Ralph Vaughan-Williams once called John Barbirolli, ‘Glorious John’. In 1943 (see one of our blogs) he had returned from his six years as conductor of the New York Philharmonic to rescue the remains of the broken Halle Orchestra. With barely thirty players he built it up into one of Britain’s finest orchestras, remaining with them for most of the rest of his life. It is our oldest orchestra and now under its present conductor, Sir Mark Elder, it has risen to new peaks of excellence. I heard it last night in Bristol for the first time for a decade or more, when we used to attend their concerts in Sheffield. It is a superb instrument, refined in its precision and opulent in tone; there is a bloom in its sound that is quite unusual, at least to my ear. They have recently issued under their own label, a CD of Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ that has been widely praised.
It’s Barbiroli’s orchestra that is now the glorious one.
The conductor last night was the Russian Alexander Lazarev, whom I heard conduct many years ago in Amsterdam.
He rushed on to the platform for the overture, glasses in one hand and the other outstretched to the leader, mounted the podium, bowed hastily to the audience, stuck his glasses on the end of his nose, opened his arms (no baton) for the opening chords of Weber’s ‘Euryanthe’ Overture, and we were off! His athleticism continued throughout the concert, to great musical effect, as he gave close attention to the confused but colourful 1st symphony of Tchaikovsky (which the composer called ‘the sin of my sweet youth’) and finishing with so great a flourish that he nearly ended sitting on the front row of the stalls.
But the jewel of the concert was the performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto by the Norwegian Henning Kraggerud*. It was a sensitive and deeply felt interpretation of a fiendishly difficult work, which alternates between melody and dissonance, quiet cadenzas and a battle between soloist and full orchestra.
There was a perfect understanding between orchestra and soloist that made for a memorable evening. It was one of those occasions when one feels privileged to be present.
B.R.
* Kraggerud has recorded the concerto on the Naxos label with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and it has been well reviewed. I shall look for it.
