I’ve never heard this orchestra play so quietly, as if on the threshold of extinction, nor this symphony evoke so many epochs of musical civilisation, from vibrato-less, quasi-Renaissance polyphony to the full flood of romanticism, and then on into remarkably prescient intimations of 20th-century dissonance and turmoil. The players looked exhausted by the end. Psychologically, so was I.
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In the Finale’s ‘Swan Hymn’, Mälkki was concerned to bring out the complementary cellos and double basses as much as the swaying horn figures. Five years after the death of Sir Colin Davis his orchestra may have found a Sibelius conductor of comparable commitment.
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Gardiner’s feeling for the pace and bite of early-romantic orchestral language is more than a touch revelatory, as his Mendelssohn performances with the standing LSO in 2016 already made clear, and as the evening’s encore — from the Scherzo of Schumann’s Second Symphony — additionally confirmed.
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The ever-so-musical Müller-Schott had an undeniably tonal beauty and every percussive element was kept with lyrical allure.
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Gardiner remains one of the great Schumann interpreters, wonderfully alert to the music’s volatility and rigour. The LSO, on terrific form for him, played seated for the concerto ... Gardiner opted for the 1841 version of the Fourth, as opposed to Schumann’s denser rewrite of 1851, and the textural transparency and rhythmic elan proved utterly beguiling. The Genoveva Overture swivelled between Sturm und Drang turbulence and elation, while Overture, Scherzo and Finale was electric in its tension and excitement.
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With the LSO on fine, layered form – the strings were notably translucent – and Lugansky characteristically intelligent and robustly elegant, between them they didn’t drop a stitch.
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The woodwinds gliding through the lean, lyrical strings were special, yet the highlights were in the clarity of the contrapuntal and chorale-like sections of the Finale, where Gardiner rose to his credential as early music specialist.
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From sepulchral basses to intense violins, the strings were formidable, as were the wind and brass solos — shrieking E flat clarinet and piccolo, eloquent cor anglais and bassoon, an ethereal horn.
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The Romanza's startlingly spare unisons of oboe and cello were exquisitely rendered by key LSO player Oliver Stankiewicz, virtually leading the standing woodwind, and principal cellist Rebecca Gilliver; leader of the Schumann evenings so far Carmine Lauri brought the voice from another planet - Clara descending to console Schumann in bleak mood? - which makes a longer stay in the heart of the Scherzo (the reappearance still seems radical).
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Roth, a supportive, listening accompanist, ensured the structure held together, and the brass and percussion sections excelled in ways we know they can.
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The LSO offered unstinting attentiveness to detail and colour, and flawless technique, even as Gardiner’s pulses teased at the edge of playability in their slowness (Berlioz’s Le spectre de la rose) and daring (Schumann’s Scherzo).
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What made this concert stand out was the exceptional quality of the playing by the London Symphony Orchestra. I haven’t heard it sound so alert and refined in every department.
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A stone would have melted at one of the most remarkable concert performances I've ever witnessed from a singer, the luminous Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg's total collaboration with Gardiner and the LSO in Berlioz's Les nuits d'été.
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