There’s something about The Planets that brings out the best in a conductor. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad performance of it, and to that list of good ones can be added this from Edward Gardner. He has been a regular guest at the Edinburgh International Festival over the last decade, but this is the first time he has brought the London Philharmonic Orchestra with him, and they gave their all in a terrific performance of interplanetary colour and drama.
Maybe conductors love it so much because the suite gives them so many opportunities to show what they can do, albeit in a less tightly structured format than that of a symphony. That relaxed form, however, can give the great ones the chance to really shine. Thus Gardner gave us a terrifically assertive Mars that slowed down daringly in its central section, giving way to a shimmering Venus and a Mercury that retained a surprisingly forthright plod. Jupiter was celebratory without being reckless, and the strings broadened out majestically for the famous hymn tune.
The finest moments came in the second half, however, where the orchestra showed how much they also loved the piece, be it in the basses that crept up secretly on the march beat in Saturn, or the way each section seemed to galumph and dance its way through Uranus’ dangerously hectic magic show. Neptune seemed to hover in mid-air, and I was enormously impressed that the sound had been balanced carefully enough that you could hear the harps twinkling quietly, a real ear-tickler. Conversely, however, I’m not sure where the singers of NYCOS were positioned, but until the musicians had dropped out almost completely, the chorus was barely audible from where I was sitting. A shame, because what I could make out was sweet and expressive.
The orchestral playing was also the most interesting thing about Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Gardner seemed to conceive the whole thing with noticeable symphonic intent, the first ten variations acting as the “first movement” and the last six acting as the finale. In these outer sections, the playing was incisive, colourful and glittering, with lots of scherzando effects balanced by the steadiness of the Dies Irae theme. For the central section, however, starting at variation 11, the tone softened beautifully and the tempo broadened to create a slow refuge that climaxed in the gorgeous 18th variation. In fact, it was the delicacy of Beatrice Rana’s piano line that was the most impressive thing about her playing. She had all the power for those outer sections, but she brought sweet beauty to her part throughout, with lightness of touch in the faster outer sections that pinpointed lots of precise details, followed by beautiful cantabile tone to the central section.
Judith Weir’s Forest felt like a rather niche choice of opener. Weir said she composed it from an initial fragment that seemed to grow branches and develop into something else, and the LPO played it with an admirable sense of organic development. But it seemed to stop growing about 10 minutes in, and it could have lost 5 minutes of its 15-minute length and still have been as satisfying.
