L'incontro improvviso Overture - Haydn
Cello Concerto in D - Haydn
Symphony no 7 (Leningrad) - Shostakovich
AN orchestral concert with Haydn in one half and Shostakovich in the other is a test of the performers' adaptability. The National Symphony Orchestra and the Russian conductor Vladimir Altschuler were not found wanting in that respect at the National Concert Hall on Friday night.
This concert, Altschuler's fourth with the NSO, opened with the overture to Haydn's opera, L'incontro improvviso. The breezy, stylish performance - alert in rhythm, though not especially in detailed articulation - went well, except for some sluggish playing from the Turkish-style percussion section.
The conductor and orchestral players faced a different challenge in Haydn's Cello Concerto in D. Robert Cohen was in command of the solo part's considerable technical challenges, and played with startling, deft panache. However, while the accompaniment was accomplished in those core matters of ensemble, shading and balance, there was an almost-perpetual mis-match, in that the orchestra never quite achieved the ecstatic quality central to the soloist's characterisation.
This was nevertheless a performance to remember. Cohen's encore, the Allemande from Bach's Cello Suite No. 6 in D, was a treat. Like the concerto it seemed tossed off, and had the rhapsodic, elevated character of an inspired improvisation.