‘Romantic composers sell’ appeared to be the mantra underpinning the programming for last night’s National Symphony Orchestra concert. However, a concert of Wagner, Stanford and Brahms didn’t quite make for a packed a house which was a great pity as conductor, orchestra and soloist gave thoroughly engaging performances all round. There was a loose Irish connection to the works of the first half: Wagner’s monumental music drama Tristan und Isolde is based on the tragic and forbidden love of an Irish princess for a Cornish knight, while Charles Villiers Stanford, an Anglo-Irish composer, infused some Irish harmonies into his generally romantic idiom.
The weight of expectation in the Act 1 Tristan Prelude makes it a formidable challenge for any conductor and orchestra. Estonian conductor Mihhail Gerts opened at a stately pace and if it lacked a miasma of mystery he nonetheless revelled in those famous glowering dissonances. The strings were sumptuous, simmering with intensity with their long-arched crescendos. At times, I longed for even more yearning from the NSO as the melody reached its wondrous climax. The pianissimo brass which opens the Liebestod was impressively done. Here Gerts allowed the swirling harmonies to advance and retreat, with crescendos that vanished before bursting forth with ever greater fervour. Somewhat disappointingly, the climax itself was slightly insipid, failing to reach that euphoric outpouring of Isolde’s cathartic transfiguration of love through death.
This year marks the centenary of the death of Stanford. He was born in Dublin but made his career in England, at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. Clarinettist Carol McGonnell showed herself to be a lively presence on stage with distinctive gestures and movements in his Clarinet Concerto in A minor. The passionate orchestral opening was in no danger of overpowering her as the clarinet easily soared over the NSO. McGonnell was most impressive in the quieter moments where she evinced a silky lyricism. The opening fanfare on the horns for the third movement was arresting as the clarinet arrived, with mercurial leaps, dextrous scales and antiphonal arpeggios.
Gerts proved himself most at home with Brahms. His classical approach to the Fourth Symphony was both expansive and highly expressive while the orchestra responded with a confident, rounded sound. The opening was very well shaped with slow, ominous brass and muscular arpeggiated strings. Gerts harnessed the energy of the antiphonal exchanges and cross-rhythms to great effect and the strings played as if their lives depended upon it.
The mournful horn air of the second movement contrasted beautifully with the hushed tenderness of the strings later on. Gerts tore into the lively Allegro giocoso with its riotous exchanges emanating joy. Crucially he kept the tension under wraps, ratcheting it up expertly when needed. The lugubrious opening brass of the finale dispelled all the joviality of the previous movement in an instant. The sudden injection of pace was masterfully done as Gerts and the NSO brought this extraordinary symphony to a worthy close.
