United Kingdom Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant [2] – Brahms, Dvořák: Isabelle Faust (violin), Sol Gabetta (cello), Bamberger Symphoniker / Jakub Hrůša (conductor). Usher Corridor, Edinburgh, 7.8.2024. (SRT)
Brahms – Double Concerto
Dvořák – Symphony No.9 ‘From the New World’
The Bamberger Symphoniker are within the Edinburgh for a four-day stint, and when you could have a three-gig residency you’ll be able to afford to throw away a live performance on some fairly mediocre music. This they did final night time, with glorious performances of middle-ranking music from Hans Rott (his Symphony No.1) and Bruckner (his Symphonic Prelude).
Tonight, their second live performance, felt like actually getting all the way down to enterprise, although, with two central pillars of the classical repertoire performed by prime identify visiting soloists. In actual fact, of their respective fields it’s exhausting to get a lot greater than Isabelle Faust and Sol Gabetta. They introduced aristocratic grace and surging depth to their enjoying, fulfilling brilliantly the completely different personae that Brahms writes for them. They made for clever sparring companions within the rival cadenzas of the opening, and competed to steal the limelight within the finale, however within the gradual motion they moved in excellent lockstep, the honeyed heat of Brahms’s themes sounding as stunning and condensed as you may think about.
The orchestral sound was nice, too, however conductor Jakub Hrůša’s best achievement was to keep away from any problems with steadiness in order that the cello may at all times be heard. The quartet of horns sounded terrific, however they had been at all times held in verify in order that Faust and Gabetta retained the highest billing. This may be Brahms’s least impressed concerto – go on, admit it! – however a efficiency like this makes the strongest case for it you may think about.
Pairing Brahms’s least efficient concerto with Dvořák’s hottest symphony illustrated the central themes of the Bambergers’ Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant residency: forging connections and passing on the torch. They did this additionally of their encores, two of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances that had been orchestrated by Dvořák. So, in fact, the New World symphony sounded terrific as performed by them. In actual fact, they’re most likely one of the best certified German orchestra to play Czech music of any sort, contemplating that the orchestra started life because the Prague’s German Philharmonic Orchestra and solely moved to Bamberg after the Second World Battle.
And that pedigree shone by, each within the enjoying and in Hrůša’s path. There’s a terrific mitteleuropäishce heat to their sound, coming by particularly within the heat of the string tone but additionally within the readability of their brass. Hrůša harnessed that to convey Dvořák’s symphony to glowing life, however he additionally formed the sound with deep sensitivity. The perky third theme of the primary motion, for instance, was heard many occasions however by no means sounded the identical means twice, and he leaned into the trills of the third motion’s trio with explicit vim. The drama of the finale hung along with loads of sparkle, balancing the heart-quivering melancholy of the gradual motion. They’re again with extra Dvořák and Suk on Friday ninth August. Whether it is something like this then will probably be unmissable.
Simon Thompson
The Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant runs at venues throughout town till Sunday twenty fifth August. Click on right here for particulars.
