MORE STRAVINSKY

In the second of the run of Three Stravinskys, David Robertson and the SSO did it again.

The programming was excellent, again:

Sculthorpe's short 10 minute 'Sun Music I' (1965 and a SSO commission to impress the poms) made great sense, or rather David Robertson made great sense of it. He gets this stuff. Beating a wide brown land into submission and respect indeed, but I'm sure I heard some melting bitumen in there. I hope we get more Sculthorpe. There's surely room for some major visuals to run alongside his music.

Then Syzmanowski's first Voilin Concerto with the brilliantly emotive Christian Tetzlaff, and finally The Firebird, three years The Rite of Spring's junior. The audience was especially appreciative, more so than with The Rite, which I actually enjoyed more and that's not a reflection on anything but the works themselves, and I'm mad about Firebird.

With only one evening performance, I'm sad I can't get to Petruska which David Robertson (in the Andrew Ford interview I think) noted was what he considered the truly forward looking composition.