BBCSSO: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
City Halls, Glasgow - 22/02/24
Tabita Berglund, conductor | Truls Mørk, cello
Last April, Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund was due to conduct a Royal Scottish National Orchestra programme with two Tchaikovsky works, the Violin Concerto with Randall Goosby as the soloist, and the Symphony No.6, but she was indisposed and replaced by Lionel Bringuier, and a very good concert it was too. Nonetheless, a special thanks to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for engaging her for a programme including Tchaikovsky’s passionate 5thSymphony and Dvořák’s tender and bittersweet Cello Concerto, with Tabita’s own cello teacher Truls Mørk as soloist. The concert was introduced by Kate Molleson and, as has become customary, broadcast live on Radio 3 It was also well attended, with the choir balcony opened up for ticket sales. The orchestra was ably led, as more often than not lately, by associate leader Kanako Ito. We have not seen titular leader Laura Samuel at all this season.
The concert opened with 20th-century Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt’s short piece ‘Velkomne med Æra’ (Welcome with Honour), the first of an orchestrated collection of ‘A Hundred Hardanger Tunes’, curated by Tveitt from his homeland, in a setting without brass or percussion but with a very lovely harp part and some haunting solos for bassoon, piccolo and clarinet. The mood of the music was wistful and dreamy and the sound world suggestive of Debussy and, to a lesser extent, Delius. A lovely piece beautifully played and already displaying the revelatory clarity of detail that was to be characteristic of Tabita’s moulding of the sound in the goodies to come.
The exact same goodies had received a ‘not entirely issue-free’ outing from a Korean orchestra in the 2023 EIF, so I was confidently hoping for great BBCSSO performances to dispel that memory. I was not disappointed. The subtly conspiratorial B-minor opening bars of the concerto drew the listener into the enfolding drama of the orchestral introduction, while relaxation and tightening of tempo in the major-key second theme allowed phrasing that seemed to breathe organically, anticipating perfectly what was to be a feature of Truls’ playing. His tone was gloriously warm and lyrical. All dialogue between the solo instrument and the instruments of the orchestra was breathtakingly beautiful. The drama of the first movement was such that the audience spontaneously applauded, a rare occurrence in Glasgow. The same cantabile lyricism, mutually responsive phrasing and romantic dialogue permeated the slow movement, with notably fabulous playing from the clarinets. the brass launching the minor-key central section, and principal flautist Matthew Higham. The finale launched with a tempo perfectly calculated to reveal its contrasts, with confident festivity interspersed with wistful, nostalgic episodes and an elegiac melancholy valediction before the brusque orchestral coda. Dialogues with principal clarinet Yann Ghiro and leader Kanako were touchingly beautiful. Time stood still for the final wistful cello bars before the coda. A superb performance, as candidly revelatory of the emotional musicality as it was of the aesthetic detail. Full marks from me.
“Escape into Pulse-Racing Passion” was the publicity tagline for the concert, and I suppose it is a fair description of Tchaikovsky’s unbridled romanticism as found in all of the last three symphonies. But the Fifth is much more, with the spectre of inexorable Fate haunting every movement, and making a final appearance at the end, in the major key certainly, but trudging with hurdy-gurdy accompaniment and a mocking “nah nahnee nah nah” jeer from the trumpet. I have heard readings of the Fifth that emphasise the passion and yes, portray the struggle, but towards a triumph that I then find hollow. I prefer a reading that absolutely lets the players be maximally expressive, but shapes every phrase with the awareness of where this journey is going, and it is not triumph. That is what Tabita gave us, with exquisite clarity of detail from start to finish, fully exploiting the super acoustic of the City Halls. The playing was phenomenal, with the famous slow movement horn solo from Lauren Reeve-Rawlings particularly touching and some gloriously passionate string playing for the ‘love theme’, not without its share of heartache and cruelly interrupted by Fate. The third movement’s waltz tempo was elegant, the rubato naturally expressive and unforced, the cantabile string melody sweetly contrasted with their agile balletic scurrying in the central section. But a spectral appearance of the Fate motif shuts down the mood of insouciance, then presides over the introduction to the finale. Stormy passion alternates with rueful introspection in a relentless drive. Tabita kept it real and compelling, and ultimately satisfying, not as triumph but as catharsis. Easily the best Fifth I’ve heard live in a long while.
Having heard Tabita’s Dvořák and Tchaikovsky (and I know gluttony is a deadly sin, but) I long to hear her live Brahms (and I’m thinking of Truls with a violinist soulmate in the Double Concerto – there is a famous recording with Lisa Batiashvili but I’m not fussy) and, with that sense of overall structure and skill in revealing detail in Late Romantic masterpieces, Bruckner and – dare I even hope? – Mahler. I bet she’s a brilliant Mahlerian.
A podcast of this concert is available on BBC Sounds until 21st March.