Res severa verum gaudium
Aug. 27th, 2025 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiTuesday's Prom was already a sell-out in the seats, and I wasn't surprised at the longer queue for the arena. This time I found myself in the third row, so nothing to be dissatisfied with.
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, began with Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten. It's a piece I have seen performed before, quite a long time ago, in 2007 it seems. The bell was truly sonorous, perhaps even melodious simply of itself, but where was it coming from? It took a while to work out it was hidden at the back of the flat part of the stage, behind the strings. It was also satisfyingly bell-shaped, rather than tubular. Intuitively I feel that bells are individual instruments, not mass-produced, and so finding the harmonic blend between the strings and the bell is tricky. The final strike of the bell was audible, but it didn't really matter. As the final toll decayed, Nelsons held the silence well. Clearly the audience were a serious lot.
The central work in the programme, Dvořák's Violin Concerto, was new to me - I think. Isabelle Faust was a late replacement as the soloist for Hilary Hahn, due to injury. She certainly seemed to have a rapport with the orchestra and conductor. The work was immediately familiar, if not entirely distinctive. Maybe I have heard it - or excerpts from it - before - or maybe it just sounds generic in places, I'm not sure. It doesn't suffer from over-longevity the way the composer's cello concerto does, but it probably isn't quite up there with its approximate contemporaries, concertos by Brahms or Tchaikovsky. Faust gave a solo encore which the arena considered likely to be Bach, but which BBC Sounds attributes to Nicola Matteis. So you learn something new every day.
The second half was a performance of Sibelius's Symphony No 2, another work I have seen a few times, most recently in 2018. Several things were quickly apparent. The difference antiphonal seating can make, with the way the sound moves through the different string sections. The difference between a good orchestra and a truly great one, with the absolute clarity and sound quality. The confidence of the brass section. The sometimes esoteric movements of the conductor. The feeling of flying, or perhaps skimming the water's surface, in the final movement. True joy is a serious matter, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus were serious indeed.
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, began with Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten. It's a piece I have seen performed before, quite a long time ago, in 2007 it seems. The bell was truly sonorous, perhaps even melodious simply of itself, but where was it coming from? It took a while to work out it was hidden at the back of the flat part of the stage, behind the strings. It was also satisfyingly bell-shaped, rather than tubular. Intuitively I feel that bells are individual instruments, not mass-produced, and so finding the harmonic blend between the strings and the bell is tricky. The final strike of the bell was audible, but it didn't really matter. As the final toll decayed, Nelsons held the silence well. Clearly the audience were a serious lot.
The central work in the programme, Dvořák's Violin Concerto, was new to me - I think. Isabelle Faust was a late replacement as the soloist for Hilary Hahn, due to injury. She certainly seemed to have a rapport with the orchestra and conductor. The work was immediately familiar, if not entirely distinctive. Maybe I have heard it - or excerpts from it - before - or maybe it just sounds generic in places, I'm not sure. It doesn't suffer from over-longevity the way the composer's cello concerto does, but it probably isn't quite up there with its approximate contemporaries, concertos by Brahms or Tchaikovsky. Faust gave a solo encore which the arena considered likely to be Bach, but which BBC Sounds attributes to Nicola Matteis. So you learn something new every day.
The second half was a performance of Sibelius's Symphony No 2, another work I have seen a few times, most recently in 2018. Several things were quickly apparent. The difference antiphonal seating can make, with the way the sound moves through the different string sections. The difference between a good orchestra and a truly great one, with the absolute clarity and sound quality. The confidence of the brass section. The sometimes esoteric movements of the conductor. The feeling of flying, or perhaps skimming the water's surface, in the final movement. True joy is a serious matter, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus were serious indeed.