Rule Britannia

Santa Barbara Symphony. At the Arlington Theatre, Saturday,
January 20.

Reviewed by Charles Donelan

The new conductor yielded to the guest conductor for this
concert, and deep, sparkling, and thought-provoking music emanated
from our beloved orchestra under the baton of visiting English
maestro Grant Llewellyn. The opener was by British composer Robin
Holloway, who flew in just to catch the performance. His Scenes
from Schumann, Seven Paraphrases for Orchestra, Op. 13 puts a
stringent, at times stony modernism in the service of seven
beautiful Romantic songs, in the process turning 19th century music
quite on its head.

The evening’s soloist, cellist Daniel
Mueller-Schott, then came on to restore Robert Schumann firmly to
his own time and place with the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in
A Minor, Op. 129. Mueller-Schott’s sinuous lines and swaying torso
cast a spell over the musicians around him as the true hidden
spirit of this work, one of Schumann’s greatest and most
characteristic masterpieces, was revealed.

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 in E-flat Major, which followed
the interval, is known as the “Drumroll” because of a prominent
solo for the tympani that shows up early in the opening movement.
Written while Haydn was in England during the uneasy year of 1794,
the “Drumroll” was perfect for demonstrating why Grant Llewellyn is
considered among the world’s greatest exponents of Haydn’s
symphonic art. Each of the intricate movements was played with such
precision and apparent effortlessness that one could imagine even
Haydn’s contemporary Mozart being impressed.

Like Haydn’s celebrated Mass for the End of War of 1795, which
was written just months later and is also known for its use of the
tympani, Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 is a glorious late-Enlightenment
act of protest against the militarism of the Napoleonic era and the
mindless bloodshed of post-Revolutionary Terror. What the world
needed then, as it does now, is something that music helps us
imagine — peace and harmony throughout creation.

The evening’s encore was a pleasant surprise. The actor Sir
Anthony Hopkins, who has already distinguished himself in multiple
media, has taken up composition, and the orchestra played a short
excerpt from his most recent film score. Calling for two classical
guitars, the piece held up under the happy scrutiny of a
well-satisfied symphony audience.