My first foray live into a concert hall since February 27 2020! It was a programme I might previously have thought to be too familiar – I don’t think I will ever take such concerts for granted again. The Barbican felt comfortably full, despite the socially distanced seating, and indeed the show was a sell-out (one of three with the same performers and pieces).
This was a concert in two parts, in terms of the quality of performance, I thought. The Rachmaninov (Piano Concerto No 2) I found to be very good indeed. There is a racist trope you sometime hear that says all East Asian-origin performers can be technically brilliant but lack ‘soul’ or ‘real’ sensitivity. Yuja Wang gave I thought a wonderful performance that had masses of sensitive nuances and grace – occasionally I felt she was too quiet against the orchestra, but that could have been because of where I was sitting…….I was moved to tears by her rendering of the second subject of the last movement. The LSO sounded glorious – how remarkably LOUD live orchestras are – and the strings , despite being severely reduced (only 4 double basses for instance), really dug into the big tunes. I wasn’t quite sure why the strings were so reduced – it wasn’t Covid seating on stage, since there was plenty of space left over; maybe it was simply cost. I always find it to be a good indicator of the quality of an orchestra as to how confidently the horns and woodwind play out – the big German orchestras sound like this, such as the BPO, BRSO, LGO etc, but only the LSO does among British orchestras; the horn playing was particularly distinguished
Beethoven’s Fifth was very well played and enjoyable to listen to, but sounded a bit, somehow, podgy. The finale was taken at a slowish speed and, unlike some of the historically-informed performances, Tilson Thomas didn’t really bring out the dynamic inner string parts which push the movement forward rhythmically – the contrast with Theodor Currentzis and Musica Aeterna at the Proms a few years ago (see 2018 blog) was huge. The performance could also have benefited from a timpani player using harder drum sticks. The sound was a bit too smooth and brass/woodwind dominated and the inner voices got lost – the whole effect was just slightly sedate. But…it was still wonderful to hear the trombones and trumpets in the finale, and the fist three movements – particularly the second – were very well played indeed.
A great occasion!!
John's musical journey 