An unusual, though judiciously weighed, programme drew another capacity audience to the last performance of the RSNO's current season. Among his comments before beginning the concert, took a moment to express gratitude for the orchestra's hugely impressive statistical performance (as previously noted, Edinburgh audiences are up 25% this term)—and to make a timely joke about the second half's two works forming an unlikely but beautiful coalition.
Where that leaves the Schumann I don't know. There is a certain eloquence in placing it first, in discharging the duty of marking the bicentenary by performing the complete cycle. But this performance was very far from being phoned in. To the contrary, the orchestra's now-accustomed sumptuous tone was harnessed to lively tempos and skilfully balanced phrasing that brought out the score's charm while minimizing its occasional crudities. Maybe the finale was a shade too exuberant, but that is certainly preferable to the leaden reverence that sometimes predominates.
An unintended consequence of placing the symphony first is that it isn't obvious where the interval should lie. According to the programme it was scheduled after the concerto, but the ice cream vendors appeared after the Schumann, to the confusion of many.
So to the coalition. Denčve's remark was prompted, apparently, by the fact that the Elgar and the Janácek were composed in the same year. Perhaps as startling as the chronological similarity is the stark difference in the two works' temperaments, given that the same war inflected both composers' outlooks. Where the Janácek is vividly aspirational, the Elgar is melancholic and in various ways regretful.
That buttoned-down, stiff-upper-lip melancholia is well suited to the notion of a cello concerto, with the necessity for careful orchestration to avoid swamping the soloist's deeper timbres. It was particularly pleasing to hear such taut ensemble playing in the slower, quieter passages where in the past there might have been a temptation to skimp the preparation. Natalie Clein gave an assured reading of the solo part, the technical demands met with command and precision—though perhaps with a certain sweetness in the interpretation that maybe suggests a generational shift in the perception of the work's essential character.
Turning to the Janácek, there should be no doubt that Taras Bulba merits pride of place in the programme. Its imaginative intensity easily eclipses its programme-mates; not for Janácek any worries about letting form dictate content. Instead, he lets the voices in Gogol's novel compete for attention and pull the narrative trajectory through its course.
It is a bit of a guilty pleasure, all the same: the political turbulence that contextualizes Janácek's Slavic fervour has been all too real. Knowing that his technique for generating melodic material involved paying close attention to ordinary, used language, the words of Taras Bulba in all probability harbour a meaning for which we might find a parallel in the New Zealand rugby team's bloodcurdling Haka—a challenge issued directly and forcefully at its opponents, who in Janácek's case were the Poles. It's just as well that music has such limited semantic force!
Indeed, given that each of the three movements has 'death of' in its title, one can only put down the work's fierce and constant melodic invention to insouciance. Pathos isn't Janácek's thing. A dazzling orchestral technique, on the other hand, drawing on some rare tints of his broad palette—like the prominent Eb clarinet solo in the third movement—to yield a spectacle of vibrant colour: yes!
And the RSNO rose to the challenge superbly. Part of the spectacle was the two-man operation in the percussion department, both on the bells and the suspended cymbals, making visible the precision and attention to detail that has reaped such rewards in recent performances. Maybe Denčve's tempo was on the slow side in the first movement, and maybe too fast in the finale, but in the latter case I suspect part of the dynamic was a feeling of being in no particular hurry for the performance to end. Overall it was an absorbing evening, and a rousing finale to a landmark season.
The performance is to be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on 27 May
Photo: Natalie Clein
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