HALLE
ORCHESTRA Bridgewater Hall
THIS
concert was like an oasis in the vast expanse of Christmas tweeness – some
serious music, enjoyable nonetheless, but with not a sleigh bell in sight.
It was also
one of the first programmes in the Hallé series to live up fully to its
in-and-out theme of Fate: it could hardly fail to, with a rare piece by
Tchaikovsky called Fatum as the opener.
This was
conducted by Harish Shankar, the Royal Northern College of Music’s present
junior fellow in conducting, and he made a very impressive Hallé debut indeed.
There was power and intensity in the opening and close, refinement and beauty
in the more lyrical episodes, and electricity in tone and phrasing as the music
grew to its climaxes.
In truth
it’s more like a ballet score without a ballet than a symphonic movement, but
that gave scope for tension, drama and energy, and Harish Shankar’s style,
economic on gesture but effective, gives an orchestra what it needs and nothing
else.
Sir Mark
Elder completed the Fate connection with Rachmaninov’s third symphony, in which
the Hallé were as responsive to him as they had been earlier. It has a
glorious first movement melody that
sticks in your head, and in this account they made it soar and glide and indeed
gain considerable urgency, and the emotional peaks and contrasts were
highlighjted with a sure hand.
There’s a
struggle between pessimism and optimism in both the second and third movements
of this symphony, handled here with assurance and awareness of ambiguity: the
march in mid slow movement had a blend of the demonic and the determined, and
the Grim Reaper made his appearance with a death rattle in the finale, despite
its exciting ending.
Between
those two works we had a burst of sunshine, as Stephen Hough played the solo in
Beethoven’s first piano concerto, with Sir Mark at the helm. It was everything
you would expect a Hough performance to be – fluency and ice-cool clarity
coupled with dynamic contrast, passion and beauty. Flamboyancy is not Stephen
Hough’s style, but his sheer intelligence made the music more beautiful and
thrilling than ever.
****
Robert
Beale
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