This concert was the first of two to be given by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Bernard Haitink, to mark his 85th birthday, and it was a shame that the Barbican was not sold out for what promised to be a special evening. Even before the performance had started, Haitink was greeted with cheers from the audience, and quite rightly so - his career has spanned six decades, and as evidenced by their 2011 Proms performance, he shares a particularly warm relationship with this orchestra.
The concert opened with Schumann's Manfred Overture, a dark work written at a time when Schumann was suffering greatly from auditory hallucinations. This was a pathos-infused performance, Haitink injecting rhythmic drive into the almost relentless melodic ideas.
The scene had been set wonderfully for Berg's Violin Concerto. As with the Schumann, it is a tragic work; almost an orchestral Requiem, it is dedicated "To the memory of an angel" (Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius). The work is perhaps the best illustration of the argument that Berg was a Romantic at heart, masquerading as a serialist. Soloist Isabelle Faust has recently won acclaim for her recording of this work with Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart, and her playing was exemplary. As a performer she is understated in her gestures but still projects an incredible intensity. Her Stradivarius violin, dubbed the 'Sleeping Beauty' for its crystalline, pure tone, sang beautifully in the first movement. Haitink controlled the accompaniment with care, but neither he nor Faust were afraid of letting the solo line integrate with the orchestral texture at times, thus creating heightened variation and tension in the more dramatic solo moments.