Schumann Genoveva: Overture; Schumann Piano Concerto; Caroline Shaw Music in Common Time; Mozart Symphony No.36 in C major ‘Linz’. Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor; Klara Min, piano
This was not my first choice for a musical outing. I had originally intended to go to a Stoller Hall concert with Ensemble 360 – some Vaughan Williams, Stainer and Schumann. However a quick check revealed that the last train home wasn’t running……This Sheffield concert seemed to be the best alternative so I quickly booked for it on the morning it was happening. It was actually quite a pleasant surprise. I decided to sit in the front stalls very near the orchestra and actually thoroughly enjoyed that position – the sound is less dead close up and things like the thwack of double bass pizzicatos are enjoyable when experienced a couple of metres away. I’ll try the same position when listening to a bigger orchestra. The audience wasn’t massive but sufficient to give atmosphere and response for the performers
The Manchester Camerata sounded tight, together, and with some excellent wind soloists. They are chamber orchestra sized, not using period instruments, but with some period informed practice (like hard drum sticks for the Mozart. I hadn’t appreciated that Gábor Takács-Nagy was the first violin of and one of the founders of the Takács string quartet – so a very distinguished musician, clearly enjoying himself hugely as a conductor and getting sharp clear performances from the orchestra. Both he and the first horn introduced works from the concert – always a good thing in my view, and indeed (not having read the programme notes carefully for the concerto), it wasn’t until Mr Takács-Nagy mentioned it that I realised that the concerto’s first movement was originally a Fantasia, and the other two movements added to make a concerto some years later.
I used to groan a bit when I saw the Schumann concerto in my early concert-going days – it seemed to get programmed an awful lot – but it’s a while since I’ve heard it and I enjoyed the performance. Ms Lim is one of those performers with a clear, crystalline tone – no romantic sponginess here – and I thought that her approach worked quite well. It still allowed for poetry, for responsive rubato, but pushed the music forward so that it didn’t sag. It was a bright-eyed fresh approach without some of the Victorian mustiness I sense in some performances.
The new piece by Caroline Shaw I’d need to listen to again to form a clearer judgement – it was certainly approachable; a bit like a constant procession of the dawn part of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, but tailing off at the end into something wispy and intangible (which was a bit odd, since it was supposed to be about time past and time future being the same). The choral sound added a lot to the work – mainly wordless but with a short poem by the composer as well.
The Mozart was hugely enjoyable – energetic, propulsive in the first and last movements, but not overly fast and (my usual comment) with a ‘bounce’ that lets all notes be heard. The analogy with Mozart’s operas brought out by the first horn’s introduction was helpful, as different sections of the orchestra responded and called to each other. I’ve not heard the Manchester Camerata live before – I must do so again before not too long
John's musical journey 