A performance of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Wolfe.
Little, RTÉ NSO/Wolfe
NCH, Dublin
Mozart - Don Giovanni Overture.
Elgar - Violin Concerto
Sibelius - Symphony No 1
From the opening bars of a focused account of Mozart's Don Giovanni Overture, it was evident that rising British conductor Joseph Wolfe can aim for high intensity and control it. That was one of the characteristics of Sibelius's Symphony No 1, which closed the concert.
This gripping performance had plenty of rhythmic drive, and Wolfe's way of creating long-term momentum was successful.
Intensity was of the visceral kind - strong on extremities of volume and tempo, but with little fine grading in the middle ground. Nor was the sound particularly disciplined in orchestral balance.
Nevertheless, such strong and committed playing thoroughly deserved the warm applause.
Despite that impressive conclusion, the performance that will linger in my memory came before the interval, and not only because of Tasmin Little's consummate playing of the solo part in Elgar's Violin Concerto.
She just played it, with little obvious striving; and she never milked it for impact. Everything seemed just to happen; and it was especially remarkable that a work famous for being, in the composer's words, "awfully emotional, too emotional," was captured so deeply via playing that was utterly unsentimental.
It was hard to pinpoint exactly how the dynamics of the relationship between soloist, conductor and orchestra were working, for everything seemed to work as one. The complexity of Elgar's orchestral scoring was subtly handled, with everyone listening as much as they were reading.
The way Elgar knits the solo part into the orchestral textures came across beautifully. This was a rarity - a performance whose completeness was something to treasure because, with any orchestra, conductor or soloist, such transcendence can never be commonplace. - Martin Adams