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A symphony in harmony
Coming soon: a scene from the 2011 Tokyo production of Davd Bintley's The Prince of the Pagodas which opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on Bebruary 25. An Evening of Music and Dance Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Birmingham Royal Ballet Symphony Hall ***** BIRMINGHAM is lucky to be blessed with
not just one world class symphony orchestra but two – a claim few cities
in the world can make. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia might be heard playing
their important part but they are usually only seen merely a sort
of ethereal glow with an odd glint of baton emanating from some
mysterious underworld beneath the Hippodrome stage when Birmingham Royal
Ballet perform. Just occasionally though, after a short period to
allow their eyes to adjust to the bright world above ground, the
musicians are brought out into the daylight to show what a fine
orchestra they are in their own right. Under principal conductor Paul Murphy they took
us though Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 5, the beautiful
Clair de lune from Debussy and an interesting Waltz from Jazz
Suite No 2 from Shostakovich. The second half brought us the Oxford Street
march from the prolific Eric Coates, Marietta’s Lied by Erich
Korngold, with a violin solo from leader Robert Gibbs, and Le
Carnaval Romain from Berlioz. All played to perfection. The musical highlight though was a wonderful
performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue from 1924, a piece
which fused jazz and classical music and perhaps for the first time put
serious American music on the map. Company pianist Jonathan Higgins gave a virtuoso
performance with the complex piano solos but not only was there an
exciting musical performance but also a world premier of a ballet
choreographed by BRB dancer Ruth Brill – her first for a public
audience. Ten dancers led by William Bracewell and Samara
Downs, the men all in black and the five women in black and blue tutus,
had the task of interpreting one of the best known orchestral pieces in
the world and did it with aplomb.
This is not an easy piece to either play or set
to dance. It has different rhythms, from ragtime and notated improvised
piano solos to sweeping orchestral sections and is a collection of
pieces which all relate to each other yet don’t depend upon each other. Thus the earliest recording from 1924, just after
its premiere, with Gershwin on piano, last just under nine minutes – the
maximum length for a two sided Victor disc. The full version, played at
Symphony Hall, can run to more than 18 minutes, more than twice as long.
Yet both work from the opening with that instantly recognisable trill
and glissando on clarinet, played at Symphony Hall by Ian Scott, to the
full crashing orchestral crescendo. Ballet pieces are written for dance and thus the
music, beautiful as it may be, provides a canvas to be painted by the
dancers, Rhapsody is already a fully fledged masterpiece which means
dance can never compete only complement which is something Brill managed
to achieve with some skill. She wanted to emphasise that this was an evening
of music and dance so there are sections when the dancers pause and
acknowledge the music as the orchestra play on and other parts where ten
dancers flow with the complex blues rhythms created by Gershwin, or
create individual patterns to match the syncopated music. The result was a well constructed and pleasing
whole with dance and music fusing together and showing considerable
promise for Brill the choreographer. Other ballet pieces included James Barton, Aranch
Baselga and Fergus Campbell in a pas de trois from Les
Rendezvous by Daniel Auber, choreographed by Frederick Ashton and
Tyrone Singleton and Elisha Willis in a touching pas de deux from
David Bintley’s Beauty and the Beast with Carmen Flores on viola. The second half brought us Joseph Caley and
Momoko Hirata in a beautiful pas de deux from Birmingham
Royal Ballet’s next production, a British premiere of Benjamin Britten’s
The Prince of the Pagodas choreographed by David Bintley. We saw a glimpse of the future with 46 students
from the Elmshurst School for Dance shining in selections from Scenes
de Ballet by Alexander Glazunov.
Finally favourites Chi Cao and Nao Sakuma gave us
the Diana and Acteon pas de deux from Riccardo Drigo. When both
are smiling and dancing well they truly are a pleasure to watch and
rounded off a glittering evening of both music and dance. Roger Clarke The Prince of the Pagoda’s opens at Birmingham
Hippodrome on February 25 and runs to March 1
***** NORMALLY the musicians
are out of sight of the majority of the audience at performances by the
Birmingham Royal Ballet, but not this time. Instead of being hidden away
in the orchestra pit, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia appeared on stage for an
annual opportunity to show their faces and their paces, and what an
impact they made, just behind the dancers. Under the guidance of
principal conductor Paul Murphy, they opened the concert with Elgar’s
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5, impressed with Debussy’s Clair de
lune and excelled in Waltz from Jazz suite No. 2 by Shostakovich. A superb solo violin
performance, too, from the leader, Robert Gibbs, in Korngold’s
Marietta’s Lied, from Die tote Stadt. Not forgetting, of course, the
part played by the BRB, who whet the appetite with a beautifully danced
pas de trios from Les Rendezvous, featuring James Barton, Arancha
Baselga and Fergus Campbell. A touching piece, too, from
Beauty and the Beast, danced by Tyrone Singleton and Elisha Willis, and
while you wouldn’t automatically connect Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
with ballet, ten dancers thrilled the audience with choreographer Ruth
Brill’s interpretation, pianist Jonathan Higgins providing a glorious
solo. A glimpse of the future was
provided by the outstanding youngsters of Elmhurst School of Dance
before a stunning finale with the BRB’s stars of today, Chi Cao and Nao
Sakuma in the Diana and Acteon pas de deux. Completing a superb evening,
glamorous former principal ballerina Deborah Bull linked the programme
together as a stylish compere. Paul Marston
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