It was a deeply rewarding performance in which the conductor Sakari Oramo knew exactly how to make every moment come to life, and the orchestra delivered with vivid, focused playing. In Lemminkainen and the Maidens of the Island we were right there among the rustic merriment, while the shivering strings of Lemminkainen in Tuonela were genuinely chilling, its later lyricism stirring. The final return of our hero was met with cheers.
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Undoubtedly this was the best part of a programme that didn’t quite hang together. It opened with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, presumably chosen because he was composing during the same era as Sibelius. Yet there’s not a huge amount to connect the two stylistically, nor was the contrast particularly illuminating. Still, even if Coleridge-Taylor’s well-crafted Symphonic Variations on an African Air might have been more effectively paired with, say, Elgar or Dvorak, the piece offered a welcome blast of warmth in a cool programme, giving us blossoming brass and big tunes.
Thomas Adès does, however, have a strong affinity with Sibelius, and a couple of months ago he conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Finnish composer’s music. His Violin Concerto Concentric Paths has been in the violinist Christian Tetzlaff’s repertoire for at least two years now. Tetzlaff’s authority was evident right from the opening solo violin oscillations in “Rings”, ricocheting into stratospheric orbit, colliding with the orchestra’s circling trajectories. The effort needed to tame the music’s internal forces was palpable.
* LSO/Adès review — an action-packed concert with a madcap premiere
Opening with stark grandeur and the spirit of a Bach chaconne, “Paths” was the gravitational centre of the piece, and Tetzlaff found its unease and intensity, while the ritualistic finale, “Rounds”, worked its intoxicating magic. Throughout, Tetzlaff’s approach was serious, even austere, and despite warm audience applause there was no encore.
★★★☆☆
Radio 3, Jan 22, then available on BBC Sounds
