The source of Philip Grange's Eclipsing, given its world premiere by the BBC Philharmonic under Vassily Sinaisky, is the familiar tale of Jekyll and Hyde. Grange has apparently wanted to write a piece based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel for nearly 10 years. Anyone expecting a musical exercise in the horrific, however, is in for a surprise, as Eclipsing is a beautiful, troubling work that examines both the unresolved polarities of the human psyche and the vast possibilities of sonorities within a large orchestra.
Two musical worlds, linked yet sounding poles apart, are brought together in reflective juxtaposition. Eerie string chords, a rearing brass chorale and an all-important, meditative flugelhorn solo conjure up an atmosphere of unstable calm, which is threatened by a propulsive toccata, dominated by the shrill arrogance of three trumpets. The flugelhorn continues to assert its integrity in the face of wearing opposition, and the music eventually reverts to the uneasy stasis from which it emerged. Virtuosically written and beautifully performed, it demands repeated hearings.
The opening of Eclipsing carries overtones of Mahler's First Symphony, with which Sinaisky paired it in a brilliant performance - less introverted than most - that was also exceptionally strong in conveying the work's structural logic. Mahler's revolutionary soundscapes gleamed with new, expressive life, though Sinaisky also anchored the work in the dominant symphonic tradition of Beethoven and Brahms rather than in late Romantic self-absorption. Controversially, he allowed all the double basses to play the Frère Jacques theme of the funeral march rather than allotting it to the section leader - a practice sanctioned by Mahler himself, though the results replace grotesque irony with relentless insistence.
The two works were separated by Mozart's Piano Concerto No 15 in B flat, K450. Pierre-Laurent Aimard was the soloist, playing with infinite grace and profundity, particularly in the dark meditations of the slow movement, which ranks among the most moving passages in Mozart's oeuvre.
