Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 25 November 2023. 5*****: William Ruff.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 25 November 2023.
5*****: William Ruff
“The RLPO on top form in repertoire both serious and spectacular.”
We all know that first impressions are important. Despite all the Technicolor brilliance which came later in their concert, the RLPO nailed their colours to the mast in the opening seconds of the first piece they played. Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants is a suite of five short pieces depicting children’s toys, full of hummable tunes and infectious rhythms, the sort of music which could, in some hands, be treated as an agreeable curtain-raiser and nothing more. This was not conductor Domingo Hinoyan’s approach.
Just a few bars were enough to establish that this was a meticulously prepared performance, one that had the sort of razor-sharp approach to timing and phrasing that gave each movement a jewel-like brilliance. The opening march (‘Trumpet and drum’) had a precision worthy of a military parade ground, let alone a nursery. The slow sections had a gentle charm which never descended into sentimentality and the musical pictures of a spinning top and a glittering ballroom had all the panache and vitality one could wish for.
After this it perhaps wasn’t surprising to hear an outstanding performance of Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello. The composer wrote it partly to repair a badly damaged friendship with the great violinist Josef Joachim. It’s a piece which has much to say about relationships in its musical language, and it’s music which really has to be seen as well as heard. On Saturday the soloists were the violinist Simone Lamsma and cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière, musicians whose eyes were as alert as their ears. This concerto became for them a chamber dialogue with the two instruments charting an emotional journey, occasionally encountering conflict and confrontation but leaving us with the feeling that all will be well. The subtlety, warmth and brilliance of the solo playing was matched by the RLPO, powerful in the great climaxes but also admirably discreet when solo violin and cello need to be heard in their many quietly introspective moments.
The concert’s second half took us to Spain. First came Debussy’s Ibéria, a piece which sumptuously evokes the country’s songs, dances, festivals and hot summer evenings. It’s a piece which depends for its effect on each tiny dot of sound being precisely placed. Every player has their moment in the spotlight including spectacular roles for trumpet, oboe and clarinet – and for first violins who have to put their instruments under their arms and strum them like guitars.
The final work was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, a work so enthusiastically cheered at its first performance in 1887 that it had to be immediately encored. It’s a work full of colour, instantly memorable tunes and infectious rhythms. And, like the Debussy, it’s a sort of concerto for orchestra, with every player having to perform at the top of their game. Domingo Hindoyan coaxed every bit of warmth and precision from his players, from the virtuoso display of clarinet and violin in the opening section through the cadenzas in the fourth to the unbuttoned exuberance with which the work (and this concert) came to such a fizzing firework show of a conclusion.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Domingo Hindoyan, conductor
Simone Lamsma (violin), Victor Julien-Laferrière (cello)