Royal Northern Sinfonia

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham

20 February 2024

5✩✩✩✩✩ Review: William Ruff.

“A concert which breathed new life into old favourites.”

On paper this Royal Northern Sinfonia Concert looked safe rather than exciting: three popular pieces more likely to sell tickets than set the world on fire. Which just proves how wrong first impressions can be. This was one of those concerts which made familiar favourites shine as if new-minted – and one which fully engaged the eyes as well as the ears.

Dinis Sousa is a conductor who makes you sit up and take notice as soon as he steps onto the podium. His direction of Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony was joyously physical, even balletic. The music itself is light, witty, tuneful and guaranteed to bring a smile to the face. Sousa was clearly in his element when creating light, airy textures and conveying the elegant bustle which begins and ends the symphony. He danced rather than conducted the work, bouncing on his toes, hands busily moulding phrases, managing the rapid mood-changes with razor-sharp timing. And he encouraged his orchestra to follow his lead. The leader, Maria Włoszczowska, was a most enthusiastic collaborator, throwing herself into her role with huge energy, especially in the first movement’s ‘ticking clock’ section. It was all great fun – and the audience loved it.

Julian Bliss then joined the RNS to play Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Professional clarinettists aren’t blessed with a huge repertoire of concertos, so they must get asked to play Mozart’s repeatedly. So it’s no mean achievement to make it sound so fresh. Julian played a basset clarinet, able to reach the low notes which Mozart intended, producing lovely sounds throughout. The outer movements sparkled but it was perhaps in the sublime Adagio that Julian’s playing was most remarkable: intimate, tender, using extraordinary breath-control to sustain some wondrously quiet playing. I doubt whether Tuesday’s Nottingham audience will ever hear Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto played better.

After the interval came Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony. Dinis Sousa took the abrupt opening chords and punched them at the audience, setting in motion a performance of great power despite the orchestra’s small size (just 37 of them). Such a small-scale performance allows textures to be really transparent so that telling details can emerge. The first movement was vividly dramatic whilst the following ‘funeral march’ contained grandeur, triumph and agonised grief. The supercharged scherzo featured some resplendent horn playing – and the finale’s ingenious, constantly surprising variations on Beethoven’s ‘Prometheus’ theme brought to an end one of music’s most revolutionary masterpieces, as well as an outstanding RNS concert.

Royal Northern Sinfonia

Dinis Sousa (conductor), Julian Bliss (clarinet)