Lammermuir Festival: Royal Northern Sinfonia
St Mary’s Church, Haddington - 14/09/23
Dinis Sousa, conductor | Maria Włoszczowska, violin
The first of the two symphony concerts in this year’s Lammermuir Festival saw the Gateshead-based chamber orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, under the baton of its Portuguese Principal Conductor, Dinis Sousa, present a programme of two works in Haddington’s majestic St Mary’s Church on the night of 14th September. For the first half, they were joined by Polish virtuosa violinist Maria Włoszczowska for a performance of Beethoven’s evergreen Violin Concerto. After the interval, Maria returned as leader in Schumann’s optimistic, exuberant Symphony No.3, the ‘Rhenish’.
Before the performance, Artistic Co-director of the Festival, James Waters, addressed the audience, first thanking the investment firm McInroy & Wood for their financial support for the evening’s music-making. He then drew our attention to the absence in this year’s Festival programmes of the Creative Scotland logo: this is because they have withdrawn their support, despite three bids supported by the artistic community. This year’s Festival has drawn heavily on financial reserves to be viable – the resultant depletion means this will not be possible next year. He thanked the many current benefactors, friends and supporters who continue to support the Festival and asked that any members of the audience contemplating offering financial support turn thought to action. Pausing only to describe the Beethoven as “the greatest violin concerto” and “balm for the soul”, he withdrew and the orchestra tuned.
Notwithstanding the contribution of the venue’s excellent acoustic for classical repertoire, the ensemble sound of the RNS is pretty special. When Maria, resplendent in royal blue, played along with the first violins in Beethoven’s genial extended introduction, a practice I love to see as I consider it to be more than a mere gesture but a sincere expression of artistic friendship and esteem, I knew we were in for some fine music-making. I was not wrong. There was a strong sense of chamber music throughout, in what is probably the least adversarial of concerti. Magical moments abounded, particularly where the dialogue is subtly steered by the cellos and basses, using the repeated note figure that opens the work on timpani, to a new key, only for the solo instrument to respond with ever more ingeniously wrought modifications to the lyrical themes. At the end of the development, after an extended rhapsodic passage in the minor, when the solo instrument does the steering back to the home key, the already spinetingling moment was enhanced by the most teasing rubato. I’ve not heard better. A surprise awaited at the cadenza. I had forgotten that the familiar cadenzas are those of Fritz Kreisler, Beethoven having barely finished the work in time for its premiere and neglected to provide any. Sure enough, the programme mentioned that the cadenzas used in Haddington were those of modern virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff but was sparse on further details. After a little research, I can supply these. As a result of the rushed unrehearsed premiere by Franz Clement, the concerto was given a frosty reception by the Viennese audience and was never performed again in Beethoven’s lifetime. As a violin concerto, that is. However, Beethoven did rework it as a piano concerto, did write out cadenzas for it in its new guise, and it was a minor hit. It is Beethoven’s own cadenzas from the piano version that Christian Tetzlaff has adapted. Unusually, the first movement cadenza features the timpani, tapping out the opening figure against the solo line. Personally, I prefer the Kreisler but, if the reader agrees, blame Beethoven, not Tetzlaff.
The muted string sound at the beginning of the Larghetto was very lovely, introducing the theme which the soloist never actually gets to play, instead soaring lyrically above it with ornamented comments and only later playing a variation to round off an affectionate love song passage. Maria’s tone was sweet and radiant and her articulation absolutely flawless. The playful, frolicsome finale, played attacca, set off at an agile dancing tempo and was delightful from start to finish, a lovely lightness of touch adding to the glee. “Balm for the soul”? – I should think so.
If one is going to select a Schumann symphony to perform in a church, surely the ‘Rhenish’, with its solemn penultimate fourth movement, said to have been inspired by witnessing the enthronement of a cardinal in Cologne’s magnificent Gothic cathedral, is the perfect choice. It charts the Schumann’s experiences from travels in the Rhineland in 1850, when they had just moved to Düsseldorf. I was delighted to see Maria return, clad in black, to occupy the concertmaster’s chair. The first movement is Schumann in confident Florestan mode, in a hemiolic 3/4 that seems to stride ebulliently over the bar lines and favours the horns to sing out the melody. Schumann dispenses with an exposition repeat to launch a contrapuntally and harmonically adventurous development, while horns and trumpets get to bring back the great tune before the joyous coda. The RNS brass played to the acoustic strengths of the venue and the result was thrilling. The delightful Scherzo, a moderately paced intermezzo evocative of the rolling waters of the Rhine, with a country dance Trio tune, finishing with a cheeky soft pizzicato, was beautifully phrased with a great sense of ebb and flow. The third movement, marked ‘not fast’, is not slow either, but is calmly lyrical with brass and timpani silent, featuring a hymn like melody that was played as a romance with great tenderness, a melody that will recur in the finale. The slow fourth movement caught the solemnity and majesty perfectly and was spellbinding. Eusebius was silenced and Florestan returned as the tension was released and the finale launched with two joyous themes, one songlike, the other dancelike, exploring different keys but driving onward to a declamatory statement before the contrapuntally rich coda brings the symphony to its triumphant conclusion, the RNS’ horns shining afresh. Thoroughly excellent.
Cover photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke , Claire Hannan