What a concert! NSO 13 May 2011
Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 12:20 am
Haydn Symphony No. 86 in D*
*Replacing the previously advertised new work by Andrew Hamilton
Sibelius Violin Concerto, Op. 47 [31']
Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 [34']
Stefan Jackiw violin
Hannu Lintu conductor
What a great concert!! It started well with the contemporary work being replaced by some music in the form of a Haydn symphony.
Then the Sibelius Violin Concerto, a work I've learned to love in recent years. The soloist looked about seventeen, he's actually 26, American of Korean and German parents. The Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu has been doing great work with the NSO this season (I think he's their Chief Guest Conductor). He looks elfin, and has quite jerky gestures with a balletic quality to them. This concert showed that he's a very powerful interpreter of Nordic music. The Sibelius started with the shuddering quiet tremolo on the strings and already the spell was cast, it was gripping. Lintu gets the orchestra to play louder accents than I've heard and the whole was boiling with poetry and life. Stefan Jackiw was stunning, the Sibelius is full of technical difficulty, but he was more than equal to it. The NCH audience is fairly ready to give a standing ovation (some ancient regulars want to standing-ovate virtually everything) but I've never seen the whole audience rise to its feet so quick, why I even did!
Then Nielsen 5 (I noticed Stefan Jackiw sitting a few rows behind me to hear this), a work that I have adored for decades. Lintu conveyed perfectly the vigour, the violence, all the themes bubbling up and disputing with each other. Overwhelming!
From the audio point of view, the opening of the Sibelius gave me the strongest sense that it is pointless to hope for anything remotely like that from my system at home, it's worlds away and, highly enjoyable though it is, can only ever be worlds away!
*Replacing the previously advertised new work by Andrew Hamilton
Sibelius Violin Concerto, Op. 47 [31']
Nielsen Symphony No. 5, Op. 50 [34']
Stefan Jackiw violin
Hannu Lintu conductor
What a great concert!! It started well with the contemporary work being replaced by some music in the form of a Haydn symphony.
Then the Sibelius Violin Concerto, a work I've learned to love in recent years. The soloist looked about seventeen, he's actually 26, American of Korean and German parents. The Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu has been doing great work with the NSO this season (I think he's their Chief Guest Conductor). He looks elfin, and has quite jerky gestures with a balletic quality to them. This concert showed that he's a very powerful interpreter of Nordic music. The Sibelius started with the shuddering quiet tremolo on the strings and already the spell was cast, it was gripping. Lintu gets the orchestra to play louder accents than I've heard and the whole was boiling with poetry and life. Stefan Jackiw was stunning, the Sibelius is full of technical difficulty, but he was more than equal to it. The NCH audience is fairly ready to give a standing ovation (some ancient regulars want to standing-ovate virtually everything) but I've never seen the whole audience rise to its feet so quick, why I even did!
Then Nielsen 5 (I noticed Stefan Jackiw sitting a few rows behind me to hear this), a work that I have adored for decades. Lintu conveyed perfectly the vigour, the violence, all the themes bubbling up and disputing with each other. Overwhelming!
From the audio point of view, the opening of the Sibelius gave me the strongest sense that it is pointless to hope for anything remotely like that from my system at home, it's worlds away and, highly enjoyable though it is, can only ever be worlds away!