solo contributions, particularly from the orchestra’s principal horn, Alexander Wide. Above all although, they underlined what a fantastic ensemble the BSO is these days.