Review of Hallé concert conducted by Anja Bihlmaier with soloist Maxim Rysanov

  

Anja Bihlmaier  cr Nikolaj Lund

It was Beethoven’s Fourth with zip at the Hallé last night, as Anja Bihlmaier showed her credentials as a conductor of the present day, taking the tempo markings very much at face value and, with the orchestra in fine fettle almost from the first bar, creating a performance of neatness and beauty.

She had 40 strings for the entire programme, which also began with Beethoven, in the form of the tone-poem-like Leonora no. 3 overture. I’ve heard it done with more operatic atmosphere – there were only the briefest of pauses, for instance, in this performance to follow the off-stage trumpet calls – but I think she wanted it to be as coherent as possible as a musical structure. It certainly had a fiery presto to finish.

In between the Beethoven pieces there was Maxim Rysanov with Bartók’s Viola Concerto (as completed by Tibór Sérly) – played with artistry and assurance and gathering a fair old head of steam in the gypsy-style passages of its finale – and followed by an encore for the soloist, himself Ukrainian-born, and the Hallé strings led by Roberto Ruisi: Myroslav Skoryk’s Melody, a piece which has become a symbol of lament and horror at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After the break came Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza, a short series of shocks and surprises apparently inspired by Beethoven’s music, in which a notable feature was versatility of Erika Öhman on various percussion instruments (which, in addition to her role as timpanist for the rest of the programme, makes her worthy of the woman-of-the-match award for this show).

The Beethoven symphony began in what could have been Haydn style and went on to a pretty perky Adagio and a lively work-out in the Scherzo, with only slight let-up in the tempo for the trios. The last movement danced away from the very first note and ended with a fine effect of contrast – one of Beethoven’s own surprises. I was impressed by the playing, shown in a number of points in the evening but supremely in that finale, of the guest principal bassoon, Todd Gibson-Cornish.

Maxim Rysanov