Euryanthe Overture - Weber
Cello Concerto - Schumann
Haydn Variations - Brahms
Der Rosenkavalier Suite - Strauss
Friday evening's orchestral concert at the National Concert Hall began and ended with its high points. Gerhard Markson was conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in a programme devoted to German Romanticism.
Thoughtfulness seemed to motivate Markson's appro aches to Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Haydn and Schumann's Cello Concerto, in which the soloist was Steven Doane. Eschewing notions of the grand soloist, Doane played as if he was the first among equals. Thus his part was not strongly projected and, in music which requires extraordinarily subtle give-and-take between soloist and orchestra, the members of the NSO were responsive. But the performance seemed unable to deliver these qualities with breadth. It was as if the conductor was over-deferential to the soloist's pointed gestures.
In the Brahms we heard a non-standard performance of standard repertoire. The very quiet horn variation (it is usually the opposite) and the slowish speeds for many variations are perhaps closer to the composer's indications in the score than is the muscular approach of tradition; and the many dialogues between sections of the orchestra were beautifully layered. But I was convinced neither by the gaps between variations nor by the careful phrasing. As in the Schumann, there was little accumulation of energy, and the result was thought-provoking but not entirely convincing.
The impact of Weber's Euryan the Overture and of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite were of a different order. The rhythmic energy with which Weber opened the concert was startling, and the defined tones of wind, brass, hard-stick timpani and strings seemed ideal for this music. Colour was also one of the strong points of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite: the playing had unbuttoned energy, expressive focus and orchestral discipline.
Alexander Anissimov conducts the NSO in Spanish Nights at the NCH next Friday (June 26th) at 6.30 p.m. To book, telephone: 01-4751572.