Brahms and Beethoven: Frank Peter Zimmerman (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnányi (conductor), Queen Elizabeth Hall, 4.4.2006 (AR)

 

 

Christoph von Dohnányi and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s programme of Brahms and Beethoven were given traditional, rather than radical, readings to a packed QEH.

In the Allegro non troppo of Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 Frank Peter Zimmerman had a refreshingly rugged and rough edged quality free from sounding too over rehearsed, pristine and polished. With Zimmerman, one felt that he was really risk-taking and making music - and not merely going through all the mimetic motions. In this massive movement he wore many moods, from sounding subdued and coy to severe and abrasive, often pushing his instrument to its outer limits. Zimmerman has a very strong sense of line, metre and architecture knowing how to float a phrase and melt it into another with no seams showing through.  He also made the music sound slightly tipsy; his violin sounded as if it was sliding and stumbling over and out of itself. The highlight here was the concluding cadenza which had an extraordinary range of tone, mood and colour with the soloist again taking dare-devil risks yet always maintaining utter control, leaving his audience in a spellbound silence.

In the opening of the Adagio I was struck by the exquisite woodwind playing which beautifully blended in with the soloist’s sublime sounds and again he floated his fluent phrases with consummate ease. Here his sound took on a suave and silky quality almost subdued as if he was playing from afar. In the concluding Allegro Zimmerman adopted an angular, rugged tone and played with a jovial buoyancy making the music dance with grotesque glee. Throughout, Dohnányi perfectly judged the rather close and claustrophobic QEH acoustic making the Philharmonia ‘fit’ comfortably within such a confined space and yet still sound full bodied and blooded.

This is the third time that I have heard Dohnányi conducting Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony with the Philharmonia Orchestra and there was nothing innovatory in this interpretation – indeed the first movement seemed toned-down and lacked the weight and tautness of his former performances. The assertive opening two hammer stroke chords in E flat lacked the solid starkness required and sounded slack and indistinct. Likewise, the radically inspired six repeated stabbing chords were anemic and merely sounded flabby robbing them of their potentially nailing intensity.

Throughout this discordant movement, Dohnányi watered down Beethoven’s repeated sharp dissonances: the chords in which an E natural rasps against an F – so potentially shuddering - were lost here. The conductor also failed to give the music its forward thrusting urgency as well as the development and struggle of symphonic argument; dynamic contrasts appeared absent. The divided violins lacked body, whilst the double basses were barely audible.  Even the Philharmonia woodwind were too recessed and were short of their usual shine and pointed presence. The only playing that had any presence and power at all was the timpani of Andrew Smith with the first movement sounding more akin to a timpani concerto.

Yet things vastly improved with the Marcia Funebre with the Philharmonia suddenly transforming itself, as if waking up from a trance, and sounding like a newly born orchestra: the woodwind were pointed and poetic, whilst the strings had body and weight. Dohnanyi had his hand on the pulse, mood and metre of this dramatic movement making it sound stark one minute, serene the next, transfixing the audience into mesmerized silence: this was a sublimely moving experience.

The Scherzo had a rumbling resonance, with the strings taking on a shuddering-shimmering quality all at once. The three horns in the trio had a wonderfully raw raucous edge sounding vicious and vivacious. Dohnányi conducted the Finale with great verve teasing out the dance rhythms with the strings whirling around in a frenzy. At last the woodwind shone though, producing exquisite sounds. In the concluding passages the brass and timpani played with incisive intensity with Dohnányi steering the Philharmonia to an exhilarating conclusion.

 

Alex Russell

 

 

Further listening:

 

 

Brahms: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn Violin Concerto; Johanna Martzy (violin); Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Kletzki (conductor):

1954: Testament CD: 1037.

 

Beethoven: Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’, Prom Musica Symphony, Vienna (VSO), Jascha Hrenstein (conductor): VOX Legends CD: VOX 7816.

 

Beethoven: Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’; Symphony No. 4; Brahms: Piano Concerto No.2; Hindemith: Nobilissima Visione; Geza Anda (piano), Cologne Radio-Symphony Orchestra, Otto Klemperer (conductor); 8 February 1954: The Cologne Years - Volume One: Andante: AN 2130: 2 CDs.