United Kingdom Elgar, Wagner, Sibelius: Sol Gabetta (cello), Philharmonia Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä (conductor). Kultur- und Kongresszentrum (KKL) Luzern, Lucerne, 28.10.2022. (JR)
Elgar – Cello Concerto Op.85
Wagner – Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Sibelius – Symphony No.7, Op.105
I used to be trying ahead to listening to Truls Mørk in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante for cello and orchestra (which might have been preceded by the ‘Classical’ Symphony), however the Norwegian cellist has a muscle harm and cancelled. In stepped Sol Gabetta, a Swiss resident, who modified the programme to the Elgar Cello Concerto, which I final heard her carry out some six years in the past.
I used to be additionally trying ahead to seeing and listening to younger Finnish conductor Tabitha Berglund of whom I had heard a lot, however she succumbed to the dreaded Covid, so on the final minute in stepped Osmo Vänskä, who was in any occasion scheduled to conduct the unique programme at London’s Royal Festival Hall two days later (Jean-Guihen Queyras stepping in for Mørk).
Whilst Gabetta’s tone might not be as voluminous or mellow as different cellists, she actually scores on ardour and depth. Intonation and approach are flawless. Her fingers scampered up and down the fingerboard, harmonics all the time spot on. She introduced simply the correct quantity of wistful nostalgia to the work, written instantly after the ravages of WWI, the Adagio was suitably reflective and world-weary. Sadly, now that Covid is abating and masks have just about disappeared, the uncovered coughers are again with a vengeance. Nevertheless they might not spoil a really effective efficiency. Vänskä and the orchestra added little, however he might be excused within the circumstances: all eyes and ears have been in any occasion on the soloist.
Gabetta then handled us to an uncommon and pleasant encore: the Dolcissimo motion from Pēteris Vasks’s work The Book: full with fluttering harmonics and the cellist’s singing accompaniments. Gabetta has a particularly shut relationship with Vasks’s works and the piece might be discovered on one in every of her recordings.
The chunk of Wagner, after the interval, was performed with nice the Aristocracy and passion, Vänskä whipping up fairly a frenzy on the acceptable second. The work was written in Lucerne, with shut reference to Wagner’s love for – and affair with – Mathilde von Wesendonck simply up the highway in Zurich. The Liebestod welled up in waves of sound, the Philharmonia displaying us that they’ve all the time been, and nonetheless are really a world-class orchestra. They have even discovered a younger timpanist to comply with within the footsteps of the nice Andy ‘Thumper’ Smith.
Hugh Canning (Sunday Times music critic) has described Osmo Vänskä because the world’s biggest dwelling Sibelian – and on the power of his interpretation of Sibelius’s final symphony (a masterpiece in ten mini-movements lasting simply over twenty minutes) I can not disagree. It was merely breath-taking. Incidentally, earlier than Mahler grew to become so standard within the Seventies, each aspiring conductor needed to grasp all of the Sibelius symphonies). Vänska wrenched the sound of darkish granite out of the orchestra and principal trombonist Byron Fulcher stood out particularly, as did Leader Benjamin Marquise Gilmore and principal cello Karen Stephenson.
And the encore: Valse Triste, what else?
John Rhodes