Schubert: Overture, Rosamunde; Saint-Saens, Cello Concerto No 1; Bruckner, Symphony no 6. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor Domingo Hindoyan; Guy Johnston, cello
It must be nearly 10 years since I last heard Bruckner 6 live (in the distinguished hands of Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle, at the RAH Proms), so I was keen to go to this concert – it’s not a work that often pops up in the concert hall. I may also possibly have gone to a BBCSO performance conducted by von Dohnányi in 1969 and I remember a BBC Phil Proms performance in 2012. That’s about it in terms of live performances….. I have known this work since I was 17 or so and bought a disk of one of Jochum’s performances. But somehow in this Liverpool performance of Bruckner 6 I found I was hearing the work as though for the first time.
The programming didn’t make a great deal of sense (except for the very general connection between Schubert and Bruckner) unless, I suppose, seen as two tasty morsels served before something more challenging, designed to encourage the cautious to take a risk. In fact, though I’ve known the Schubert overture since I was about 13, I have no knowledge at all of the Saint Saens piece, which, like most of his music, has simply passed me by (I keep meaning and failing to see Samson and Delilah at ROHCG).
All three of the major Midlands/Northern orchestras seem to have struck lucky with their musical directors appointed in the past two years or so – Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham (and actually the BBC Phil at Manchester too). So I was also interested to hear and see how the relationship b between the RLPO and Hindoyan was developing
It was bitterly cold when I arrived in Liverpool, with a biting wind straight off the Irish Sea. The manic character of central Liverpool – one of the more likeable of British cites – seemed worlds away from 19th century Vienna. The bright white glare of the Philharmonic Hall seemed equally far from both. However, Hindoyan and the orchestra deftly squared the circle and took away both the glare and the cold by offering a sprightly Rosamunde overture, with punchy tight woodwind playing, extremely rhythmically precise string playing (I was sitting in the front row and they were flawless) that nevertheless had a properly Viennese lilt to it and was not hard driven. There was also some gorgeous oboe playing in the solo introduction
The Saint Saens piece I had low expectations of as music and by the law of self-fulfilling prophecies that’s exactly how I found it. It is urbane, and tuneful but nothing that marks it as an interesting journey or one which grips the listener. I fell asleep momentarily in the finale. Guy Johnston gave a nuanced delicate account that sounded just right for the piece (and I appreciate cellists probably have a different view of the work, given their limited repertoire). Johnston’s encore, perhaps inevitably was The Swan, with accompaniment from the RLPO cello section in an arrangement by Ben Hughes..
The performance of Bruckner 6 I liked very much. The RLPO sounded quite magnificent, with a gorgeous central European sheen on the strings, cellos and basses in particular digging deeply into their notes; the horn section sounded full-bodied and unfaltering, and there was some very fine woodwind playing – the oboe, again, comes to mind, in the slow movement.
Bruckner 6 is an oddity even among his quirky set of symphonies. It is more hesitant and unpredictable than the others, sometimes feeling as though its music lurches forward pursued by something deeply unsettling, even evil. The end of the finale, normally in Bruckner a glorious hymn of praise bringing different elements of the symphony together, in the 6th symphony sounds rushed and perfunctory, as though the door opening up the heavens is being slammed shut quickly before the demons get in. Hindoyan made the centrepiece of his interpretation the slow movement, which was a real revelation to me. Hindoyan and the orchestra gave a full-blooded loving account of the music, and I enjoyed I think this performance of it more than any other I’ve heard live. Again, it’s not like many other slow movements of Bruckner’s, which have a triumphant almost orgasmic climax, and its structure is more complex, but it is a place of consolation and safety around which the other movements swirl. The closing bars were quietly luminous and beautifully played by the strings and woodwind. The first movement was fastish, and again emphasised the demonic element – the insistent 5 note rhythm sounded threatening and urgent, a nervous tic, in Hindoyan’s reading, and although the broadening brass blaze towards the end offers hope, it is overtaken by the driving 5 notes again, ending in what sounded more like a threat rather than a promise. The third movement was curiously unsettling, the fluttering main theme difficult to pin down, perhaps a little like that of the 9th’s second movement’s Trio – wisps of melody that are by no means benevolent. The fourth movement, usually described as difficult to bring off, Hindoyan and the orchestra drove forward convincingly, pushing back the darkness, with some splendid brass playing.
This was by no means a conventional approach to performing Bruckner, but for this symphony anyway it worked really well. I’m glad I made the effort to travel to Liverpool to hear it. Hindoyan is an undemonstrative conductor on the rostrum – a clear beat, lots of use of the eyes, not much gesturing – and probably all the better for it – certainly he gets superlative results from the RLPO
John's musical journey 