The Hallé’s latest concert at the Bridgewater Hall consisted of four pieces, all of which could broadly be termed “Romantic” but which still demonstrated considerable variety. Daniele Rustioni’s body language suggested great emotional involvement with the music. This was confirmed when he addressed the audience in the second half. It came through clearly in the music – except for the first piece on the programme, a competent account of the Prelude to Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg which somehow never came alive.
Fortunately everything changed when Carolin Widmann joined the orchestra for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. The soloist enters very shortly after the start – no traditional orchestral exposition here – and from her first notes Widmann’s soaring melody floated beautifully over the orchestra. This was a very special performance where the spotlight remained on the soloist. Rustioni ensured that the orchestra gave her the necessary support, and never overwhelmed her. For her part Widmann did not try to impose a personal interpretation. Her cadenza in the first movement was dazzling but was never virtuosity for its own sake. Everything was at the service of the music. There was nothing adversarial between orchestra and soloist; rather they came together as co-operators. In particular they brought out the spirited delicacy of the finale. Conductor, soloist and orchestra all seemed to be smiling. Together they had achieved an uplifting, delightful performance of a much-loved masterpiece, performed in the Hallé’s first season in 1857.
Franz Liszt is credited with inventing the form of the tone poem or symphonic poem, essentially a single movement orchestral work usually based on literature. In the case of Les Préludes, however, it is hard to pin down a specific literary work. Its link to French Romantic poet Lamartine’s Les Préludes is somewhat tenuous as it was first intended as an overture to a completely different choral work. The quiet, serene opening was beautifully played. It soon gave way to something more dramatic. If there had been a programme it might have related to a mountain landscape and a storm (I found myself thinking of Berlioz and Tchaikovsky’s Byron-inspired works). In the absence of such a programme the focus was on the ebb and flow of the themes and the increases and decreases in intensity – and the very fine playing of the Hallé horns and woodwinds. The piece ends with a rumbustious conclusion which Rustioni just managed to keep on the right side of pomposity.
The concert ended with the suite taken from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. The provenance of the suite is somewhat unclear; the conductor Artur Rodziński may be responsible. It was first performed in 1945 in Vienna and received its first Manchester performance by the Hallé the following year, since when it has become a staple of the concert repertoire worldwide. The suite uses several important themes from the opera, especially the glorious waltzes which run though the score. They give orchestral players the opportunity to shine individually and as a team; the Hallé principals gave superb accounts of their many solos and the whole orchestra revelled in the sumptuous score which brought the concert to an uplifting conclusion.
