The London Symphony Orchestra was welcomed back to the Dublin stage on Monday evening for the first of two appearances in this season's International Orchestral Series. Returning in May 2010 with Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev, last night's performance paired Schubert and Berg, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
More than just an all-Viennese programme, the positioning of Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6 between Schubert's Overture to Rosamunde and 'The Great' C major Symphony No. 9, D.944 revealed subtle connections between the composers; an example of astute, insightful programming that is so often lacking in current concerts. Indeed, it was that other leviathan of Viennese music, Mahler, that seemed to often connect the two, although that may have owed something to the fact that the Overture and Three Pieces were performed with Das Knaben Wunderhorn at the Barbican the previous evening. Nonetheless, Berg's debt to Mahler is evident in his dark Scherzo and marches, drawing on Mahler's 'Tragic' Sixth Symphony in the Three Pieces, which Tilson Thomas preceded with a richly romantic and Mahlerian rendition of the Rosamunde Overture.
The orchestra, featuring a number of new and disarmingly young faces in its number, responded well to Tilson Thomas; one was left with the impression of a more equal partnership between conductor and orchestra than with, say, Gergiev, but it was an approach that suited this repertoire, allowing the joyous lyricism of the Schubert in particular, to shine through. Tilson Thomas clearly has an acute sense of balance, his hands often poetic, drawing and shaping Schubert's abundantly melodic ideas, phrases were always sensitively textured and proportioned. However, I often found that a deeply felt sense of architecture was lacking, principally in the symphony. Although each phrase and theme was beautifully presented in itself, the teleological drive and achievement was found wanting. Even so, the energetic finale of the Symphony was undertaken with typical verve, with indefatigable strings pulsating under the winds and their chorale-like melodies.
The stunning centrepiece of Berg's Three Pieces was my highlight of the evening, although it is surprising that almost one-hundred years after its composition his op. 6 still has such ability to shock. To my ears, Berg has always seemed more accessible and less academic than Webern, his colleague of the Second Viennese School, but Tilson Thomas, speaking from the podium, helpfully provided the audience with his own programme note, preparing those who may have never before heard Berg. Densely motivic, Tilson Thomas extracted a precise transparency from the texture, in which brass and wind proved their mettle, eventually building to a violent, shattering wall of sound from full orchestra. Snatches of melody, from which Tilson Thomas drew what lyricism he could, were reminiscent of Stravinsky, not forgetting Berg’s striking interpretation of C major that so magnificently contrasted the Schubert. Increasingly complex, the intensity of the orchestra never waned until the final crashing blow.
Photo: Michael Tilson Thomas
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