The gorgeous orchestral playing alone, so subtly coloured and controlled, made this a concert to remember.
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Here, the virtuoso playing of the LSO strings made sure every thread in Strauss’s luxuriant brocade was visible, and Rattle’s sure guiding hand made the desolate ending feel like the end of everything.
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The vocal soloists – tenor Simon O’Neill and baritone Christian Gerhaher – vividly incarnated the two sides of the emotional coin, while the instrumental soloists of the LSO under Rattle’s direction put up a dazzling firework display.
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The sound was warm but never congested, even at climaxes, the final moments almost spectral as the sonic vibrations sank resignedly into the enfolding silence.
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...a magnificent final climax, and suitably throbbing basses in the conclusion, leading to a coda of utter despair and most telling silence.
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Rattle, Gerhaher and the LSO then pulled off something remarkable in ‘Der Abschied’, flattering the poem’s beautifully poised emptying of emotion.
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The LSO’s playing was magnificent – the woodwind solos offering a compulsive, abandoned lyricism and the brass from its first entry was electrifying.
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In terms of sheer virtuosity of playing, the evening showed off the LSO at their very best. I spent the evening checking off individual musicians in my notebook as having stunned me with a solo and, by the end, the list included just about every woodwind player – as well as leader Roman Simovic
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Znaider’s amicable and free-roaming gestures facing the LSO, whose string players were standing up, epitomized the congenial intimacy conceived of Mozart's concertos.
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The London Symphony Orchestra’s musicians were in fine form and their playing was focussed and controlled through to – and beyond – an astonishing fortissimo that Strauss puts in around halfway. Praise to all the players, and especially to the leader Roman Simovic’s delicate solos.
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Bharat suited last night’s dignified occasion, but the closing Fantasy on Vedic Chants, also by Subramaniam, is the piece to be heard more often in the repertoire.
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The LSO strings brought rich tone to it, heightened by nostalgic wartime angst.
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The concert did not disappoint and was a fabulous triumph – it has to be one of the undoubted highlights of the UK-India Year of Culture.
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