By Ivan Hewett 526PM GMT twenty-two Mar 2010
THE BBC Symphony Orchestras arch transmitter Jirí Belohlávek is a man with a mission. He is assured that his compatriot, the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, is a vital symphonist of the 20th century, and is conducting all 6 of his symphonies this season.
Most moving exemplary events of 2008 BBC Symphony Orchestra Missa solemnis Beyond the Wall at the Barbican, examination Julietta at the Barbican, examination Classical song Top five events of 2009Last Friday night, he reached the Fifth, stoical - similar to the prior 4 -in a detonate of impulse during Martinus wartime outcast in the US.
Like Stravinskys Symphony in Three Movements, a some-more obvious wartime harmony by a European migr, the anxieties of the time show by in the nervous steady rhythms.
The disproportion is that Stravinsky regularly knew just how prolonged he could repeat one of those rat-a-tat-tat total prior to the tragedy starts to sag.
Martinu, alas, did not but the tough to hold that opposite him, as the simply a pointer of his easily guileless nature.
When he hits on an idea, his healthy bent is to urge it on to a fulsome climax. This can be an endearing trait, but additionally an irritating one, and the a reverence to Belohláveks eager but supportive opening that majority of the time it seemed similar to the former.
Brahmss German Requiem, that followed the symphony, is obviously a masterpiece, but in alternative ways it is deeply puzzling 19th-century unison requiems routinely elicit the terrors of the Last Judgment and afterwards a consoling prophesy of the hereafter, but this
one doesnt utterly do either.
Belohláveks opening referred to that underneath Brahmss sincere Christian summary is another; that the assent of the penance is unequivocally usually a embellishment for the assent of the grave, and that one should essay to live a great hold up and recollect ones mortality, with no thought of celestial reward.
That feeling emanated from the executive "All Flesh is Grass" movement, that far from sounding grimly minatory - as it mostly does - simply had the immense, ease earnest of destined fact. Not all about the opening was similarly successful. "How pleasant are thy tabernacles" felt a small hulking even Brahms could have his carefree moments.
Ana María Martínezs sensuously tawny voice was pleasing in itself, but seemed somewhat out of place, as if a remarkable sniff of Massenets Thais had invaded Brahmss sanctuary.
But baritone Benedict Nelson - station in for Markus Eiche - struck the right, critical note. In all, the opening had a ease spaciousness, that went right to the musics obscure heart.
Listen to this unison online until Mar twenty-six at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
