The Swedish Philharmonia

The Usher Hall

A Swedish farewell to live music?

As we hardy music lovers gathered on Sunday afternoon, we were all asking the same question. Was this our last live music because of the corona virus pandemic? Would the Usher Hall be closed tomorrow? Would even the Edinburgh Festival, due to launch on Tuesday, be cancelled? Certainly, the mood was pessimistic among the audience, and the lovely Usher Hall staff were pessimistic about what for them is their work and their livelihood. I hope Edinburgh Council, who own the Usher Hall, look after them. There was a decent turnout for what is a not very well known regional Swedish Orchestra, the Usher Hall being around half full in the stalls and the Grand Circle. Let’s face it, the majority of Usher Hall audiences are, like ourselves, in the elderly section of the population, deemed to be most at risk from the virus and we talked about how we would survive without music. Yes many orchestras and opera houses are planning to stream past performances, some even to continue with live performances, though with live streaming, in place of live audiences. These will be valuable, but there is nothing like being in a concert hall or an opera house for a live performance. The Swedish Philharmonia were certainly grateful to the audience for turning out for what was their last concert on their UK tour.Their manager Einar Ander told me that at their previous concert in London at the Cadogan Hall, over 400 people who had bought tickets didn't come to the concert due to fear of the virus, making for a very thin concert audience.

The concert began with Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony, known as Reformation because it was written to celebrate 300 years of the Augsburg Confession, the central work in the Lutheran faith. Written when Mendelssohn was only 21, it didn't make the festivities at Augsburg due to illness, and he virtually abandoned it afterwards describing it as "juvenilia”. In fact, it wasn't performed again until 20 years after his death and has been relatively neglected ever since, compared to say his more famous Scottish Symphony. Listening to it this afternoon I don't think it deserves this neglect. It contains some very spirited brass playing by what is a relatively small brass section but making a very big noise this afternoon. It has some lovely melodic passages and it is very well conducted by Spanish conductor and music director Jaime Martin who clearly has a close working relationship with the orchestra including being married to one of the musicians!

The concert continued with a performance of another rarely performed work, Prokofiev's second violin concerto, which never received the recognition of his first concerto, or indeed his ballet or opera music. Today we were lucky to hear a very good performance by a fine musician Viktoria Mullova, who sprang to prominence 40 years ago when she won the Sibelius prize in Helsinki and a gold medal in the Tchaikovsky competition. And notoriety when in 1983 she made a dramatic defection to the west. In those days Russian musicians were strictly controlled and needed permission to travel abroad. Since her defection Mullova has become an international star, and appeared today on the stage, looking much younger than her 60 years, and playing with youthful vigour but great elegance, although interestingly she still had the score in front of her. She played the concerto superbly and after 8 performances in the UK was in perfect harmony with Jaime Martin and the orchestra, including the rarely heard castanets! She received a warm response from the Usher Hall audience and rewarded us with a little Bach encore.

After the interval we heard a much more familiar work, Sibelius's mighty Fifth Symphony, written by him at a difficult time in Finnish history. 1914-19 saw not only the First World War but also the Russian revolution, which impacted directly on Finland, indeed leading to its independence from Russia. Sibelius, by 1914, had become Finland's national composer and his music came to express the feeling of the emerging independent nation. He was also very influenced by nature and inspired by the view of swans flying and honking near his home north of Helsinki. I visited this house, now a museum when I worked in Europe; it's in a lovely position close to nature and you can see where he got his inspiration. From the opening flourish of the group of horn players which raises the theme of the swans, fully developed in the last movement, it was beautifully played with some very fine bassoon playing. Jaime Martin the conductor was very much in control right to the end when he held the crescendos and us in anticipation before the final flourish. After warm applause from the audience, he thanked us for attending and making a successful conclusion to their British tour. He said it may be our last live music for some time, but we should remember it fondly, as they in the orchestra would. He rewarded us with a nice piece Schubert from Rosamunde. For us in the audience, faced with a barren time for music, and maybe even a threat to the festival, it proved to be a memorable Sunday afternoon.