The Guardian, Rian Evans
Four Stars
The appeal of Greek mythology for such composers as Harrison Birtwistle and Simon Holt is apparently endless, and the centaur – half-man, half-horse – is the inspiration for Holt’s latest piece for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Further inspired by two of the orchestra’s star players, the clarinettist Robert Plane and the trumpeter Philippe Schartz, Holt has conceived Centauromachy as a double concerto, reflecting the dual nature of the centaur with all its ambiguities and sense of liminal being.
Holt’s masterstroke is to have Schartz play the flugelhorn, which has a more silky sound than the trumpet but is almost identical in range to the clarinet. There are moments when each instrument’s timbre seems to linger on the threshold of the other; together they blend into an altogether different sound quality, and yet can also contrast brilliantly. The magical and otherworldly effect befits the mythical creature.
… The soloists’ interplay with the orchestra is characteristically intricate…
“Plane and Schartz realised the virtuosity effortlessly, allowing the work’s core expressiveness and the feeling of an ultimately tortured superbeing to vividly emerge.”
…
The Concert:
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
November 2010
Albert Roussel Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No 2
Simon Holt Centauromachy
Sibelius Symphony No. 2, op. 43
