Philharmonia
Royal Festival Hall
Andrew Manze (conductor) Lise de la Salle (piano)
06 October 2024
Main photograph: Marc Gasgoigne
It was reduced Philharmonia forces for this all classical (in the strict sense of the word) concert. The configuration was different too with cellos to the left of first violins and seconds seated on the other side of the piano to the conductor’s right. Cue for much pivoting on the podium.
Lise de la Salle – the first soloist I’ve seen clad in black leather trousers but why not? – was a replacement for Sir Andras Schiff who has broken his leg. Her style is, of course, different but she gave us a vibrant, energetic, businesslike performance of Haydn’s 1780 piano concerto in D with a sensitive, individual take on the first movement cadenza. I admired the tender accompaniment which Andrew Manze coaxed from the orchestra in the Adagio and marvelled at the explosive, energetic, high speed rendering of the witty Rondo.
Then it was piano pushed to the back for Schubert 8 in all its glory. Manze, who often signals the rhythm of the music rather than beating time, allowed the brooding cellos and basses to work their magic and really leaned on the general pauses and the dramatic sforzandi. All that menacing B minor, which Manze clearly likes as much as I do, simmered mysteriously especially when he racked it up in the big repeat. The Andante – arguably Schubert’s best symphonic slow movement – was a joy too, especially in the tentative passages. It was well balanced with plenty of poignant intricacy and some fine work from clarinet and oboe.
The piano reappeared during the interval for Mozart’s 1786 A major piano concerto, maybe his loveliest, which completed the concert. Manze, who smiles a lot, made it sound both crisp and fluid. Lise de la Salle is a poised but not a flamboyant performer who delivered the first movement with charismatic precision and opened the adagio very much in chamber music mode, evidently delighting in playing with the wind section. Her lead into the Allegro was nippily incisive with some nicely pointed left hand work.