BBCSSO, 1/12/11

Sibelius : Rakastava
Sibelius : Symphony No. 4
Dvorak : Cello Concerto (Andreas Brantelid)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Manze

Although this version of "Rakastava", for strings and percussion, dates from 1911, and is rather more than just an orchestration of the choral original, that original dates from the 1890s, and the style is  reflective and lyrical, not unlike the celebrated "Valse Triste", or some passages from the incidental music to "Pelleas and Melisande".  The reworking, however, has a singularly beautiful texture, especially the delicate second movement, and the playing and articulation of the SSO strings was very fine.

Of Sibelius' seven (completed) symphonies, the 3rd and 4th are the "runts" of the litter, in the sense that they're the least heard.  It's not entirely surprising for the 4th, because it's an extremely disquieting piece.  Sibelius is clearly pushing the envelope; commentary suggests that he felt he was being left behind by musical advances, and the 4th Symphony was a response to that reaction.  If so, it was a devastating and bleak one, like nothing else I can think of from the same period, even though the shadow of war was already looming and had clearly been felt by a number of his contemporaries.  If we're going to talk psychology, however, and compare Mahler to his closest contemporary, for me the Finn has the edge any day.  He achieves with economy and precision what takes Mahler seemingly hours to convey (and don't get me wrong, I like Mahler well enough), and where Mahler's spirituality can get mired in dogma and ritual (I'm thinking particularly of the 8th), Sibelius sees a higher power that is genuinely beyond human comprehension.  That sense of something so absolute that it is utterly alien is strongest in the 4th and 7th Symphonies, and while the latter was never to have a sequel, it is not completely surprising that Sibelius should have retrenched a little from the outposts of the 4th into the somewhat more traditional forms of the 5th.  Manze and the SSO had a good grasp of the fleeting nature of this work, letting it flow as it will, passing from phrase to phrase without trying to force it into a shape it doesn't have, and playing through with barely a pause between movements, so that you follow the threads of ideas like the dancing lights of will o' the wisps deeper and deeper into the forest, and are left lost and alone at the end.

While I may have two or three favourite violin concertos, it's not the same for the cello. The Dvorak stands clearly at the head of the list (and probably occupies the next two places as well!).  Admittedly, there's not quite as much competition in that field, but every time I hear the piece live, I'm reminded of just how beautifully it's written, the orchestration so carefully calculated so that the solo cello is completely audible 99.9% of the time, and yet the effect of the whole so natural and artless.  If, as usually said, Dvorak really didn't think that much of the potential of the cello as a solo instrument, he certainly did his homework before composing this concerto, and it's little wonder that it's a favourite both with soloists and audiences to this day.

Manze took the first movement at a fairly leisurely pace, with the second subject a bit too slow for my taste, but one should never consider the tempi of movements on an individual basis, but as part of a successive whole, and this choice allowed him to set a good clip for the last movement without seeming rushed.  The young Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid has a good, clean, assured sound, but lacks as yet a true singing tone.  No one has ever quite matched Rostropovitch for the passionate conviction he brought to this music, and Brantelid doesn't yet have the experience, but there was one moment of pure grace here, in the last movement, when the solo cello has a brief duet with the leader, tonight assured by guest leader Kanako Ito, who displayed an impressively sure, sweet tone.  At that point, Brantelid was rightly watching her, rather than the conductor, and melded perfectly for an instant of soaring intensity leading into the coda.

[A/N : Looking at the stats for this blog, I seem to have acquired a few fairly regular readers, not to mention a follower - thank you all for your time, by the way - so I thought I'd add a little information the end of my posts, regarding the likely occurrence of the next post, bearing in mind that my reviews usually follow within 24 hours of the event.  So, the next event will be the RSNO concert on Saturday 3rd December.]