Rattle offered some of the gentlest, tenderest phrasing I have ever heard in this movement, with dynamics often pared down to a whisper, like watching in a slow-frame sequence groups of young maidens floating through summer meadows and picking posies of wildflowers.
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From shimmering to sonorous (but never too loud or brass-heavy), the LSO and its Guildhall guests made for an impressive coming-together of youthful and experienced talent…All in all, an inspiring evening.
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The performance was everything one might have hoped.
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Noseda and the LSO surpassed themselves in their openness to Berlioz’s astounding originality, and the playing was superbly idiomatic, with a saturated sound that kept its transparency. Tamestit is the subject of the LSO’s Artist Portrait next season – so that’s something to look forward to.
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…the total impact was awesome… Could anyone top that? Send in Daniil Trifonov.
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The poise of the strings’ opening phrases, Trifonov’s subtle touch and the elegiac feeling Cobb brought when the muted trumpet takes up the theme, bestowed a magical benediction.
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Both Julia Fischer’s account of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and the LSO’s quite superlative account Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra were streets ahead of any of the many live performances one has heard.
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Cohesive narrative was maintained through persuasively shaped phrasing. Eye contact with the woodwinds – and over-the-shoulder glances at the violins – teased out dialogues, especially in the central movement which took on the quality of intimate chamber music. [Alica Sara Ott] transformed the finale into a playful Scherzo, playing cat and mouse with the orchestra.
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I would like to think that had Mahler been a member of the Barbican audience witnessing the supreme musicianship of the LSO under Simon Rattle, he would have been reassured that his great masterpiece had been understood.
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All received revelatory performances, whether in the hyperactive, almost anarchic figuration conjured up in his left hand through the scherzo of Beethoven’s E flat Sonata Op 31 No 3, or the glittering decoration in the Andante Favori
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This realisation was marvellously lucid. One really could make out the complex vertical goings-on
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Playing a Fazioli instrument, he never made an ugly sound even amid the motor rhythms and fusillades of the finale, and in the central movement he conjured up the innocence of a world lost for ever.
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At the heart of the movement is the monumental solo horn part (earning principal Timothy Jones a huge ovation), complemented by Mahler's extraordinary ingenious ensemble writing for that instrument. It was simply some of the best horn playing I have ever heard live, recklessly melodic, endlessly colourful, sometimes pillow-soft.
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