'Double Concerto' reviews Double Concerto Notes Hampson Diaries recent ENB reviews

It strikes me that the achievement is two-fold - it's a great ballet being the chief one of course, but the other achievement is that this view is shared by so very many, and I thought it would be nice to capture this in one place by quoting what all the major critics have said about it. To say it has had rave reviews seems to do it an injustice. Hampson has at last registered and 'arrived'.

Having followed Chris for these last 4 years, on this site in his diary and as a mate, I have to say I'm desperately proud. Or rather, like his mum, Proud and Loud! But it's Chris who has done it, worked steadily towards it - nearly 20 pieces produced in the last 4 years - and it's our pleasure to see him progress in a world where money for new work is so thin on the ground.

The things that struck me about Double Concerto this time were the quieter moments and his work for the corps. Theres' a marvellous section when the girls just wash over a darkened stage like waves on a moonlight seashore - it's such arresting natural movement. Then they go on to become shady Act 2 Bayaderes (for those that know their 19th Century classics). The grand work for the corps reminded me of what a great job he also did in Esquisses, his summer piece for the ENB School and which I really loved for its free play on 19th century traditions. There is talk of Double Concerto being further toured next season, which must surely come about, but I also hope Esquisses is not lost and pops up on a company somewhere.

Enough of my rambling. What follows, in no particular order, is a selection of some words from all the electronic reviews of Double Concerto I can find. I include the links to the full reviews as well, but note that papers these days are increasingly hiding their reviews in some archive after a short period of easy free access.

All the reviews, bar one, are pretty clear and fulsome in their praise of the piece. That's incredibly rare of course. On with the selection (and nice one Chris!)

David Dougill
Sunday Times
20/1/2002
"the choreography... is full of variety, exuberance and deft handling of large numbers — a cast of 36, which, for a piece just 24 minutes long, is remarkable. Monica Perego and the new Swedish recruit, Jan-Erik Wikstrom, were the principal pair, each with brilliant solos and sharing the sculptural pas de deux of the slow movement; while Yosvani Ramos and Jesús Pastor, among the soloists, erupted in breathtaking flights. "

"...Not the least rewarding quality of the work is that there is no sense of the corps being used for padding: the ensemble dances are integral and inventive."

Jann Parry
Observer
20/1/2002
The man who put the 'Cor!' in corps

"On Monday night, its stream of fireworks sparked into a dazzling display, was greeted with cheers of relief by an audience that had given up hope of enjoying modern British ballet ever again.

"The ballet's moods follow its music, switching capriciously between witty and serious, jazzy and serene. Although Hampson pours out arpeggios of steps, his talent is for simplicity. He keeps the ballerina (Monica Perego on Monday) stunningly still. The central pas deux is unadorned, its off-balance poses and promenades calm and luminous."

Nadine Meisner
Independent
17/1/2002
Bright spark in a blaze of glory

"...Christopher Hampson's Double Concerto surged forward in a glorious blaze of sound – Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra played exhilaratingly – and dance... Young Hampson's first large-scale ballet deploys its patterns with mature and exciting originality. He makes steps that are not just fluent, but fresh-seeming. In other words, he has Balanchine's gift for surprise, and, despite being situated between two master works, Double Concerto is never overshadowed."

Clement Crisp
Financial Times
17/1/2002
"Christopher Hampson's Double Concerto (he uses Poulenc's adorable two-piano score) is a charmer. In it Hampson declares his talent and demonstrates a welcome command of the academic vocabulary, and a lively sense of how movement can be born from its music. The design is by Gary Harris, a former dancer, who understands how performers can be flattered by costume and set. The stage has an Art Deco look: gleaming metallic lines set off simple, elegant, traditional tutu-and-tights outfits. The dance soars over its music, dips into it, runs as fast as Poulenc's inventions, copies them and reflects upon them, and bubbles with the pleasures that the pianos celebrate. It is a ballet youthful, almost innocent in the flexing of its creative muscles, and irresistible in its enthusiasm for dance itself. Monica Perego and Jan-Erik Wikstrom lead the revels, admirable in skill, with soloists and corps de ballet buoyantly on their heels. It is an pleasure to watch."

Ismene Brown
The Daily Telegraph
22/11/2002
Joining the big boys

"Hampson deploys ENB en masse with the verve of someone who has now joined the big boys of British classical choreography.

"...it is a jetstream of ballerinas in shiny black tutus who shoot out, squired by men in black tights, capped by Daria Klimentova, with her sinuous, pencil-slim limbs, looking ravishing in white.

"For her and her new partner, Jan-Erik Wikstrom, a handsome performer who joins ENB from Sweden, Hampson sculpts fine pas de deux with rich shapes and keen-edged clarity, sometimes poised in stillness, sometimes explosive. A beautiful high lift is suddenly replicated 10 times by the corps de ballet, one man after another running on holding a ballerina high in arabesque overhead. It is a masterful moment, and there are several others."

