On Friday I attended the first concert in the season of the Halle in Sheffield.
A worthy enough performance of Lemminkainen’s Return to start with , though I wish all Four Legends,would be played together more often.
Then followed an outstanding performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto by Laura van der Heijden . All too many performances and recordings will linger in our ears - a recent favourite being Alisa Weilerstein with the Czech PO at the Bridgwater Hall .
Ms Van der Heijden suffered nothing in comparison . This was a Tortelier like account - immensely musical , no lingering but also extraordinarily moving . I doubt I have ever heard the Josefina passages more simply yet as heartrendingly played .
She is a BBC YM of the highest quality .
Sadly,the Brahms 4 was too slow from the first bar - sluggish and trying too hard to be meaningful. The Passacaglia almost came to a complete halt and the rest of the movements ( with the partial exception of the Allegro giocoso) were nearly as bad .
From the very first bars of the first movement my teeth were on edge. Lots of non troppo and very little Allegro it proceeded as an Andante and the Andante that followed as an Adagio.
Thank heavens for the superb Chailly set I have recently become acquainted with unless you can do something extraordinarily interesting straightforward musical thinking is the thing.
A worthy enough performance of Lemminkainen’s Return to start with , though I wish all Four Legends,would be played together more often.
Then followed an outstanding performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto by Laura van der Heijden . All too many performances and recordings will linger in our ears - a recent favourite being Alisa Weilerstein with the Czech PO at the Bridgwater Hall .
Ms Van der Heijden suffered nothing in comparison . This was a Tortelier like account - immensely musical , no lingering but also extraordinarily moving . I doubt I have ever heard the Josefina passages more simply yet as heartrendingly played .
She is a BBC YM of the highest quality .
Sadly,the Brahms 4 was too slow from the first bar - sluggish and trying too hard to be meaningful. The Passacaglia almost came to a complete halt and the rest of the movements ( with the partial exception of the Allegro giocoso) were nearly as bad .
From the very first bars of the first movement my teeth were on edge. Lots of non troppo and very little Allegro it proceeded as an Andante and the Andante that followed as an Adagio.
Thank heavens for the superb Chailly set I have recently become acquainted with unless you can do something extraordinarily interesting straightforward musical thinking is the thing.
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