The orchestral interjections between the violin phrases were exciting, the sound coming across in powerful waves and then returning to calm. The ethereal violin ending, followed by a sustained chord with the brightest of orchestral timbres, was breathtaking.
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Rattle, the LSO and the LSO chorus treated the score with respect, never hamming up the more obvious sections. The integration of the actors worked well. The visuals were extended by interludes between the musical sections accompanied by an effective aural collage. Overall this was an entertaining and moving experience and all credit to Rattle and McBurney for resurrecting it.
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The LSO’s highly wrought, ultra-dramatic way with the music not only surprised, but truly enlightened, enriching my understanding of the possibilities of a work I had thought I knew well.
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... Rattle and the LSO gave us a refreshingly energised performance of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, so different from the usual fey tiptoe, and a bracing and actually rather “authentic” sounding Suite from Rameau’s Les Boréades. How exhilarating that symphony orchestras have regained their confidence to tackle early 18th-century music.
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In Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder she was ideal for the lighter songs, where her near-soprano can reach gracefully to the higher notes, and engaged intently with the texts of the others. Three Handel arias, nimbly accompanied by the LSO players, followed after the interval.
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Trust Simon Rattle to dig out unknown bits of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Milhaud and other 1940s composers — all packed into one piece. And then to revive that piece with a presentational panache that included not just the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in cracking form and four distinguished thespians (Sara Kestelman, Helen McCrory, Simon Callow, Rodney Earl Clarke) as narrators, but also a film and soundtrack curated by Gerard McBurney from period newsreels.
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Rattle took the second movement at a seemingly ideal flowing tempo, the expression again lyrical but delivered with a light touch, to create an interpretation of the symphony as a whole that seemed absolutely perfect.
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The LSO is playing with a pin-point precision and finesse these days (too often lacking under previous management) and with Sir Simon at the helm its dynamic range is unquestionably the widest of the London orchestras!
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Nobody knows why Schubert didn’t finish the symphony, but this performance, both measured and expansive, felt like a complete musical experience.
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Each sound seemed to have been weighed to the milligram, allowing the contrasts maximum opportunity to register. The result was a performance that balanced a sense of finesse with mesmerising intensity.
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The London Symphony Orchestra’s final Barbican show of the year – show is more fitting than mere concert – was 90 minutes of unalloyed pleasure and delight; a suitably celebratory curtain call for new music director Simon Rattle.
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Rattle's direction (of music by several composers he is unlikely to conduct elsewhere) was perceptive, and the LSO's playing assured; as was the contribution of the London Symphony Chorus
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For the curtain call finale the contagious "Conga" was reprised as cast and choir snaked and kicked their legs through the aisles of the hall – picking up audience members along the way – leading to a riotous on-stage dance. An evening finally of memorable fun and high-spirits with the anxiety of the dank, chilly outside world, for a time, forgotten.
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