16/1/202
"This has to be in for a very long life, bursting with youthful verve but also handling a corps de ballet, soloists and a central couple with the fluency of a man who knows his business, and is just crazy about his music - Poulenc's lush, eclectic concerto for two pianos."

"Not only does Hampson create fast steps and thrilling climaxes, but the ballerina has a lovely, still solo, uncovering dreams among the bustle."

Debra Craine
The Times
16/1/2002
"It is a triumph of imagination and energy. Hampson takes a large ensemble and launches it into a dazzling display of classical dance that takes full advantage of the strange spices in Poulenc’s music.

"Lush, fascinating, sultry and elegant, Hampson’s choreography moves seamlessly from spiky, explosive gallops to lingering dream-states. Gary Harris dresses the dancers arrestingly, in black, grey and white, with tight-fitting tutus for the women, while Mark Cooper’s purple haze lighting adds an hallucinogenic glow. The set, made up of silver rods, is breathtakingly beautiful. The cast, led by Monica Perego and Jan-Erik Wikström, did Hampson proud."

Judith Mackrell
Guardian
16/1/2002
"... his pleasure in making steps is infectiously evident in every move, as is his gratitude to the scintillating energy of his Poulenc score. The choreography scatters across the stage with exuberance and ease, taking the dancers with it.

"The two principals, Monica Perego and Jan-Erik Wikstrom, are transformed: the ruthless expertise that can make Perego look a tad hard-nosed in classical roles is here given freedom to glitter and play. Among the corps, too, there are some individually stellar efforts - Hampson's supple, decorative style allows all his dancers to perform like soloists, should they choose"

Luke Jennings
Evening Standard
15/1/2002
(the only review I've come across that seemed less than impressed with Double Concerto: BM)

"Much toil has gone into this work, with wave after wave of dancers breaking over the stage, racing seamlessly through their various enchaînements, and disappearing. There are spectacular touches, too, like 10 black-clad men carrying on 10 black-clad women in high arabesque lifts. After Apollo, however, these slick abstractions look a little inconsequential. They smack of industrial theatre - of the trade show or the top-of-the-range BMW launch."

John Percival
Independent
4/12/2001
"The two best ballets made for English companies this year have both been simply dancing to music. "Simply'', I say, but there is nothing simple about sustaining real interest that way, and it is quite an achievement for Christopher Hampson that his new Double Concerto for English National Ballet rivals the more experienced David Bintley's Seasons for Birmingham Royal Ballet as the balletic highlight of 2001.

"The earlier pieces Hampson made for ENB were, of necessity, on a fairly small scale to suit the company's touring needs, but this time he has really let himself go. The cast comprises two principals, six soloists, a group of half-soloists and an ensemble: at one time I spotted three dozen dancers on stage together.

"And he makes them all dance flat out. Two male soloists, for instance, make one entry after another, hurtling around or across the stage in fast leaps, turns and beats: the effect is quite dazzling."

Stephanie Ferguson
Guardian
22/11/2002
"The dancers stream across the stage like molten mercury: fast, fluid and flashy in shades of gunmetal, anthracite and glossy black, through to dazzling white. Quicksilver seems synonymous with Double Concerto, Christopher Hampson's sensational new work for English National Ballet. It's a glorious kaleidoscope of pure dance: a creative double whammy, visually ravishing, choreographically packed with wit and inventive human architecture.

"... it's an explosion of action, the 38 dancers streaming on and off stage to Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. The movement melds wonderfully with the music, shifting mood and pace in a maelstrom of physicality from languid elegance to high-octane exuberance. An aerial view, one suspects, would put Busby Berkeley to shame. The iridescent costumes are stunning with seven layers of pleated net in each tutu, as if to outdo Come Dancing.

"Hampson camps it up as well, with an obvious pastiche of the Little Swans. He gives us shades of Sleeping Beauty, too, with the chorus line of cavaliers and ballerinas sweeping into arabesques penchées. Klimentova is a joy, poised and elegant, while Wikstrom goes for the macho pyrotechnics with an uncanny look of the young Nureyev. Double Concerto is easily the most enjoyable new work I've seen this year and worthy of being sandwiched between two Balanchine greats. Effervescent and intoxicating, it's the dance equivalent of uncorking a bottle of bubbly."

Some Ballet.co Reviews...

Richard J
"Double Concerto will obviously stay with us - and it will pull in the crowds."

Margaret Lumley
"'You will want to see it again and again… its like Etudes with attitude."

Phil B
"Having heard all these good things about Double Concerto I was pleasantly reassured to find it wasn't garish, but simply full of fun and joy(!: Ed)

Kevin Ng
"It is no mean tribute to Hampson's craftsmanship as a choreographer that his new ballet set to Poulenc's music held its own in the company of those two Balanchine masterpieces."

BM
"It's a corker... This is classical ballet with zip and panache. It's not old and it's not fuddy-duddy."