SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Webern - Five Pieces, Op. 5

Schumann - Concertstück in F major for 4 horns, Op. 86

Strauss - Oboe Concerto

Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 4 "Italian" (2nd version)

"Legend in his lifetime" is an overworked phrase but I think I can safely apply it to Heinz Holliger, who, as well as conducting and composing, is widely regarded as one of, if not the, finest oboist of the last couple of generations. Such was this occasion that the national Guardian and the London-centric Times sent men all the way up North to review the concert. So when I arrived at the Sage I was expecting a full house with people clamouring for returns. Instead, I took my seat in a house that must have been at least three-quarters empty. The man from The Times was equally amazed. How could we be so wrong?

Those that were privileged to be there witnessed musicianship that at times achieved greatness.

The proceedings began with an announcement that Holliger had decided to conduct the rarely performed opening piece, Webern's Five pieces, twice, repeating it at the end of the first half. I heard a groan from behind me which did not surprise me since Weberns’s atonal (keyless) music, even after a century, is too radical to stomach for most music lovers. The performance of this five movement, sub ten minute piece just might have converted the groaner. The extraordinarily difficult music for strings was rendered so immaculately as to suggest that considerable rehearsal time had been devoted to it. Clarity, contrast and dynamism in the faster outer movements were offset by some magically hushed playing in the slow sections. At the end of two of the movements, that almost impossible illusion of transitioning from extremely quiet to silence without hearing the join, was actually achieved. It is difficult to imagine a more persuasive outing for this piece and Holliger was right to force members of the audience to give a second chance to music that he knew would be unfamiliar to most, even if he dragged them there reluctantly. A triumph for the Northern Sinfonia.

Schumann’s piece for four horns does not get many outings either. It is also difficult, but for different reasons. Finding four virtuoso solo players (in addition to two in the orchestra) of what is perhaps the most temperamental of orchestral instruments, with the courage to blast their way through this exhilarating work, cannot be easy. Peter Francombe and Christopher Griffiths are the Northern Sinfonia’s resident players while Joe Walters and Peter Richards are distinguished freelancers. Standing majestically in a row behind and above the orchestra, they responded to Holliger’s speedy and energetic direction with absolute confidence. I have never been particularly fond of this work, but as Holliger wound things up towards the end to a triumphant finish, I at last came round. Probably part of my problem was that I had never heard such a good performance before. I cannot recall Heinz Holliger taking a bow after the finish. He spent all the applause time himself applauding the horn players.

After the interval it was Holliger’s turn to take the soloist’s slot. The veteran Swiss oboist, now over 70, was to play a work by a composer who was over 80 at the time of its writing. Strauss, famous for his enormous, orchestrally block-busting Tone Poems, wrote a work in his more restrained , rhapsodic late style,that is, nevertheless, in no way short of energy and passion. Texturally, the music is often chamber-like and the Northern Sinfonia, a smaller band than a normal symphony orchestra, was particularly suited to the music.

The oboe is an instrument notorious for its demands on breath control and Strauss, almost perversely, has the work open with two minutes of continuous rapid note spinning with barely an obvious place to take a breath. The otherwise cool-looking Holliger did dangerously heighten in colour during this passage but got through it magnificently, presumably through use of the celebrated technique whereby you take air in and out of the nose and blow into the reed at the same time. I am familiar with a recording Holliger made of the concerto twenty seven years ago. Even then he was a mature musician, but this latest performance, in what some people might call old age, was invested with a higher degree of passion, dynamic contrast and flexible phrasing. That opening passage ends as a big arrival at the home key, complete with dramatic slow-down at the approach. Here, the rallentando was far more exaggerated than in his old recording.

Already entranced, come the middle slow movement I was transported. The movement is mostly about the glorious melodic lines of the oboe, orchestra in supportive role. The way Holliger drew these lines, with flexibility, beauty and glorious tone, was supreme. I recalled the play (and movie) Amadeus , in which it was implied that Mozart was a mere conduit for God to deliver heavenly thoughts to earth bound mortals. Nonsense though that might be, I was almost tempted to believe that Heinz Holliger might have been such an agent on this occasion. This was performing musicianship of rare greatness.

The partnership with the Northern Sinfonia worked well. There were some occasional, very minor ensemble problems although that may not be surprising since with his hands full of oboe, and facing the audience, it was not easy for the soloist to give the tight direction he might have wished. He mostly directed via leader Bradley Creswick with what seemed to be coded eye messages.

Mendelssohn’s Italian (1833) is a well worn repertory symphony but on this occasion we were treated to the revisions the composer made to the last three movements but which never saw the light of day until less than a decade ago thanks to an American scholar. Textures are more fulsome than in the original and there are minor structural adjustments. More disconcerting were slight melodic changes to familiar material. For example, the well-known, lovely long tune of the slow movement took a different turn at one point. It would take a lot of hearings before this stopped sounding wrong!

Holliger, back on the conductor’s rostrum, took the orchestra through a very energetic reading, insisting on particularly strong accents. The last movement must have been one of the most punchy I have ever heard.

A wonderful concert, featuring a great, veteran musician who, judging by what we heard, is still developing emotionally and musically.

John Leeman