BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier
Tobias Feldmann
Royal Albert Hall
Anja Bihlmaier is the BBC Philharmonic’s new principal guest conductor and she clearly has a warmly incisive rapport with the orchestra.
There was powerful chemistry between her and violinist Tobias Feldmann, also from Germany, making his Proms debut with the Beethoven concerto: arguably the loveliest piece ever written for the instrument. He found a mellifluous tone in the first movement, making this most familiar of pieces sound freshly full of light, shade and fluidity. The larghetto was languidly slow with oodles of sweetness which gave scope for Bihlmaier to bring out the gentle beauty of the wind parts and I loved the elegance of the bassoon with the soloist in the rondo.
Cadenzas go, it seems, in fashions. When I was growing up we heard a whole variety because it was said that the Kreisler ones – which we knew from recordings – were too difficult to risk in performance. Then, suddenly, you heard Kreisler all the time. Now the fashion is Wolfgang Schneidehan (1915-2002) – as in this delightful performance. Basing his ideas on the version of the concerto which Beethoven wrote for piano and orchestra, Schneidehan turns the first movement cadenza into a timp and violin duet and it’s theatrical magic – personally, I can’t hear it too often.
Feldmann finished with Elgar’s Salut D’Amour, with orchestral accompaniment as his encore – charming, poised and affectionate.
The second half began with Sarah Gibson’s warp & weft and there was a sense of great sadness in the hall. Gibson died, aged just 38, last month, suddenly, of cancer. Presumably, at the time the piece was programmed, she would have been looking forward to being present for the performance. So her textural collage, inspired by the art of Helen Shapiro, felt like a memorial. It features fragments of melody building to a coherent whole as in a piece of home-based weaving by women whose home-based art was traditionally regarded as second rate. There was spectacular work from the percussion section especially the mysterious xylophone runs and scaled gongs, one of which resonates dramatically at the end.
And finally to the glories of Brahms 4 which Bihlmaier took without baton – sometimes she does and sometimes not, according to the piece. She packed the first movement with mystery and colour and leaned lovingly (but never cloyingly) on the big Brahmsian melody in the Andante. The third movement was as “giocoso” as the composer could have wished and the string work in the final movement was deliciously powerful: plenty of the required passion and some delightful horn work.
