A fresh take on the familiar as the LPO visits the Glasshouse

Einstein managed to express the core of the entire theory of relativity in just five symbols. The greatest communicators have the ability to clarify. Robin Ticciati has that ability. I value the memory of one evening during his tenure with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, where he was able by clarifying, and thus revealing the music, to cure my life-long antipathy towards Mendelssohn. Ticciati and the the London Philharmonic Orchestra are a well-rehearsed team with their extensive experience as the house orchestra at Glyndebourne and as accompanists they seem almost telepathic. The conductor serves not so much as a director but more as a point of common communication. In Gateshead, with pianist Francesco Piemontesi and the LPO, Ticciati took on two of the most over-exposed pieces in the repertoire, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor and Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and managed to make at least one of them sound fresh.

Piemontesi’s approach to the Schumann was tender and emotional rather than muscular, and perhaps the music would have benefited from more heft and power in the broader passages; he left this until the end with a sparkling, joyous end to the finale. Ticciati’s direction was subtle, assured and never over-stated. There was sensitive, supportive string playing and some beautiful moments from the woodwinds. A packed house brought the pianist back for a beautifully judged, poised and gentle Brahms Intermezzo.

Mahler's Fifth is famous for its deeply felt and affecting fourth movement, featured in Visconti’s Death in Venice and classical radio playlists worldwide. This level of familiarity is a challenge for any orchestra. Here it was fresh, articulated it seems not by technique but by a deep inner realisation of the music’s core. It flowed at its own natural speed, neither hurried nor laboured. Despite marking the movement Adagietto and then confusingly instructing it to be played Sehr langsam “very slow”, Mahler himself apparently expedited the movement in seven minutes flat, which would seem pretty brisk these days (Haitink and the Concertgebouw took 14!). Ticciati and the LPO took a magical nine.

The opening movements are full of technical challenges for the orchestra, notably the winds. At one point I noticed an extension being added to a bassoon and there were passages where other sections were asked to play with the instruments pointing outwards, as in a Klezmer band. Mahler was lampooned in contemporary cartoons for this level of instrumental excess (six horns, a percussion section including a whip) and it is difficult over the 70 minutes of the work not to become inured to the sheer noise and drama. This was largely avoided although I noticed a few stunned, punch-drunk faces around me.

String playing throughout was faultless and at times virtuosic, never more so than in the concertino pizzicato section of the Scherzo. Outstanding contributions came from winds and brass: Principal Horn and Trumpet were singled out for special mention as were first flute, oboe, the entire percussion section and the charismatic Principal Timpanist, presiding magisterially over the orchestra from the back, his contributions perfectly judged and balanced, including what I believe to be the only solo timpani minor third in the core repertoire.