Viktoria Mullova is dazzling in Sibelius' Violin Concerto but the audience of Sage Gateshead fail to make their mark when asked to sing along to Finlandia.
An eclectic programme from this Swedish orchestra which gave sharply defined performances in repertoire that, at first glance, had seemingly little in common.
“Denmark is not all Lego and pastries!” quipped Nikolaj Znaider to the Albert Hall audience. Indeed not. It is the land of Carl Nielsen, whose 150th birthday was celebrated in a packed Prom given by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
“Things found here are the opposite of what they are meant to represent,” warned Thomas Dausgaard at the opening of Saturday evening’s performance pairing Beethoven and Nielsen.
Since the end of September, the Manchester concert scene has been in full swing; performances from the city’s native and visiting ensembles (orchestral and chamber) are all speeding towards a diverse and exciting season of familiar and forgotten works in chamber recitals, orchestral concerts and opera. One especially well-represented composer this season is Finland’s Jean Sibelius.
With his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, the centerpiece in the concert with the London Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, Beethoven took the classical concerto format he had inherited into uncharted waters. The work opens with a series of piano chords, which the orchestra takes up, develops and kneads into riveting thematic material before the soloist returns.
De ce concert on retiendra les belles pages du danois Carl Nielsen et du finlandais Jean Sibelius tout en regrettant un Beethoven qui eut gagné à pencher plus du côté des noirceurs nordiques de ses voisins de soirée...
