SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

Beethoven: Joshua Bell (violin) Philharmonia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti (conductor) Royal Festival Hall, London 30.3.2010 (GD)

Beethoven - Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op.55, Eroica.


Billed as a '65th Birthday Gala Concert' for the Philharmonia, this concert was something of a special occasionand the choice of  conductor Riccardo Muti,  who has a special historical relationship with the orchestra as principal conductor from 1972 to 1982 - added to the event. The Beethoven Violin Concerto was given a finely moulded and unified performance with a convincing rapport between soloist and conductor. Indeed, Bell's playing was a model of tonal finesse throughout, emphasising the more lyrical aspects of this protean work. Apart from  a slight rhythmic inaccuracy on the last note of the opening five note timpani figure, it was evident that Muti and Bell had rehearsed the concerto thoroughly. The whole performance had a mellifluous coherence. But by the time we reached the mysterious D sharp for pp strings, timpani and trumpets after the first tutti orchestral statement,  I was left wondering if this mystery and dynamic/dramatic contrast was really registering in the way it can and should. Bell's first entry was beautifully poised, but where was the cut and thrust and amazing lyrical dramatic contrast recently heard in a performance from the excellent young German violinist Isabelle Faust? And at the long  development's transition from G minor to the D minor solemn tread, punctuated with pp trumpets and drums and leading to the heroic D major tutti climax,  I missed the sense of incredible diversity within a sustained classical structure that this work contains:   it all sounded too smooth, too preciously opulent. This impression was reinforced both by Bell's virtuosic but too light tone, and by Muti's homogenisation of the woodwind and brass parts. The cadenzas used were Bell's own, and they were very well crafted around the development of the first movements, and finales main themes, but I had the impression that they were a little too extended telling us more about the soloist's virtuosity and gifts of thematic development and  improvisation, than anything much to do with the economy of Beethoven's composition. The cadenza that Beethoven composed himself for an arrangement with accompanying piano and/or timpani would have been preferable.

The second movement 'Larghetto' and the 'Rondo' finale were again delivered in a sustained but rather suave manner. The re-entry of full unison strings in the dominant D at the end of the larghetto lacked the required  tonal gravitas, and the G minor episode in the finale lacked contrast and wit. The main rondo theme itself also lacked rhythmic thrust and buoyancy. 

Before the Eroica, Muti made a brief and rather moving mention of the recent death of  double-bass player Gerald Drucker, who was with the Philharmonia from 1964 to 1990.  Muti also spoke of a kind genealogy of continuity from generations of players in the orchestra's 65 year history.  To my ears however,  the current Philharmonia is a very different orchestra than it was in its years of glory with conductors of the stature of Klemperer, Furtwangler,Cantelli, Karajan, and on one fabled occasion, Toscanini. 

Muti's Eroica was unashamedly old fashioned and large scale, with eight double-basses. Once  again it was very well executed  with quite nicely chosen tempi, but it too sounded  bland and smooth. The two two strong introductory chords and the many sforzando accents lacked sufficient thrust sounding tame rather than heroically defiant. And I listened in vain for Tovey's 'collision of shadowy harmonies' in the vast (for its time) development section. This music can still sound  amazingly revolutionary, as was demonstrated by Ivan Fischer a few few weeks ago at the South Bank  with an orchestra about half the size that was deployed tonight.  

In much of the 'Marcia Funèbre', as in the first movement, I had little sense of the unfolding of a  coherent classical symphonic argument:  sequences just came and went,  as it where. And when Muti did make a point, as in the descending accent he imposed in the opening of the bass appoggiaturas, it merely sounded contrived and mannered. The solemn F minor double fugue sequence and climax also lacked tonal gravitas, with no real sense of the music's inner counterpoint and struggle. The decision not to employ antiphonal violins did not help matters in this respect, but   there was nothing of Weingartner's  'Aeschylean' tone here. The following 'roar' from the depths of the orchestra, intoning for Tovey an 'upheaval fit for a setting of the Dies Irae', sounded little more than a blur tonight - more like a dress rehearsal run through. There was some fine horn playing in the trio section of the scherzo which in itself was well executed but lacked that 'menacing' quality noted (yet again) by Tovey and  heard so trenchantly in Fischer's recent London performance. The apotheosis of the finale's Promethean theme blazed radiantly however, as did  the heroic coda  in the home key.  Sadly however,  I was left with a sense of the music as almost a 'virtual' experience: everything was apparently there, but something fundamental was lacking.

As I left the hall I was thinking of the most convenient route home amid the current disruption to the usual bus routes in the area.  With a 'great' Eroica, such as I heard once with Klemperer and the 'old' Philharmonia, such quotidian thoughts would have been totally obliterated.

Geoff Diggines