The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was at home to Britten and Tchaikovsky with the former’s Violin Concerto and the latter’s Fifth Symphony providing the showcase for its mastery of both modernist and romantic aesthetics. Although the concerto still has its detractors, they do not include Clara-Jumi Kang who demonstrated a grounded empathy with its combination of passionate constraint and animated grandeur. As to the symphony, Ben Glassberg fashioned a performance that is certain to add weight to his growing reputation for superb music-making.
Kang’s reading of the concerto was one of great poise, giving elegant testimony to the force of its original motifs and phrases, and revelling in its particular technical challenges. Her articulation of the motif consisting of a single down-bow attached to a rapid sequence of up-bows was very stylish; the instances of simultaneous arco and pizzicato were fine examples of her musicality. The contribution of Glassberg and the orchestra revealed an interpretive strategy that did justice to Britten’s compositional prowess: his mastery of form; the daring harmonies; and the vivid orchestration that thrilled and entranced in equal measure.
I think it if fair to say that Glassberg has a passion for Tchaikovsky and that this performance provided incontrovertible evidence. He did not make the mistake in thinking that there is anything new to be discovered in a work that is so well-known; rather, he quite spectacularly demonstrated his grasp of its magical properties, and that he possesses the slight-of-hand to reveal them to us. The orchestra sang the beautiful tunes lushly, waltzed gracefully and marched with a proud swagger as it mounted the podium to receive the accolade of the audience’s prize.
The woodwind and brass sections were, individually and collectively, on top form; the soloists luxuriated in the rich gifts offered them. In the concerto a special mention is due to the piccolos for a splendid impression of Paul Klee’s Twittering Machine; and, in the symphony, to the horn for showing how the composer extracted a moment of pure bliss from base metal.
As a rule, the opening work in such a programme is often a piece described as challenging, or is said to be breaking new ground, or is a well-known curtain-raiser guaranteed to get proceedings off to a flying start. Encounter for String Orchestra, by Joe Hisaishi, RPO’s Composer-in-Association, didn’t fit any of those descriptions. Although it was composed to accompany an exhibition of paintings by Johannes Vermeer, in performance it seemed to me to be a series of physical jerks designed to give the players a bit of a work-out. Receiving its European premiere, the players certainly gave it a go, but it wasn’t anywhere as taxing or as interesting as the material provided by Britten and Tchaikovsky. In both the concerto and the symphony the string section was superb, not just in fearlessly mastering the virtuosic writing, but also in exhibiting its enviable command of tonal variation, rhythmic precision and stylish phrasing.
