SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

In many ways this was a fine concert in the traditional orchestral concert manner; overture, concerto and grand symphony. The Concertgebouw, as would be expected, played superbly throughout. The ‘Manfred’ overture, which used to be a favourite with conductors like Toscanini and Beecham, is not much performed now, so it was good to hear it played so excellently here. Gatti delineated the opening single bar of three grinding chords well. The ensuing adagio (of syncopations between C minor and A minor, with not yet any established clear metric register) were rather dragged out however. Schumann’s tempo marking is  ‘Adagio’, but not ‘sehr’ Adagio or ‘Schleppend’. At this slack tempo the ensuing Allegro (‘in passionate tempo’) simply sounded disconnected from the introduction, whereas Toscanini, for one, always made it emerge organically from the tonally undecided introduction.

The main allegro was delivered with the necessery ‘passion’ and fire, but again Gatti made a huge ritardando for the ‘expressivo’ second subject announced in the strings, thus robbing the overture’s structural sense of interlinked dramatic development. Despite some beautifully pp hushed string/woodwind playing at the overture;s pensively resigned coda too much had been lost overall.

The Russian violinist Vadim Rapin played well throughout the Mendelssohn,  in tune and with a minimum of vibrato. Although he lacked the full expressive/technical range  demanded by the concerto and demonstrated by another Russian Alina Ibragimova heard last year while accompanied to perfection by Sir Charles Mackerras, here  there was a total synergy of dialogue between soloist and conductor. Although Repin kept in tempo with Gatti for the most part,  I detected a certain strain in his playing, no doubt to do with Gatti’s generally quite broad tempi:  one had the impression that the soloist's ideal tempo did not correspond to that chosen by the conductor. The opening movements ‘Allegro molto appasionata’ sounded  more like allegro maestoso non troppo here. Again,  as with the opening overture, Gatti revealed some exquisite orchestral detail in Mendelssohn’s delicate string part writing despite a non-antiphonal orchesral lay-out.  It must be a great temptation for any conductor  with the Concertgebouw orchestra at his disposal to emphasise such detail, although Mackerras demonstrated that orchestral concerto accompaniment can both accompany and reveal detail without underlined emphasis.

The finale ‘Allegro molto vivace’ picked up considerably after a rather ponderous rendition of the ‘Andante’,  but again I could hear a certain strain in Repin’s playing. This was something that undermined his ability to project the right degree of lyrical/dynamic contrast,  a cardinal requirement for the this finale and the concerto as a whole.

Gatti conducted the opening ‘Andante’ of the Tchaikovsky at roughly crotchet = 80 (the composers own marking). Here, he  ensured that the  music didn’t drag, as in so many renditions disobedient to the composer. The most lucid clarity emerged from the Concertgebouw’s bassoons and clarinets in low register interspersed with dour transparency  with the famous motto theme in the lower strings. In fact,  everything in the exposition ‘Allegro con anima’ went as well as I have ever heard it go - just as much to do with the famous orchestra, who are steeped in this music from the days of Mengelberg, as with the conductor. But when we arrived at the big D major second subject lyrical theme on strings Gatti made a large ritardando. Why? Tchaikovsky certainly doesn’t ask for this ? He asks for a ‘molto expressivo’ but that does not imply, as far as I can discern, such a tiresome tempo distortion. Having made this critical point the Concertgebouw played the melody with such poise and elegance (it could almost have come from ‘Swan Lake’ ) that criticism   was stifled temporarily. When I got home however and played the same passage with Cantelli and Markevich, I was reassured that Gatti’s ritardando was patently unnecessary!

The rest of the performance was a joy: far better than Gatti’s recent recording with Royal Philharmonic. The wonderful horn enunciation of the ‘Andante cantabile’ melody had just the right degree of vibrato,  lmost Russian sounding but not quite. Gatti articulated the powerful (tutti) pronunciation of the motto theme in the home key (modulated with a dramatic F sharp minor) and the noble D major tutti refrain melody  with the most subtle rubato inflections; qualified this time by the composers ‘alcuna licenza’ marking.

I was particularly taken by the seldom heard muted horn intonations towards the end of the ‘Valse’ movement, which added a slightly sinister tone to the music; once again the trio section here,  had just the right degree of balletic poise and charm.

For once,  the finale -  from ‘Andante maestoso’ leading to ‘Allegro vivace’ -  never sounded bombastic (as it certainly can do in the hands of conductors making a grandiose point.) The final peroration, and triumphant affirmation of the motto theme developed symphonically from the varied and  complex harmonic/tonal modulations of the finale’s main ‘Allegro’,  and never sounded ‘pasted on’, so to speak. And I could hear every configuration in the strings and woodwind, which usually get drowned out in more routine performances. Tovey famously took Tchaikovsky’s detractors (of this symphony in particular) to task and reaffirmed the work as belonging to the the great symphonic tradition; with the added observation that the finale in particular exudes a sense of enjoyment, not just in itself, but in reflecting all enjoyment's varying tonalities and vicissitudes. This is the exact feeling I had tonight at the end of this great symphony.


Geoff Diggines