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Brahms, Schumann, Matthews: Jonathan Biss (piano), Northern Sinfonia, Thomas Zehetmair, The Sage Concert Hall, Gateshead, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 22.1.2009 (JL)

Colin Matthews: ...through the glass

Brahms: Piano Concerto no.1

Schumann: Symphony no.3 ‘Rhenish’


There is an irony here in that about 18 months ago the Northern Sinfonia released an ecstatically received CD of the Brahms Violin Concerto under their conductor Thomas Zehetmair who doubled up with his role as globally distinguished soloist by leading from the violin whereas in tonight’s concert he was conducting a pianist in Brahms’ First Concerto.  Critics, in discussing the Violin Concerto CD, were much taken with the lean textures of the Northern Sinfonia which is a permanent chamber orchestra. Some claimed they heard things they had never heard before. Prior to this, the Guardian newspaper declared the same interpretation as one of the highlights of the whole London 2007 Proms season.

Brahms’ First Piano Concerto is one of the warhorse romantic concertos, a hefty, sinewy work that is a very different animal from the lyrical violin concerto and I wondered how the reduced strings that served the Violin Concerto so well would fare when pitted against Jonathan Biss’s Steinway pounding. The string sound is tested right at the opening for it has  to carry all the weight of what Donald Francis Tovey  declared one of the “mightiest  utterances since Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony”.

What the lean Sinfonia strings lacked in volume they made up for in clean attack.  The sound may not be what some people have been brought up on in this work, and it is certainly some way from  the weighty, blended sound of, for example, the Berlin Philharmonic, but it may well be nearer the sound heard  in 1859 when Brahms played the first performances in Hanover and Leipzig.  When the piano eventually enters it is with new music that is restrained and lyrical and it was clear that Jonathan Biss was consciously blending with the Sinfonia sound.

Zehetmair’s conducting is characterised by fairly swift tempi and accented rhythms but in passages of repose the orchestra achieved touchingly quiet pianissimos and this was particularly evident in the slow movement. Biss’s playing throughout  was poised yet suitably dynamic. In the opening tune of the last movement he skilfully supressed the hair-raising semi quavers in the left hand which served to highlight the melody.  Many pianists thump out those semi-quavers as if to show off their left hand.

American Pianist Jonathan Biss seems to have been on the distinguished “up and coming young talent” list for a while now. I am not sure by what rules you judge when such a musician has “arrived” but I suggest he has now well and truly reached that status. The last time I heard him live was in 2007  at the Harrogate Festival performing magnificently in  a chamber trio context (led by violinist Midori, see review) which says much about his extraordinary versatility.

The Concerto had been preceded by a shortish atonal piece for orchestra, written by veteran composer Colin Matthews for Simon Rattle. There were, I think, only nine players but the music had a symphonic feel to it with magnificently played contrasts in dynamic and texture. The presence of both harp and piano added weight and Matthews had scored for the two instruments in such a way as to both blend them, and effectively play one off against the other.

Schumann’s Third Symphony, the work of the second half of the concert, starts with a leaping tune of dotted and syncopated rhythms and I have never heard it played with such spring and elan. When the horns took up the tune later they shone like a piercing ray of sunshine through the orchestral textures. 

The only disappointment for me in the whole concert was in the finest movement of the symphony – the Third. This is the music that is probably at the heart of the work’s inspiration which, so the story goes, was Schumann’s first breathtaking sight of  Cologne Cathedral.  The music unfolds from sombre beginnings, weaving an atmospheric, complex web of counterpoint but Zehetmair sustained a sense of underlying rhythm which I thought was at the expense of capturing the reposeful ambience of the music. But that is a matter of taste.

The refreshing, clear textured interpretations of these works was aided by the Sage Concert Hall, one of the finest acoustics in the country. A contributory factor might have been the absence of sound absorbing bodies since the hall was only about half full. A shame for such a distinguished concert. At least more people will be able to hear the Brahms and Schumann in the Spring  because the concert was recorded by UK’s Classic FM Radio for their “full works” series. It is not often that the popular classical channel transmits works like these in their entirety!

John Leeman 


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