Brahms 3, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, CBSO, 01 November, 2023. 5***** David Gray & Paul Gray.
Brahms 3, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, CBSO, 01 November, 2023.
5***** David Gray & Paul Gray.
Haydn – Symphony No. 96 (Miracle)
Ligeti – Violin Concerto
Brahms – Symphony No. 3
During his tenure as Chief Conductor of the CBSO, Sir Simon Rattle had a policy of bold and inventive programming that would introduce less well known and more recent works to his audience alongside familiar staples of the concert cannon. A similar approach was evident in the music presented during this concert under the baton of Nicholas Carter. Gyorgy Ligeti’s challenging Violin Concerto was book ended between two more reassuringly familiar pieces.
This concerto is comprised of five relatively brief movements, all with distinctive formal and textural signatures, none of which outstay their welcome. This is a work that demands a different type of virtuosity than most concerti, calling on the soloist to push the boundaries of what is possible for the violin in terms of its sonic potential.
Voilinist, Carolin Widmann took the work’s challenges in her stride in an intense, profoundly intelligent, and imaginative preformance. A performance anchored in a richly burnished core tone over which a sucession of stunning harmonic effects were overlayed.
In some ways more of a concerto grosso than a straightforward solo concerto, the piece calls on almost all of the players, in an intimate and carefully selected band of instrumentalists, to duet individually or in smaller groups with the soloist. It presents huge technical challenges and the opportunity for virtuosic display for all concerned. The players of the CBSO were truly on form, shining as individual performers and in the precision and flare of the their ensemble work. This was a very special experience to share.
Tight ensemble was also on display in the evening’s other works. Nicholas Carter is an engaged and engaging conductor. His reading of the Haydn was sauve and elegant, and made clear the wonderful flow of musical ideas. His use of texture was particularly effective in the Andante where he highlighted how the conposer gradually builds instumental layers to create rich and satisfying climaxes of lushness.
The orchestra clearly enjoyed working with him. Together they delivered a seemlessly organic performance of Brahm’s Symphony No. 3. This was a muscular performance that derived its strength from the interplay between passion and form. Maestro Carter always had one eye on the works formal elements while also letting the emotion breathe freely. All would have been perfect. Alas the horns fluffed and cracked during the final movement’s dying-fall ending. A disappointing conclusion when everything else in the evening had been of such remarkably high quality.
Nicholas Carter – Conductor
Carolin Widmann - Violin