Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor Antonello Manacorda
Violinist Johan Dalene
Cadogan Hall 29 May 2025
A pleasing concert, which spanned 120 years and three very different countries, it packed plenty of drama.
Mozart´s overture to The Magic Flute is insouciantly theatrical and I admired the contrasts Manacorda ensured we got between the delicate semiquaver passages and the big grandiloquent statements. He is an impassioned conductor although there´s plenty of restraint there too.
Thence to the extraordinary virtuosity of Johan Dalene, still only 24, who played Carl Nielsen´s 1911 violin concerto. It was new to me and, I suspect to most of the audience. Structured in two long movements it has many moods.
It opens, for example with what is effectively a cadenza over a woodwind pedal note so that we were immediately introduced to Dalene´s phenomenal technique. Like many violin concertos, it´s in D major which sits under the fingers more comfortably than, say the flat keys which work so well for piano concertos. I admired the way he can make the top harmonics, with lots of vibrato, ring out on that glorious 1725 Strad and his rhythmic double stopping in the first movement cadenza sounded like a violin duet. Then in the second movement cadenza we were treated to even more flamboyant double stopping punctuated with left hand pizzicato. And throughout, Manacorda ensured that the accompaniment was integrated and colourful. This concerto is an interesting piece. Magnificently played on this occasion, it deserves to be performed more often.
Dalene completed his stunning performance by playing the second movement of Ysaye´s sonata number 5 with warmth and more of that stupendous technique.
The second half of the concert consisted of Tchaikovsky´s Sixth Symphony, the Pathetique and it was that which most people were probably there for. Famously written at the very end of the composer´s life, it may or may not be a reflection on death or even a “suicide note” although I don´t buy the latter. Either way it’s an unusual symphony.
Manacorda found ways of serving up very familiar music in a way which made it sound arrestingly fresh and as poignant and disturbing as I´ve ever heard it. For example, the opening was played with far more rubato than usual which has the audience actively listening for the next cadence. He also found unusual tenderness in the dynamic control and the pizzicato descending scales at the end of the movement were full of the tension they need.
Even the strange 5-4 second movement feels troubled because it´s trying to be a waltz but isn’t and Manacorda made sure we felt the dichotomy. The trombone work in the climactic, almost manic, excitement of the third movement was glorious and the frenetic string playing admirably crisp.
Now, I am normally relaxed about applause between movements. If people really want to clap then let them although I don’t care for it much. But this symphony is an exception. As always, at this concert, they went wild at the end of the third movement and it kills that moment when the orchestra suddenly drops into the brooding, profoundly dark finale. I’ve never seen a conductor succeed in preventing it and Manacorda was no exception. Perhaps we could, or should, encourage a programme note or a surtitle to explain. Once they were allowed to get it started, the RPO found all the plaintive pain the movement needs, complete with tender pauses and some bravura bassoon work before finally letting it die movingly away to nothing.
