BBC Symphony Orchestra/Storgards (Barbican, London, 3/4/09)

The highlight of this concert was the London premiere of Jukka Tiensuu's second clarinet concerto,  'Missa', performed by its dedicatee Kari Kriikku. This is a neurotic work, treating the soloist not as heroic protagonist but rather as a character trapped in an enclosed space - conversing on intimate terms with the orchestra, and often trying to take flight but struggling to summon the energy. The seven movements are named after sections of the Latin Mass but the music didn't feel devotional. There was some fabulous orchestration, with startlingly realistic echo-effects, while Kriikku's use of 'extended techniques' - multiphonics etc - was quite masterful.

The concert had opened with another London premiere - Tiensuu's Finnish compatriot Magnus Lindberg's 'Ottoni', utilising just the brass of the BBCSO. This extended fanfare wasn't executed brilliantly - stretching some of the players' stamina rather early in the concert. The piece itself didn't seem to offer much of substance on a first listen - a rather loose and sometimes vulgar collection of gestures, some of which were quite recognisable from other Lindberg works (notably his own clarinet concerto). This was followed by a rather lacklustre performance of Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. The orchestra was on much better form in the second half, however, with the Tiensuu followed by a rollicking account of Walton's Partita for Orchestra (bringing the full orchestra on stage for the first time all evening).