Welcome – retrospectively – to the month-long period when the UK benefits from the tail-end of the Proms season and the launch of the domestic orchestral season. Yes, it’s a little crude, but the opportunity for comparison is irresistible.
New York Philharmonic, Thursday 28 August
One of the Proms’ big attractions was the New York Philharmonic, visiting under Music Director Lorin Maazel. On 28 August Maazel began with a new work by Stephen Stucky, which he seemed to tackle at arms length. Rhapsodies for Orchestra is an attractive piece, and its spasmodic moments of grandeur echoed satisfyingly around the Royal Albert Hall. The building also came into its own during Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, in which it seemed to trouble the big apple’s percussionists who lagged despite Maazel’s piercing stare and semaphore beat. But Maazel pulled moments of fascinating nuance from some of Stravinsky’s darker corners. Overall though, Maazel’s orchestra impressed most in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, in which Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s piano was met by a violin sound of extraordinary silky sheen slipperiness rarely heard even from the ensembles who boast that as one of their characteristics. Some of the solo attempts at jazz playing from the brass and woodwind seemed disappointingly…well…un-American.
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Saturday 30 August
A few days later the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, another ensemble of fine reputation, was on the same stage under its Principal Conductor the Finn Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Another new work opened; a moving piece of Mahlerian emotional scope from another Finn, the composer Magnus Lindberg. In fact, Seht die Sonne was the highlight. Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto was delicately introduced by the orchestra and Nicolai Lugansky. It continued delicately, too. And finished delicately. There just didn’t seem anything of differing substance in between. Sibelius’ First Symphony came next, the symphony that perhaps seems more immediately Finnish than any of the other six. Saraste’s pace at the opening was quick, which muddied the intricate scales with which the first movement folds outwards. This was a tight performance; too tight for the Royal Albert Hall – at least from where I was sitting. Saraste is back in London this Wednesday (15 October), where he’ll direct the London Philharmonic in the same Rachmaninov concerto and Sibelius’s Fifth; one suspects he’ll please a little more in that hall.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Friday 12 September
Ah for a fine acoustic! It was to Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall on September 12th for the opening night of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s new season. Vasily Petrenko was joined by local boy and recent Gramophone Record-of-the-Year-winner Paul Lewis for a decent and sensitive Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, preceded by a fascinating piece from the pen of another local musician Kenneth Hesketh - Graven Image - premiered by The Phil at the Proms a few weeks earlier. But the main event came after the interval: a blistering account of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony that seemed charged by an almost supernatural momentum. Petrenko wringed the broad, searing phrases of the first movement for everything. As the nightmarishly vivid second movement motored to a finish, a collective gasp shuddered through the capacity audience. The orchestra kept something in reserve for a devastating finale, with Petrenko releasing the tension with an astonishing combination of discipline and dramatic intuition. The Phil’s woodwind were collectively superb; its strings energised and virtuosic. The brass just about kept up, too. A very special evening.
Philharmonia Orchestra, Tuesday 23 September
Back to London for the opening of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s new season. This was a special ‘gala’ concert as it formed new Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first in post, despite his 25-year relationship with the orchestra and a spell as Principal Guest Conductor. The programme had Salonen written all over it – except, perhaps, for the lack of a new work. Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin snarled wonderfully. Then came Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto (soloist Vadim Repin) and, after the break, Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. Both are superlatively tough pieces to play, and both were tight, perfectly balanced and pleasingly luminous. Very impressive, yes, but also a little dry; if the Philharmonia bosses were expecting fireworks at the Royal Festival Hall, they would have been disappointed. Still, it’s difficult to find tangible reason for celebration when, as important and visionary a talent Salonen is, he’s effectively been with the orchestra for over two decades. The only excitement lies in the change on the orchestra’s letterhead, and the prospect of some interesting repertoire to come. Watch this space.
Andrew Mellor
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