Here was a truly touching fragility and a magical transparency, as the muted strings’ syncopated breathing and the timpani’s pulse, faltering but still throbbing with life, was juxtaposed with the glistening harp and woodwind memories.
[Canellakis] has a clear and continuous beat, conveys her own delight in the music, and reserves really expansive gestures for episodes of, well, transfiguration. Nothing could follow this, surely ... but few pieces end a concert as well as Ravel’s La valse.
[Beethoven]’s Symphony No 9 in D minor (Choral) was delivered, as always with these performers, as though every phrase, every note, really mattered.
Quietly devastating in her meticulousness, [Chan] gave us marvellously paced and phrased accounts of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite No 2 and — with the superb soloist Lukáš Vondráček — of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No 3 (what a heart-warming, flaring tutti climax to the finale).
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From the opening moments, glowing with longing and tenderness, to the way the strings dug deep for the elegiac final movement, the orchestra’s performance was one of heightened colour and feverish energy.
The LSO, the London Adventist Chorale and a huge community choir dispensed pure joy.
The playful vehemence of the Scherzo and hymnlike spirituality in the Adagio sounded all the more like pure Beethoven, making this a concert of gripping intensity.
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Chan brought out exquisite detail whilst never losing sight of the big picture and clearly relished the work’s vibrant colours.
Rattle inserted an unmarked, but highly effective, pause before the great theme and was beautifully phrased, which moved to a triumphant conclusion where the power of a full-sized modern symphony orchestra brought a lump to the throat.
I found myself constantly drawn to the inward drama of the tone-to-tone unfolding as governed by Rattle’s tempi ... one feels the music could take us anywhere.
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Under Rattle, the LSO’s delicacy is astounding.
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The opening Rondo was sumptuously played by the orchestra’s rich strings, with particularly expressive contributions by woodwind and horns.
A Beethoven Ninth to remember from Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra. This performance was sure to be a major highlight of Beethoven 250 in London.
