This concert was the second of three in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s valuable series of the five Mendelssohn symphonies, plus three concertos. We heard the Third and Fifth, the Scottish and Reformation. Sir András Schiff was conducting, but first he performed the Piano Concerto no. 2 in D minor, where his ‘conducting’ was limited to the few moments when his hands were liberated from the keyboard of his fortepiano (Bluthner no.726, since you ask, from about 1859).
To unaccustomed ears this instrument sounded rather shallow, so that in the first movement some fast loud chordal passages became a touch pugilistic (from Schiff, of all artists!). But the slow movement especially was a delight from soloist and several OAE players, responding to each other in chamber music style. The finale brought some audience whoops, enough to produce an encore. Since we now heard more Mendelssohn, and twelve minutes of it, in variation form, I took this unannounced item to be his Variations sérieuses. It made a more substantial impression than the concerto.
The first movement of the Reformation Symphony’s opening Andante section was suitably sombre, and the strings’ “Dresden Amen” slow and devout. The main Allegro con fuoco was fiery enough, the OAE responding well to Schiff’s direction – with his batonless clenched hands and plenty of energy, despite the number of fortepiano notes he had just played. The Vivace revealed the OAE’s pungent woodwind sounds, and the concentrated playing of the very brief Andante provided a still centre to the work. The finale opened with a serene solo from Principal Flute Liza Beznosiuk, Luther’s chorale Ein feste Burg is unser Gott, (A mighty fortress is our God), familiar from its use in Bach’s cantata. Its maestoso peroration made a stirring close to a first part 80 minutes long.