Sibelius
and Tchaikovsky:
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt (cond), Oslo
Concert Hall, Oslo, Norway,23.9. 2005 (GF)
Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 in D minor,
Op. 104
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor,
op 74 (Pathétique)
A concert with Herbert Blomstedt is always an event and
expectations were high when he returned to the Oslo Philharmonic
for two concerts. Last time he visited the orchestra, whose
principal conductor he was from 1962 – 1968, was in 2002. Then
he conducted Mozart and Richard Strauss, this time he had chosen
Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.
As a Sibelius interpreter he is a well-known quantity
and he didn’t disappoint. The sixth symphony is probably the
least often played but as performed here it could claim to be
the finest of them all. From the glittering strings at the very
beginning, so beautifully homogenous in sound, to the magic
end of the symphony Blomstedt unfolded page after page so translucently,
exposing all the felicities of Sibelius’ masterly instrumentation
– masterly in a very restrained way. Not for him the glaring
colours of a Richard Strauss, but rather as the programme annotator
put it: “It has been said that where others would have offered
a cocktail of several nuances, Sibelius offers clear spring
water.”
The Oslo Philharmonic, today in the first flight among
the world’s great ensembles, served Blomstedt and Sibelius admirably.
I’ve already mentioned the strings, positioned with the violins
divided, the cellos in the centre and the double basses to the
far left, but the woodwind, so important in this symphony, were
ideally balanced and the open and very clean acoustics allowed
every little nuance to be heard. This symphony, although nominally
in D minor, is still a light and airy work and rarely do we
find Sibelius in a more jolly mood than when he dances like
a Fred Astaire in the second movement, something that Blomstedt
also brought out.
Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” is of course anything but
jolly, although the second movement, marked Allegro
con grazia nods to his balletic output with its limping
but elegant pulse of 5/4. Blomstedt, always the objective interpreter,
skilfully avoided the obvious pitfalls: over-sentimentalizing
the elegiac side of the symphony, i.e. the outer movements,
or over-heating the bombasms. He steered a middle course, resulting
in an ideally balanced reading, noble and, as in the Sibelius,
sculpturing the ebb and flow of the music, making it very much
alive. And he didn’t underplay the dramatic outbursts, where
the Oslo brass section had a field day. The third movement was
impressive indeed, but where audiences more often than not burst
out in applause after it, the Oslo public was disciplined and
saved their strength until after the deeply felt finale. Interestingly,
this was a rare occasion when both symphonies ended softly.
The response after the final chord was overwhelming,
there were standing ovations and after several calls Blomstedt,
the humble servant of music, finally stepped down from the podium,
joining the audience in their applause of the orchestra.
This evening was a musical meeting on the highest possible
level, further enhanced by the extremely mild late-summer winds
that met the visitor when leaving the concert hall, this day
when Oslo and Norway celebrated the 100th anniversary
of the definitive breaking up of the union with Sweden. The
hostile feelings then were wonderfully compensated in the concert
hall by the happy cooperation between the Norwegian orchestra
and the Swedish conductor.
Göran Forsling
