Nottingham

The Hallé

Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham

05 December 2023

5*****

Review: William Ruff

“The Hallé on spectacular form under conductor Chloé van Soeterstède.”

The French Conductor Chloé van Soeterstède proved on Tuesday night that classical music is about much more than playing the right notes in the right order. It’s like speaking another language: you have to get the accent right if you don’t want to sound like a foreigner. She was unsurprisingly in her element in the concert’s French first half – but she also made The Hallé speak Russian like natives in the second half.

The programme started with the Suite Pastorale by Emmanuel Chabrier. He is known now for just a handful of orchestral works but those that do get performed are exquisitely crafted and show how much he cared about the colours he was mixing on his orchestral palette. Perhaps his friendship with painters like Manet and Renoir had something to do with it. The opening piece (Idylle) was typical of Chloé’s approach with The Hallé, capturing the spirit of the music in all its freshness and innocence, its song-like nature, its gorgeous harmonies and mixing its colours (pizzicato strings, wind solos etc) so as to bring out the constantly shifting light and shade of the piece. In the faster movements there was a vivid sense of rustic dancing against the background of a countryside unmistakably French.

The French cellist Bruno Philippe joined The Hallé to play Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No 1. His performance had all one could hope for: power, heart-on-sleeve melodies and technical wizardry. The work is famous for the Romantic passion of its outer movements (and Bruno certainly supplied plenty of that) but perhaps the highlight of his performance was the delightful central minuet, a tribute by the composer to his great-aunt Charlotte, the woman who first encouraged him to pursue a musical life and who had been born before the French Revolution. Bruno Philippe’s playing captured its arresting grace and simplicity, especially when the cello floats serenely over the orchestra’s delicate minuet theme. As an encore he played some radiant Bach.

In the second half came Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, a tribute to the Russian composer in the 150th anniversary of his birth. The Dances were to be the composer’s final work and he was sure it was his best. However, it must be a tricky work to conduct. The large orchestra means lots of tiny, telling details to weave into a vast tapestry of sound. The atmosphere of the piece is constantly changing: darkly sinister sections blaze into glorious optimism. Each phrase has to be carefully moulded; each climax has to be carefully controlled – and yet the whole work must sound spontaneous and inevitable. The central waltz demonstrated all this: eerie and slyly seductive, a dance of death with a subtle erotic charge, the opening muted trumpet calls and solo violin beautifully placed as well as hauntingly disturbing. The Symphonic Dances are a sort of concerto for orchestra, such is the demand they place on each player. Chloé van Soeterstède made sure all soloists and sections took their bow at the end, but the biggest cheers were rightfully reserved for her.

The Hallé

Chloé van Soeterstède (conductor), Bruno Philippe (cello)