Wagner, Beethoven and Sibelius: Lisa Batiashvili (violin) London Philharmonic Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä (conductor) Royal Festival Hall, London, 30.4.2008(GD)

Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op 61
Sibelius: Symphony No 4 in Aminor, Op 63.

In programmatic terms this was quite an old fashioned concert with its structure of overture, concerto and grand symphony. The only difference being here that Sibelius’s most austere symphony  with ‘absolutely nothing of the circus about it’  as Sibelius himself commented, rarely elicits in the audience  exultant (and often tired) bravos after its enigmatic minor key coda.  The sense of aporia (or impasse) in the audience at the end of the symphony was evident tonight; and to think that the work  first appeared in 1911!

Vänskä  played the 1845 (Dresden) ‘Tannhäuser ’ overture. He had obviously rehearsed the orchestra well in terms of orchestral balance and the LPO , here as throughought the concert, responded excellently. There was here absolutely no sign of traditional kapellmeister grandiosity or bombastin this reading. The final apotheosis of the Pilgrims’ music made its effect without sounding overblown; the trombone came across as noble an rousing while never drowning out the accompanying string and woodwind figurations. The Venusberg element had just the right mercurial inflection and rhythmic buoyancy.

There was much in the Beethoven Violin concerto which was distinctive especially in terms of orchestral accompaniment. Miss Batiashvili played mostly very well although I missed the sheer tonal range and ability to sustain a phrase, especially in the ‘Larghetto’, that I heard last year when this work was played by Mullova.  There were also times when soloist and conductor were not quite together; so there was no real sense of dialogue in the performance.  And I was rather surprised that Vänskä conducted in a rather traditional manner with quite slow tempi even dragging slightly in the ‘Larghetto.' There was no hint of ‘period’ style here with hard stick timpani and the eschewing of string vibrato, as is evident in his recent distinctive and ongoing Beethoven symphony cycle recordings with the Minnesota orchestra.  Disaster almost struck just at the end of the first movement exposition when the soloist broke a string but although she took a good few minutes to re-string, the interruption did not seem to diminish the performance. Beethoven's wonderful modulations in B minor, G minor and D minor throughout the extended development section were most sensitively realised here with some really sustained pp from the violins which Vänskä positioned all on his left in the erroneous modern fashion. Miss Batiashvili played the Kreisler cadenza quite beautifully; a high point in the performance.

As  noted  alreadythe ‘Larghetto’ dragged slightly, more I think from the conductors perspective. The ‘Rondo Allegro’ finale faired rather better than the rest of the performance in terms of rhythmic contrast and sense of movement, with particularly distinctive bassoon contributions in the mock serious, bucolic sounding G minor section. Soloist and conductor seemed more in dialogue here than in the rest of the performance, Miss Batiashvili proving she could negotiate the many contrasts in rhythmic verve and lyricism in a most musical way.

Osmo Vänskä is arguably the most authoritative exponent of Sibelius active today: his complete series of Sibelius recordings with BIS  have greatly confirmed this perception. This was also reinforced by tonight's performance of the composer's most austere and stoical symphony. As I initially noted,  the LPO responded excellently to Vänskä’s demands andf with playing of this quality,  the LPO is surely the premium London orchestra to my mind.  Although Vänskä  took the opening movement at a measured, sustained tempo, ensuring adherence to the ‘quasi adagio’ marking, the pace never dragged as in many other renditions; it had an inevitable and essential sense of movement. Vänskä registered the tritonal ambiguity of the opening (with its shifts from C to F sharp) without ever imposing interpretative excess on the music; of all ‘modern’ symphonies Sibelius’s grim statement resolutely resists (by its internal symphonic logic) all interpretative overlay and imposition. Tonight this was understood and projected completely. Vänskä gave extaordinary attention to the the tonal, rhythmic parallels and paradoxes in the ‘Allegro molto vivace’, evincing some arresting dynamic declensions from mezzo-forte to sustained ppp. As noted above the sustained pp and ppp string playing was exceptional. I have not heard this from a London orchestra since the days of the original (Walter Legge) Philharmonia.

The great slow movement ‘il tempo largo’, which is never simply ‘slow’ being permeated by a sombre modal tread, seemed to play itself, as it should. The final statement of the grand ascending chorale theme (in D minor, modulated from the opening movement's F sharp), to which the previous thematic unfolding had been leading, sounded more rugged and stark here with Vänskä avoidance of any dynamic emphasis or insertions of tempo modification.

All the kaleidoscopic tonal/harmonic shifts of the final ‘Allegro’ were projected with the utmost clarity and poise; again never an interpretative point being made for its own sake. With such clarity at all levels the tritonal interrelationships and juxtapositions - albeit in a more conventional tonic/dominant projection – with the first movement emerged far more arrestingly than in most performances. The repeated mezzo-forte A minor chords which conclude the symphony were played ‘in tempo’ adding a fitting tone of abruptness to the pervading mood of stoical resignation.

Geoff Diggines


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