This was the weekend the BBC Proms came to Gateshead. The seating in the lower half of The Glasshouse’s Hall 1 was removed to make room for a substantial, but not overwhelming, number of promenaders; it was noticeable though that seats on all levels were almost fully taken. This audience was less reserved in its expressions of enthusiasm than their Royal Albert Hall counterparts and there was a palpable fizz in the air throughout the evening.
David Fray was given a rousing welcome. Whether a Steinway D was a good choice of instrument in Bach's Keyboard Concerto no. 1 in D minor is debatable although, to be fair, even a large harpsichord would struggle to carry in this hall. But even with a pared down (although perfectly balanced) Royal Northern Sinfonia string section, it was obvious that he had to restrain the dynamic range of the great beast. This cannot have been easy and perhaps having to concentrate on this contributed to his nervy and uneven metre in the outer movements.
The Adagio was delivered with an ultra-romantic approach including a cavernous rubato in the otherwise atmospheric and suspenseful dominant pedal point towards the close. Dinis Sousa and the RNS accompanied sensitively, seamlessly accommodating the pianist throughout. The encore was Alexander Siloti’s arrangement of the “Air on the G string” from Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite. Here, Fray was enabled – even encouraged – to give full rein to his romantic instincts, and delivered it sensitively, with a real feel for the late 19th-century school of pianism, with a well judged and controlled pianissimo conclusion.
Sousa has a particular affinity for the music of the mid-19th century. He is clearly at ease with these textures and structures and this allowed the music of Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) to flow freely, finding its natural course, now dramatic, now intimate, but always exciting and alive. The orchestra was much augmented for this performance but retained the sense and lightness of touch of a chamber orchestra while nonetheless delivering in the tutti fortissimi.
The combined choruses blended superbly, combining the precision of the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia, the tradition-informed heft of the Huddersfield Choral Society and the lightness of touch of the the young Voices of the River’s Edge. They made a thrilling sound, always controlled with near faultless pronunciation of the German text. They were a delight in the extensive fugal passages, effortlessly bouncing phrases from one section to another, and were heavenly and pillowy in Mendelssohn’s reharmonisation of the Nun danket alle Gott chorale. The Leitmotif which threads though the whole work, initially announced on trombones, was apocalyptically delivered by the combined bass sections just before the end. There was a collective shiver of emotion throughout the hall.
The three soloists told their stories with skill and sincerity. South Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park delivered her operatic lines with room to spare, her voice curling and soaring around the auditorium. Special mention in the orchestra should go to principal bassoon Will Kidner for his ethereally mournful pianissimo phrases in the opening Sinfonia, and timpanist Jude Carlton for sensitive, idiomatic playing throughout.
