The London Symphony Orchestra's By George! series consists of George Benjamin's choice of his own music placed alongside that of composers he admires or considers influential. This third concert sandwiched his own Antara between Stravinsky's Chant du Rossignol and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. All three works absorb elements from outside European tradition, which in some respects also predate it.
Chant du Rossignol and Das Lied von der Erde take ancient China as their starting points. Stravinsky examines the rituals and glamour of a vanished empire, while Mahler explores Oriental philosophies of transience, change and renewal. Benjamin, however, inspired by South American street musicians, looks to ancient Peru. Antara is the Inca word for pan pipes, among the oldest instruments still used. Benjamin's aim is to drag the pan pipe forward in time and, by using computers to filter, amplify and extend its range, make it part of the vocabulary of contemporary music. His pipes are brought into conflict with three groups of instruments; a pair of modern flutes, with whose sonorities they overlap; a string octet; and brass and percussion, which draw them into an irresolute sonic battle.
It is a work in which sonority is all-important, and the conductor, on this occasion, was Kent Nagano, who tends to be good at sonority, but, unfortunately, at little else. The playing ranged from the exquisite to the extravagant, but the piece dragged in some places where it should have been invigorating.
Comparable problems beset Nagano's Stravinsky and his Mahler. Chant du Rossignol came over as a sequence of gorgeous special effects that rarely connected to form a whole. Das Lied von der Erde, meanwhile, albeit better shaped, was over-serene in heightened moments of tragedy, and the singers were left to carry the work's emotional force.
The mezzo was Anne-Sofie von Otter, whose interpretation, always impressive, has deepened with time, allowing flashes of humour and eroticism before her voice darkens with solemn gravity towards the end of the work. Set against her was Robert Gambill, who negotiated the careering tenor line with ease, heft and a nice touch of sardonic irony.
