The programme was Louise Farrenc’s Overture No.1 in E minor, followed by Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and then Schumann’s Symphony No.1, ‘Spring’. The Halle was conducted by Tomáš Hanus, and the violinist was the indefatigable Alina Ibragimova, who stepped in at short notice to replace a self-isolating Chloe Hanslip.
Louise Farrenc was recognised as an outstanding concert pianist, a gifted composer, inspirational teacher and distinguished scholar in her day. She was professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire for 30 years, the only woman in the 19th century to hold such a position. I have to say this overture wasn’t particularly interesting – it was sort of sub-Schumann, and, reflecting in tranquillity, there’s not much I can say more than that. Before 2000, its last performance seemed to be in 1840…..
The Mendelssohn was a very good performance indeed – Alina Ibragimova has the gift of really giving a personal touch to the music she plays without seeming to make that overdone or egotistical. There were beautiful touches to her playing – the way the second subject of the first movement was phrased for instance, and some of the transition passages were delicately done, plus she gave us some beautifully soft sustained high notes – while at the same time there was a zest, an energy that made the performance really exciting as well. Alina got a big ovation at the end, deservedly. I had previously thought, among modern players, that the performance I’d heard a few years ago by Isabelle Faust was the benchmark, but this one supplanted that. I do actually enjoy the Mendelssohn concerto – it has a wider mood range than some of his works. Norman Lebrecht once argued, I seem to recall, that the first movement’s main theme had influences from Eastern European Jewish music and was disturbingly angst-ridden.
The Schumann 1 I enjoyed (and I don’t think I’ve heard a live performance of this in 50 years of concert-going) but I think Schumann’s symphonies really need a conductor of quite unusual interpretative skills and insight to really make them live: a Furtwangler, a Bernstein; I heard a very impressive 2nd Symphony conducted by Haitink a few years ago. My favourite has always been No 3, the Rhenish, and indeed originally the Halle were going to play this. This performance of the 1st wasn’t really in the Bernstein etc class, and I am afraid to say my attention drifted a little at points. But it was a perfectly decent performance, well played by the Halle and, as I say, I enjoyed it thoroughly
John's musical journey 