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Mozart, Bruch and Dvořák: Sergey Khachatryan (violin) Philharmonia Orchestra: Sir Charles Mackerras, Royal Festival Hall, London, 9.10.2008 (GD)

Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K 543
Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 26
Dvořák: Symphony No.7 in D minor, Op 70


Sir Charles Mackerras is very skilled in transferring ‘period’ style performing practices to orchestras like the Philharmonia, which are not usually noted as ‘period’ bands. Indeed, he used period trumpets and timpani in this performance whilst employing a larger string compliment than is usual for ‘period’ performances. He wisely seated the violins antiphonally; an absolute sine qua non in these classical masterpieces.

At the start of the Mozart, the ‘adagio’ introduction was taken as it should be, in a brisk and direct way, with sharp timpani and emphasising the harmonic dissonances. The main ‘allegro’ had plenty of spring in the up-beat rhythms and cross-rhythms and the contrasting lyrical sections fused beautifully into the inevitable symmetry of the whole movement; indeed the whole symphony. The rondo structure of the ‘Andante con moto’ seemed to play itself. The transition to the noble but agitated second theme in F minor, with prominent woodwind chords, had me remembering similar tones of noble pathos from ‘Idomeneo’. Mackerras is absolutely right to emphasise the ‘con moto’ in this movement but he didn’t erase memories of the more sombre mood of austere contemplation which Klemperer, at a far slower tempo, used to bring to this movement. The third movement ‘Menuetto and Trio’ was direct and robust at a dashing tempo and Mackerras paid particular attention to the balance and euphony of the two clarinets which no composer before, or since, Mozart has incorporated with such beauty and economy. Mackerras took the finale at a real ‘Allegro’ and maintained a surging but graceful energy all the way through correctly playing the repeats of both exposition and development sections. The Philharmonia responded excellently to Mackerras’s every inflection and nuance, although in certain elaborate string and woodwind passages I noticed an even greater agility and accuracy in Mackerras’s recent recording of the four last Mozart symphonies with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 
 
The young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan produced some very beautiful tones in the most famous of Max Bruch’s works. He used vibrato with judicious care and excelled in the great lyrical sections at the end of the minor exposition and in the beautifully lyrical E flat adagio. I was not so sure of his rendition of the more rhythmically charged, muscular, sections in the G minor ‘Allegro Moderato’ development section and the gypsy style rondo finale with its array of contrasting thrusting rhythms and lyricism; certainly none of the violin diversity of an Oistrakh or a Milstein.

Mackerras conducted the concerto superbly throughout and I think his conducting would have been better complimented by the young Moscow trained violinist Alina Ibragimova whose concert performance, in 2006, of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Mackerras outshone even the likes of Milstein!. However with conducting and orchestral playing of such excellence this was a most rewarding musical experience.

Sir Charles is celebrated for his knowledge, advocacy and excellence in Czech music. Indeed, it is somewhat surprising that he has not, so far, recorded a whole cycle of the Dvořák symphonies and symphonic poems, and although he recorded the Seventh Symphony some time ago with the LPO, to my knowledge he has not recorded them with a Czech orchestra. Tonight he gave a typically fine, direct, and well conceived rendition of the seventh symphony; considered by many to be the composers finest. But at the close of the powerful coda I was less impressed than I had expected to be even though the performance was difficult to fault in terms of the all important matter of tempo relationships.  The opening movement was a carefully judged ‘Allegro maestoso’ with plenty of thrust and movement; the third movement ‘Scherzo vivace’ was just that in terms of tempo; and so on.

Mackerras judged the D minor opening section and its alternating contrasts between folk lyricism and D minor power extremely well, wisely not over emphasising the tutti passages as many conductors do, but at the start of the development section, in the remote key of B minor, I noticed a certain blandness in phrasing and dynamic contour. By the time we reached the development climax I heard nothing of what Tovey describes as the ‘mastery of symphonic contrast’ or the unleashing of ‘tragic power’. It was all quite well played but sounded distinctly prosaic when compared with say the old Monteux LSO recording where the full lyric poetry at the start of the recapitulation is beautifully sculpted and phrased. Also, on a less significant, but irritating, point, the Philharmonia timpanist has a habit (an affectation?) of initiating each drum roll with an accent on the first measure followed by a decrescendo/crescendo to get back into the part as written. I have heard the most celebrated timpanists from James Bradshaw the original Philharmonia timpanist, to Karl Glassman, Toscanini’s timpanist at the NBC Symphony, and none of them displays this kind of mannerism. One can only assume that Mackerras, who has an acute ear for orchestral detail, has sanctioned this idiosyncracy.

 The ‘Poco Adagio’ gained through being taken at a more or less single tempo with subtle shades of rubato which Mackerras always judges well. But again I heard none of the sense of wonder at the passage when horn and clarinet play a theme subtlety imitating the bitonal chords from the opening of ‘Tristan’. The ‘Furiant’ scherzo was light and mercurial but there was nothing of the strong sforzato Furiant Czech rhythms as heard so idiomatically in Czech performances under conductors like Talich and Zdenk Kosler.  It all sounded a little tame and underpowered and this impression of tameness continued into the finale. There were some typically notable and beautifully judged transitions from major to minor and Mackerras secured some fine cross-rhythm detail in the A minor development section, but I had no feeling of elation and dramatic expectation towards the coda, and the solemn chorale tone of the coda again sounded bland and tame.  
 
As noted this was still a fine concert performance, but I have come to expect so much more from Mackerras, particularly in Czech music in which he is usually superb. Others will no doubt disagree with me. But as a reviewer I can only write as I hear and find.

Geoff Diggines


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