SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Ives: Variations on “America”

From the Steeples and the Mountains

Postlude in F

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

This year’s Usher Hall series may still be in its early stages, but the two visiting orchestras they have featured so far have laid down a standard that others will struggle to follow. The Clevelanders are arguably the finest orchestra playing in the US today, thanks to the inspirational leadership of Franz Welser-Möst, a conductor whose titanic gestures steered the huge company of players through Bruckner’s greatest (and biggest) symphony. His command of the scope and space of this music can be taken as read: what made his performance exciting was the exhilarating extremes of dynamics he was fond of adopting and the painterly strokes which allowed every detail of the orchestration to stand out in its place, even in the big climaxes. As for the sound, like a great sculpture it combined awesome scale with attention to minute detail. The awesome weight of the brass sound was tempered by a surprising brightness, while the incredible warmth of the strings emanated from every section, not just the violas and cellos. The opening of the great Adagio felt like gazing out over infinity, while the opening of the finale felt like a vast machine gearing up for war.

 

It was an inventive touch to begin the programme with a trilogy of Ives. Joela Jones was obviously enjoying herself on the Usher Hall organ, colouring the “America” variations with sparky humour but finding parochial warmth for the early Postlude. From the Steeples and Mountains showed the composer at his most experimental, a trumpet and trombone playing in angular canon, accompanied by four groups of bells which gradually built up a miasma of sound that surrounded the brass players. Astonishing grandeur coupled with disarming intimacy.

 

The concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for transmission on Monday 20^th September.

 

The Edinburgh International Festival runs until Sunday 5^th September in venues across the city. For full details and to book tickets go to www.eif.co.uk.

 

Simon Thompson