United Kingdom Palazzo, Mendelssohn, and Schubert: Alexandra Conunova (violin), Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra / Marios Papadopoulos and Marcello Palazzo (conductors). Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 15.12.2023. (CR)
Marcello Palazzo – Trails
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64
Schubert – Symphony No.9 in C main ‘Nice’, D944
Janine Jansen was as a consequence of carry out the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto however she was changed at quick discover by Alexandra Conunova. After the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Marios Papadopoulos set a calmly poetic temper within the opening bars of the work, she took off with a chaste, unfussy account of the solo half, not chasing after dramatic results for the sake of it, however even seeming to tame the orchestra after they stirred up extra ardour and agitation of their episodes. Though the Andante remained lyrical and flowing, higher vibrato gave the music considerably extra blood and presence than the primary motion. Conunova and the orchestra’s playful approach with the finale preserved a way of Classical poise and appeal to the tip, avoiding any extra or instability. It was apt that, for an encore, Conunova continued the temper of levity and key of E main of the Concerto’s finale by providing an account of the Prelude to Bach’s solo Partita No.3 which appeared virtually breathless in its concentrated, steady momentum however by no means hurried.
The live performance opened with Marcello Palazzo (a latest postgraduate scholar at Oxford) on the rostrum to conduct the world premiere of his transient orchestral work Trails. Impressed by Munch’s portray New Snow within the Avenue, it charts a journey into an unsure future, however by two youngsters who appear to stay reassuringly aspect by aspect as they undertake it. The piece elaborates a single, monolithic chord which is sounded on the outset with one thing of the expansiveness of Sibelius. Nevertheless it then proceeds fairly programmatically by way of quite a lot of instrumental timbres in such a approach that put me in thoughts of some twentieth-century French music, Dutilleux for example (its variously wistful and acidulous woodwind seeming to echo the opening of Métaboles for example). If the composer’s personal conducting of the work didn’t surge forwards with extra portentousness which will have been as a result of the composition’s quiet ending just isn’t meant to convey any finality or arrival, however to depart questions open.
The mighty edifice of Schubert’s Symphony No.9 fashioned the live performance’s hefty second half. Papadopoulos and the orchestra beforehand carried out the work collectively in 2017, however this later interpretation was extra convincing in a minimum of being typically extra constantly brisk – after a fairly spacious Andante introduction to the primary motion – and so for essentially the most half avoiding the problem of methods to navigate gear adjustments in tempo between sections. If something, there appeared to be a slight dashing up for the primary motion’s second topic (as in 2017) which was extra pronounced within the recapitulation. That tempo, virtually unremitting, tended to evoke interval efficiency apply in that respect, as additionally a relative lack of vibrato. However the typically weighty, stable articulation was according to the character of a full symphony orchestra with fashionable devices.
That got here extra to the fore within the nice structural distinction drawn by the notable slowing down for the central cataclysmic climax on this motion. The orchestra’s course amassed appreciable drive for the grinding dissonances in opposition to which the cussed march-like theme comes up, as if in opposition to a brick wall, ending in two screaming diminished chords excessive up within the strings right here, echoing the same impact by the likes of Sawallisch or Celibidache, and anticipating the colossally fearsome chord on the apex of the Adagio of Bruckner’s Ninth. Adumbrations of Bruckner have been additionally obvious in continuously craving or hovering traces of the cellos just like the songful second topics he tends to usher in his symphonies – within the case of this efficiency, in these devices’ response to the very opening theme on the horns; their lyrical continuation of the marching theme as a soothing riposte to the second motion’s searing dissonance; and singing melodies threaded by way of the Scherzo. An efficient, and customarily untypical, shift in temper and tempo marked the transition to the genial Trio part on the centre of that third motion, however in any other case this was a efficiency that tended to brush all earlier than it in direction of an exciting, hectic conclusion.
Curtis Rogers
