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Brahms, Beethoven and Elgar: Rafal Zambezycki–Payne (violin), Thomas Carroll (cello), Anthony Hewitt (piano), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Dirk Joeres, Cadogan Hall, London, 26.11.2008  (BBr)

Brahms: Academic Festival Overture, op.80 (1880)
Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C, op.56 (1804/1806)
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma, op.36 (1899)


The Academic Festival Overture was a most welcome start to this show. This is so much more than a mere pot–pourri of student songs which we are so often told it is. I have often written that an overture preceding the Concerto is the best way to settle us into the music before entering the drama of the concerted work but tonight this was more than an introduction, it provided all the excitement we needed to get things going for the Beethoven Triple Concerto is not one of his most stirring pieces and lacks the edge which fill his other, later, concertos. The, very good, notes in the programme suggested that because the piano part does not have the virtuoso writing to be found in the piano concertos, whereas the string parts are far ranging and difficult, and, certainly, this is one reason for the relative neglect of the work. However, although the imbalance is odd, there are other factors at work concerning the neglect of the work – the most important being that the material is fairly undistinguished. That’s a sweeping statement, Bob, I hear you saying, and you’d be right, but the themes are not Beethoven’s best and there are pages where one feels he’s simply going through the motions and writing on auto–pilot. I have never felt that Beethoven was happy having to accommodate three soloists and the feeling of tension and struggle, which is the life blood of the concerto form, is entirely lacking in this work. The three young soloists, who all studied at the Menuhin School, did their best, Carroll was especially impressive, employing a huge rich romantic tone, which seemed inappropriate to the style of the work, and Hewitt did what he could with a thankless part. Zambezycki–Payne was given the most grateful part and he made the most of his opportunities to shine. The orchestra, which was so forceful and grand in the Brahms, made little contribution here for the accompaniment is sparse and uninteresting. There’s little you can do with this work except play it and move on. I last heard this work forty years ago when Boult conducted the Hallé and the Tortelier family. It failed to impress me then and it didn’t impress me tonight. Might I make a suggestion that not all the works of the great masters are worth public revival and this work might be best left to CD and private listening at home for nowhere is there sufficient interest in this work to merit its inclusion in a concert. I apologise to those who have a soft spot for this work but I write what I feel and you now know my feelings towards this work.

Any performance of Elgar’s great Enigma Variations must stand or fall by its interpretation of Nimrod, which is something of a national treasure, and therefore it must not be tampered with – remember Bernstein and John Wilbraham when the former conducted the work with the BBC Symphony? Tonight Joeres gave a towering performance, not only of Nimrod, but of the whole work. This was splendid stuff indeed and what really made this an exceptional performance was the attention to even the smallest detail – the cool flutes in Dorabella, the lower brass resplendent in Troyte, the violas in Ysobel, and, best of all, the magnificent sound made by timpanist Matt Perry in (***) which caused a bit of a stir in the audience who couldn’t work out what the sound was! This was perfectly placed. But the emotional core of the work was Nimrod which was magnificent in its simplicity and left the audience in awed silence, unable, even, to clear their throats or make any kind of noise at the end.

The Brahms and Elgar contained some of the best orchestral playing I’ve heard all year; the RPO just gets better and better and it is to be applauded in its efforts in matching such great music to performances of equal stature.

Bob Briggs


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