United States Tanglewood Pageant 2024 [10] – Beethoven: Kirill Gerstein (piano), Joshua Bell (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Boston Symphony Orchestra / Alan Gilbert (conductor). Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox, 4.8.2024. (CSa)
Beethoven – Concerto in C for piano, violin and cello, Op.56; Symphony No.4 in B-flat, Op.60
Regal, imperious, even grandiloquent are adjectives typically utilized by musicians and musicologists to explain Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. Certainly, some argue that this work, accomplished in 1804 when Beethoven was in his early 30s isn’t actually a concerto in any respect, however, as The Guardian’s Tom Service places it, ‘an amplified piano trio, with the orchestra beefing up the textures however typically decreased to not more than generic accompaniment.’ Composed for his 16-year-old pupil and patron Archduke Rudolf of Austria – himself a eager beginner pianist- the work’s emphasis is on a collective dialog between piano, violin and cello, with no actual dialogue between the instrumentalists and the orchestra or so it’s claimed. How rewarding subsequently, to listen to a efficiency final week at Tanglewood wherein a pared-down Boston Symphony Orchestra underneath the deft baton of Alan Gilbert totally engaged with a star-studded trio comprising pianist Kirill Gerstein, violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Steven Isserlis. The opening orchestral Allegro at first virtually imperceptible, then swelling with exhilarating grandeur, served as a sluggish and stately introduction to the three solo devices. Isserlis’s vibrant cello (the intestine stringed 1726 ‘Marquis de Corberon’ Stradivarius) parried sweetly with the honeyed tone of Bell’s violin (additionally a Strad however manufactured 13 years earlier in 1713). Their intertwined melody was then gently bolstered by Gerstein’s soft-grained pianism on an open-lidded Steinway. The consequence was a joyous and finely balanced tripartite alternate wherein no single voice dominated, supported in excellent partnership by the orchestra. The second motion Largo featured a fervent duet between violin and cello – a passionate interchange by the supple, body-gesturing Bell and Isserlis, a halo of silver curls tossing with every flip of his head. The ever-sensitive Gerstein accompanied thoughtfully all through. Transferring seamlessly into the ultimate Rondo, a sprightly polonaise, gamers and orchestra joined collectively equally and evenly in an exhilarating, irrepressible dance.
Beethoven’s classical and compact Fourth Symphony made up the second half of the programme. It was composed two years after the Triple Concerto, in 1806. The musicologist Charles Groves moderately unfairly declared that it stood between Beethoven’s heroic ‘Eroica’ Third Symphony, and his epic Fifth ‘like a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants.’. Regardless of variations in scale and emotional depth, the Fourth is indubitably a piece of life-affirming genius and represents the composer, who was at the moment fighting impending deafness, at his brightest and most optimistic. Gilbert, releasing an infectious vitality, took the work at a brisk tempo. The efficiency, stuffed with zest and enthusiasm, was at all times sharply centered and finely detailed – qualities maybe simpler to attain with an orchestra authentically gotten smaller. After an eerie, purring introductory Adagio, Gilbert launched the gamers’ brakes, so to talk, allowing the orchestra to lurch ahead within the Allegro vivace, like a racing automotive at full throttle. Even within the sluggish second motion, Gilbert ensured that the Haydnesque ticking clock theme, was tightly coiled and stuffed with menacing humour. The Adagio was adopted by a sparklingly crisp and joke-filled third motion, stuffed with shock off-beat accents and syncopated rhythms. A febrile last Allegro distinguished by taut strings and tightly coordinated woodwind and horns introduced the symphony to a conclusion. A fittingly sunny finish to an overcast Tanglewood afternoon.
Chris Sallon
