PROM 54:  Barber, Beethoven and Mahler,   Minnesota Orchestra;  Osmo Vänskä, conductor; Llŷr Williams, piano, 24.08.2006  (JW)

 

Barber - First Essay for Orchestra
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor
Mahler - Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor

 

A last minute change of programme was necessitated by illness, with the soprano Dawn Upshaw, unable to appear. This meant that the premiere of Golijov's Three Songs, written for her, was replaced by a performance of Beethoven's third piano concerto, which the Orchestra and soloist were also scheduled to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. Despite this, a capacity audience greeted the visiting orchestra generously, with Arena promenaders giving one of  their trademark message calls to the soloist in his native Welsh.

 

Barber's Essay is contemporaneous with the better known Adagio for Strings and is tauter with a more controlled emotional range: it is concise in length but dense in content, as its title suggests. Scored for standard-sized orchestra  plus piano, the work is in no way a concerto, the piano part being in fact quite small and relatively subdued. The work opens with a threnody on divided lower strings, restrained at first but growing in intensity. A response from the brass follows and the work develops with an alternation between these ideas and forces, with pizzicato piano accompaniment. After the return of the opening idea, muted trumpets usher in a violin finale which ends the work softly and with a metaphorical question mark, a little reminiscent of the ending of Berg's violin concerto.

 

The Beethoven work is well known of course. It is influenced by Mozart's 24th, and marks a transitional point between early and late styles of the Beethoven concerto, the earlier ones following a Mozartian style more closely while  the later ones adopt a  more radical and distinctive style. Llŷr Williams, who mainly appears with a number of Welsh ensembles, including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, very kindly and creditably stepped in at what I understand to have been extremely short notice, to perform a piece he was scheduled to take to Edinburgh with the same orchestra. His playing however, although it would be welcome at a regional venue, was not quite in the international league with which the Albert Hall is often graced, and might be described as somewhat pedestrian.

 

The orchestra, though, were always very correct and appropriate in their playing and approach (smooth and classy) to the music in this first half. Osmo Vänskä had a dramatic and energetic conducting style which was quite eye-catching; bending, reaching and moving around the podium ceaselessly. That he had a fine rapport with the orchestra was obvious and the resulting sound was excellent. I liked their playing and would like to see more of them.

 

With this in mind,  I was looking forward to their Mahler in the second half. Sadly, this was not quite to the same standard, being at times rather meandering and lacking focus - a risk in Mahler's complex symphonies - although it improved as it went on, with an excellent fifth and final movement. The horn section, which has a prominent part,  merits special commendation.

 

This is an interesting orchestra and one I would both recommend and like to see more of. However, on the strength of this performance they would not be my first choice for Mahler though their current  recorded cycle of Beethoven symphonies, on which they have  embarked  with Osmo Vänskä, has been well received by critics so far.   On reflection, at this concert they were best in the Barber, relating best of all to the American music.

 

 

Julie  Williams