This second of the three concerts of the Bamberg Symphony’s Edinburgh International Festival residency featured just two composers. Brahms and Dvořák were colleagues, rivals and friends and this orchestra can lay claim to both. They recently recorded the four symphonies of Brahms alongside the late symphonies of Dvořák, and though now a German orchestra funded by government, they began life as the German Philharmonic Orchestra Prague. Dispersed in the postwar turmoil of 1946, they met colleagues in Bamberg who had also fled as a result of the war and joined with them to became today’s Bamberger Symphoniker. Now they have their first Czech Chief Conductor in Jakub Hrůša.
Joseph Joachim was another friend of Brahms until an estrangement following the violinist’s divorce. The composer’s last orchestral work, his Double Concerto in A minor for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, was a gesture of reconciliation towards him – and it worked. This performance though took a while to command our attention, partly Brahms’ fault for the extended cadenza-like solos given to the soloists right at the start, before the full orchestral tutti takes over. Neither soloist seemed to settle until after that, when all went well for the rest of the 20+ minutes of the Allegro.
Cellist Sol Gabetta opened the Andante with lyrical poise and a rich sound, and she and violinist Isabelle Faust were now responding to each other’s phrasing like chamber musicians. Hrůša’s swift tempo for the Vivace non troppo finale became a high-stepping dance, Gabetta in particular relishing the nearest a cellist gets to a Brahms cello concerto. When new it was not much of a success. One contemporary critic called the work “one of Brahms' most unapproachable and joyless compositions”. He should have heard this finale.
Hrůša dispensed with a score for Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, as presumably no Czech conductor can be seen to need one for this work. Its strongest movement is the first, given a classical treatment here, the second subject kept moving, and the exposition repeat duly observed. The orchestral layout was classical too, or at least continental, with first and second violins either side of the conductor, violas and cellos before him in the centre. On this showing the strings are the Bamberg orchestra’s finest asset. The winds were accurate, of course, but rather lacked profile and individuality for a score so rich in colourful music for them. However the Largo’s cor anglais solo was as finely played as I have heard it, ideal in plangent tone and sensuous line. Readers from outside the UK might be amused to learn that this theme became familiar to the British after its use in a 1973 television advert (directed by Ridley Scott, no less) for Hovis bread. But played like this, all such associations yield to its intense nostalgia.
The Scherzo was properly molto vivace as marked, Hrůša injecting considerable energy, the wind section now carolling joyfully, the timpanist thunderous whenever required. The Allegro con fuoco finale was fiery indeed, the opening trumpet fanfare ringing around the Usher Hall’s warm and generous acoustic. The great Czech conductor Rafael Kubelík once said “In Bohemia the trumpets call not to battle, but to the dance”, and so it was here, in this splendid performance. Dances formed the short encores as well; two of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances (numbers 18 and 21), given with neat symmetry in Dvořák’s orchestration.
