SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Stravinsky, Mozart, Schumann: Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Olari Elts (conductor), Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, England  4.2.2009 (IL)

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 K466
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 ‘Spring’


I  admit that before this concert, the name Olari Elts was not familiar to me and I was quite surprised to see such a youthful-looking figure approach the podium considering he was born in 1971 in Tallinn, Estonia. His career was launched when he won the 2000 Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki. Besides being appointed Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2006, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from the beginning of the  2007-08 season plus the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, also in 2007, Elts’ career has taken him to engagements across Europe, America, the Far East, and Australia and New Zealand.

Elts’ conducting style is animated. At times he forsakes his baton to use just his hands mostly to emphasise subtleties. You see his fingers tracing complex contours and arabesques for the guidance of the woodwinds, for instance, in Pulcinella. Considering that the inspiration for Pulcinella was the traditional commedia dell’arte troupe, his reading of Stravinsky’s essay in neo-classicism was rather sombre and plodding especially in the opening ‘Sinfonia’ and ‘Sérénade’. A lighter touch with, at times, more pointed rhythms, more wit and irony would have been more successful.

Benjamin Grosvenor still only sixteen, was the winner of the Keyboard Final of the 2004 BBC Young Musician Competition when he was only eleven! (This young prodigy also took and achieved the highest grade in GCSE mathematics when he was just ten!). His reading of Mozart’s dramatic D minor Concerto K466, was technically impeccable, lucid and fluent; the lovely ‘Romanze’ melody beautifully shaped and heartfelt. He received tumultuous applause which was even more pronounced when he returned to give a solo encore  played with power and beguiling tenderness, an arrangement by Alfred Grunfeld of Strauss’ Fledermaus op.56, and also known as Soiree de Vienne op.56.

A larger orchestra gathered for Schumann’s ‘Spring’ Symphony. The Bournemouth SO is programming all four Schumann Symphonies this season and Elts’ reading made an auspicious start. Schumann tended to concentrate on one musical genre at a time and it was not until 1841, the year after his marriage to Clara, that he concentrated on his orchestral music. His First Symphony was composed rapidly, sketched in a matter of four days and completed in full score less than a month later. The music is sunny and lyrical reflecting his happiness then, and the buoyancy and energy of the season; the gorgeous melody of the second ‘Larghetto’ movement clearly pointing forwards towards Brahms whose own First Symphony was to be premiered in 1876. Elts’ reading was vital and vivacious and fresh with a lovingly shaped Larghetto. I cannot remember hearing a more convincing and appealing reading of this life-affirming symphony.

All Schumann’s symphonies will be performed in Pooleby the BSO this season: No. 2 conducted by Douglas Boyd on Wednesday 18 February; No. 3 ‘Rhenish’ conducted by Hannu Lintu on Wednesday March 18; and No. 4, conducted by Tadaaki Otaka on Wednesday 22 April.

Ian Lace


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