The Sinfonia of London and its conductor John Wilson seem to have something for everyone. The right wing loves them because they have no public funding. The left wing loves them because Wilson (who is 52) was a state school kid from Gateshead and did not go to Oxbridge, unlike many other British conductors.
But you don’t need any political outlook in order to be bowled over by their music-making. This orchestra of virtuosi plays with the lifeblood sound of a bygone era, burning up with vibrancy and pride. On tour with star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, they reached the Barbican last night and proved again that they are, quite simply, bloody fantastic.
At the centre was Kanneh-Mason’s performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 2. Written for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1966, this work is full of wisdom, wit and longing, as well as Shostakovich’s propensity for knife-edge sardonicism. The orchestra snapped and crackled through the klezmer-ish section, based on an Odessan song about bagels, and Kanneh-Mason unfurled the first movement’s long-spun cantilenas as if he were the composer himself, thinking aloud. He’s blessed with a rounded, consistent tone that speaks as well as sings; in the concerto, and in his encore, a solo Prelude by Shostakovich’s friend Mieczyslaw Weinberg, every phrase is urgent, sincere and faithful to the music.
Sergei Rachmaninov, poor chap, had to watch the 1897 premiere of his Symphony No 1 be ruined by a poor, or possibly drunk, conductor. Into this ambitious creation the composer had packed a veritable mission statement: Tchaikovskian-style melodies, a bristling fugato, the “Dies Irae” plainchant theme, a twilit scherzo, luminous larghetto and a rip-roaring finale in which the percussionists appear to have the best job in the world.
At last, Wilson is helping to restore the work to its rightful status. He’s a joy to watch, intensely focused and organised, paying simultaneous attention to narrative shape and minute detail, while never relinquishing the sense of relish. When the woodwind carry the main theme in the larghetto, he works with the violins’ countermelody, finessing musical asides into responses full of laughter and tears. If the volume needs to drop, he might knee-bend almost to the ground. And throughout, there’s seamless teamwork with the orchestra.
The programme opened with Kenneth Hesketh’s PatterSongs, a brilliant, pointillist contemporary showpiece shot through with grungy jazz riffs, derived from his Gogol-based opera The Overcoat; Wilson moulded it into a compelling short story.
The SoL, incidentally, is not a full-time concern – it’s Wilson’s “hand-picked” orchestra, convened for recording projects, a star-turn Prom and tours like this one. As such, it’s not really comparable with other UK orchestras. That is probably just as well – for the other orchestras. Catch them anywhere and any time you can.
The Sinfonia of London tour continues at Glasshouse, Gateshead, on 18 October, and Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, on 19 October