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Dvořák and Brahms: Daniel Müller–Schott (cello), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach, Royal Festival Hall, London, 11.3.2009 (BBr) 

Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, op.104 (1895)
Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68 (1876)

The more I see Christoph Eschenbach in action, and hear his interpretations, the more I am convinced that he is one of the old school of German conductors. By this I mean that despite rigorous rehearsals – and I have no doubt that his rehearsals are detailed and very carefully thought out – he relies on the inspiration of the moment, for his performances seem to have an improvisatory feel to them which keep you guessing what will happen next, so intensely does he feel the music.

This was certainly true of tonight’s performance of the Brahms Symphony. Eschenbach is never one to be afraid to pull the music about to suit his temperament, to use extremes of rubato, rallentando and accelerando, in his pursuit of the perfect performance. With the London Philharmonic on top form, and responding to his every demand, we were given a towering performance of this masterwork. There was a weight to the first movement which came through judicious use of orchestral colour, a refusal to allow the tension to slacken and the most subtle variation of tempo. What impressed most in the slow movement was how Eschenbach used the slight silences as stepping stones in the melodic line, continuity was never broken just because there was no music to play, it simply continued but we couldn’t hear it. The two part intermezzo, which takes the place of a scherzo, was light and breezy in the outer sections and rather playful in the middle. It is the finale which separates the men from the boys in the game of interpretation and here Eschenbach delivered a crowning peroration to a performance which left one gasping with admiration and satisfaction.

Before the interval we had an equally exciting and satisfactory performance of Dvorak’s lovely Cello Concerto. Müller–Schott was almost as free in his interpretation as Eschenbach and they worked together to create a performance which was so new that it was as if we were hearing the work for the very first time. The coda to the finale, where the cello is joined by a solo violin, and the work becomes a miniature double concerto for a few moments, was meltingly beautiful and I wonder if, when Brahms exclaimed, upon hearing the work, that had known that one could write such a cello concerto he would have written one years earlier, it was this moment which caught his fancy and that is why he wrote a double concerto and not a concerto for the cello.

The orchestra was magnificent, the wind band especially good, and special praise must go to guest principal flute Julien Beaudiment, for his passionate playing in the finale, and oboist Ian Hardwick for the most limpid playing, in the middle movements, of the Brahms. A very fine show indeed and it bodes well for the same forces in Schubert’s 9^th Symphony on Saturday.

Bob Briggs


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