Odd concert hall juxtapositions

[Mark Thomas]

Slightly off-topic I'm afraid, but maybe Alan will allow me, just this once 

As we frequently do, my wife and I went to a CBSO concert at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on Wednesday. I don't know why we chose an afternoon concert, really, as our experience of them is that, although we are in our 50s, we are always amongst the youngest there. The packed audiences seem to be largely composed of coach parties (here they are at the interval). I probably sound both ageist and snobbish here, but it's clear that the management know their market and as a result the programming is usually unadventurous, with the performances often safe and unexciting to boot.

So it proved on Wednesday. The first half was Freddy Kemf's colourless and tepid interpretation of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto under the baton of Vassily Sinaisky (of whom I'd never heard). Things improved marginally in the second half with a sprightlier Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony but, although there was plenty of polish this being the CBSO, there was no individuality or vitality to the performance. It was more like an conductor-less run-through. As my mother would have said: "very nice, thank you dear".

Then came the change of gear. The final piece was Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini. The transformation was utterly spellbinding. Their numbers doubled, the CBSO played as if their lives depended on it, Sinaisky started actually conducting, rather than merely beating the time, the storms and fires of hell raged with an almost painful intensity, the lovers' music was as meltingly lyrical as one could hope it to be and, wonder of wonders, the previously torpid audience sat up and got involved in the performance. I loved it.

So what was it? The weird programming of passion-overloaded Tchaikovsky after classically reserved Mendelssohn? A piece which stretched the orchestra after two they could play on autopilot? A simple increase in volume because there were 100 players on stage after only 60? The effect of a Russian conductor performing Russian music?

I don't know, but I came away thinking both what an odd programming juxtaposition it was and how glad I was for it. Does my experience ring any bells?

[Ilja]

It does pose an interesting question, i.e. does practice and experience with a piece always make an orchestra better at playing it? Up to a point certainly, but one can probably define a moment after which it becomes merely routine and blasé.

I can partly relate to this, having heard the Berliner Philharmoniker play a number of Beethoven symphonies under Abbado in which you got the eerie feeling that Karajan was conducting from beyond the grave. When they played Strauss' First Symphony the same season, they were magnificent, however.

[Alan Howe]

Wow, Strauss' early Symphony with the BPO...! That must have been something!