Philharmonia
Emilia Hoving
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
27 October 2024
Emilia Hoving, one of the most fluid and manually balletic conductors I’ve ever watched, kicked off with a delightful performance of Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite which, familiar as it is, she managed to make feel enjoyably arresting. Morning was appropriated sensitive with pleasing horn work, she coaxed an evocative grey sound from the muted strings in Death of Asa and the lilting pizzicato in Anitra’s Dance was elegant. And when she got to In the Hall of the Mountain King Hoving wisely left herself plenty of scope by starting very soft and slow and delivering the whole with humour.
Outi Tarkiainen’s Mosaics (2024) was a disappointment. I’m an unrepentant traditionalist. I do not go to a classical music concert to watch a wildlife film – a very dark and grainy one at that. Yet a film of an endangered, bottom-trawling fish was imposed on us for the full 15 minute duration of the piece. The disparate, melody-free music meanwhile – from which we were thus distracted – featured tubular bells, a violin solo, lots of remote string harmonics and strange percussion effects which I couldn’t always identify. The trumpet fanfares and cymbal clashes towards the end did at least signify that it was nearly over. The applause at the end was polite but far from rapturous
Part of the Philharmonia’s Nordic Soundscapes season, the concert ended with a splendid account of Sibelius 2 – the finale of which moved my plus one to tears which is always a good sign. Hoving, a Finn so this music is in her blood, created an electric sense of expectancy right from the start with those quivering strings and joyfully worked up to the many mountainous climaxes. There was some delightful bassoon playing against the double bass pizzicato in the andante. Hoving has a knack of silently “orchestrating” the rests and pauses so that the next entry slides in seamlessly. And as for the Finale, well, it was powerful, warm and intense. The woodwind melody with solo cello was very beautiful and the wonderfully bombastic trombone writing at the end was delivered with all the fortissimo panache it needs.
It almost made up for the fish.
