12th September 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
R. STRAUSS Don Juan
BERNSTEIN Serenade
RAVEL Daphnis and Chloé
James Ehnes (violin)
Sinfonia of London Chorus
Sinfonia of London
John Wilson (conductor)
Sinfonia of London and John Wilson, fascinating group of musicians. It is an orchestra (re-)established in 2018 (i.e. post-Brexit referendum) and is known as the "super orchestra" that consists of principals and leaders from various UK and international orchestras and chamber groups. They have recorded 19 albums for Chandos in 7 years. BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone have piled numerous awards on them. The British press sing endless praises on them. And then no one else cares. Are they just a local hype driven by a massive PR machine? Three works of erotic love tonight - tragedy of love in Strauss' "Don Juan", a discourse on love in Bernstein's "Serenade after Plato's 'Symposium'" and the happily thereafter in Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloé". What's there to love? Without a doubt, the playing was outstanding, the virtuosity was stunning throughout and the orchestral colours enabled by these masterpieces were sensational live. Everyone in the audience was impressed by the performance. But something bugged me. I could not understand all the 5-star reviews and I started to question myself if I was just being obnoxious going against mainstream opinion, until I saw some similar comments on social media. There was something quite superficial and vacuous about it. Beyond the sweeping big tunes, you could hardly tell the difference between the characteristics of the different scenes and characters in the ballet, or "symphonie chorégraphique" as Ravel called it. Why was Dorcon's dance not grotesque and Daphnis' not gracious? And how were they different from the pirates in Part II? Again in the Bernstein, James Ehnes was somewhat academic and the drama was not big enough to distinguish between the subtle joy in "Aristophanes" and the yearning in "Agathon". This is a B-composer of "West Side Story" and "Candide", not Bach, Beethoven or Brahms, and one can milk the big tunes a lot more. If anyone has time to hear any of their recordings, I would love to get a second opinion from someone not associated with the British press, especially American and French audiences. I would also love to hear the orchestra play under a different conductor, and that would be telling.
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