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Durham Concerto
20th October 2007, Durham Cathedral
With both a student Rag parade and a Durham miners’ band both marching onto
Palace Green at the same time, just in front of Durham Cathedral, there was
bound to be trouble. Sure enough the cacophony of noise resulting made the old
stones shake to their very foundations or so it seemed as Jon Lord’s Durham
Concerto conjured up chaotic musical images of just such scenes within that
fine cathedral’s nave last night.
Five years in the writing (although Jon
admitted in his brief introduction that many of the intermediary deadlines
“wooshed” by before much was properly committed to manuscript) Jon’s piece was
premiered as part of celebrations of Durham University’s 175th anniversary.
Arriving earlier in the afternoon for a nose around we were surprised to see
Jon, looking in good shape and form, already there talking to the conductor,
Mischa Damev, and the gathering Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Clustered tightly at the head of the nave between Durham’s exquisite carved
pillars and the chancel screen, the orchestra formed a crescent around Jon’s
hired Hammond placed dead centre directly in front of the conductor’s dais. It
soon became apparent that a rehearsal was imminent so we quickly found places
to stand beside one of the pillars to be treated to pretty much the whole
Concerto hours earlier than we’d expected! A growing number of visitors
stopped their tours to sit down and enjoy the performance. Even such a
stop-start performance couldn’t stop the shivers tingling their way up my
spine: this was magical stuff. I was very struck by Jon’s obvious epathy with,
and enthusiastic encouragement of, the three other soloists: young Ruth Palmer
on violin, Matthew Barley on cello and Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian short
pipes. It must be an odd experience to hand over a composition you have
conceived and nurtured so carefully to a conductor to interpret and shape into
a performance piece, but Jon seemed to behave just as the other soloists and not
at all like the intrusive and over-protective parent one might imagine a
composer being in such a circumstance. Proceedings were brought to an abrupt
halt by an orchestra administrator bang on 4pm. It had been an extraordinary
privilege to able witness this final rehearsal and watch how conductor,
soloists and composer worked together. Also, given the nave’s flat floor, we
knew we would probably have nowhere near as good a view later at the
performance proper.
With light fading we gathered at the back of the cathedral whilst various
invited guests, city and university dignitaries were allowed to take their
places at the head of the nave first, before us paying customers were allowed
to take out seats. Having been so keen to attend that
I’d pestered first the University and then the Tourist Office half to death for
tickets in the lead up, it is perhaps no surprise that I’d managed to secure
tickets numbers 1 and 2. However the tickets themselves made it clear that
there were to be no numbered seats so I was relieved to get places pretty much
in the first row after those taken up by the guests. The University
Vice-Chancellor introduced the event and Jon but not without committing the
crime of telling us Deep Purple had disbanded after Jon’s departure (though I
imagine there are some that wish they had). Jon quickly put that error right
before telling us a little of the inspiration behind this six movements in
three parts (morning, afternoon and evening) piece we were about to hear. This
coupled with further detailed background in the programme meant we had a clear
focus for the pictures in our heads in the next hour or so.
 The first part (“The Cathedral at Dawn” and “Durham Awakes”) begins ever so
gently with birdsong and prayers clearly signalled in the music soon followed
by the jumbled noises of a city coming to life and building to a glorious
sunrise (one of my favourite bits) that reminded me just how loud and powerful
a full orchestra can sound. Anyone expecting to hear raucous Hammond in
antagonistic confrontation with the orchestra as in Jon’s first concerto piece
was in for a disappointment. This piece was very much about Jon the composer,
not Jon the soloist. Indeed at times one almost forgot that the Hammond is not
a normal orchestral instrument, so subtle was Jon’s own contribution as a
player.
The second part (“The Road from Lindisfarne” and “From Prebends Bridge”) is at
times melancholy and moving with some exquisite playing from all three other
soloists recalling both the history of the city’s links with St Cuthbert and
the glorious views around the river bends below the Cathedral built to hold his
shrine.
Part three has the imagined clash between students and miners alluded to
earlier, beginning if memory serves with Jon’s one glorious smear along the
length of the Hammond’s keyboard for the evening. The complex chaotic music
Jon has used to bring these scenes to life must be a huge challenge, and not
without considerable risk involved, for both orchestra and conductor alike
which both pulled off magnificently. Violin soloist Ruth Palmer is a hugely
energetic player with a wonderful playing sound who was really giving it some
welly at times. I couldn’t help noticing Jon had a smile on his lips
throughout most of this movement, it’s full of fun, competition and excitement.
Order is restored in the final movement with echoes of some of the themes that
had appeared earlier and the conductor leaping about furiously as everyone
comes together in powerful unison as night finally returns.
The whole audience were quickly on their feet clapping furiously at the end. I
wonder how many of the invited guests in particular came with slightly
jaundiced preconceptions of what a rock musician’s composition might turn out
to be like? I bet there were more than one or two with hugely changed opinions
by the end. Jon’s composition is a complex and accomplished piece of work
that, for me at least, more than adequately conveys the images he set out to
portray. It was a tremendous evening that more than lived up to my
expectations.
We noticed plenty of microphones set up and even a few small video cameras
around. We gathered that the audio recording might even be aired by Classic FM
radio in the UK sometime in the future: we’ll see.
I never thought I’d find myself saying something like this but I’m so pleased
Jon had the courage to step away from the almost permanent touring monster that
Deep-Purple had become by ’02 and give himself the space to let his composing
talents have wider reign. This piece more than justifies his having taken that
risk. Jon has extraordinary talent far beyond that of being simply an
exceptional rock organist and we’d have missed out on so much if he had simply
stayed playing the old classics night after night. I’m now look forward to
hearing the studio recording of this concerto, laid down in July I think, when
it is eventually released. Now if only we could get him to tour over here with
his Gemini band...
review: Peter L. Judd.
This is certainly Jon's most overtly classical work to date (at least
that we've heard in the UK), with only the slightly unconventional
but understandable inclusion of Northumbrian pipes and the Hammond
organ to what would otherwise be the regular (and on this showing
very top notch) Liverpool Philharmonic. The evening was introduced by
Jon Lord himself who described the thinking behind the new piece.
The Durham Concerto is in six movements, each inspired by an aspect
of the town and the countryside around. Some were mood pieces, very
emotional indeed at times, while at other points Jon allowed himself
to stray a little outside what might be expected in a classical
piece, particularly in the Rags And Galas movement, which brought
together elements of student life and the County Durham mining
heritage. There was no applause until the very end (unlike the
rehearsals which had elicited spontaneous applause at one point) when
the audience rose to give the soloists, conductor and the Orchestra a
well deserved standing ovation.
It was a real experience to see a classical piece like this coming
together. Lord's Hammond was placed centrally, with the soloists to
the front and the strings at his sides, with the rest of the
orchestra fanning out behind. All this was squeezed into the crossing
underneath the central tower. It's not an ideal place for an
orchestra, but it's not hard to see why they would want to hold the
premier here. Such had been the demand for tickets that the
organisers had set up another 150 seats in the side aisles to try and
cater for this.
The soloists were excellent. I'm reliably told that there is no
better player of the Northumbrian pipes than Kathryn Tickell, and I
can believe it. Lord's own work fitted into the overall sound so well
that you couldn't always be sure when he was playing or not. At other
times he would suddenly emerge from the sound in dramatic fashion and
bring a flash of drama to the moment.
The performance was being recorded by Classic FM for airing soon, if
anyone finds out when do drop us an email. There were special
programmes. These were not for sale, but given to each ticket holder
on arriving at their seat.
review: Simon Robinson . See also a gallery of photos from Durham.
photos : Durham University |
