Elgar could be self-pitying, but rarely in his music, and least of all in the classically perfect "Enigma" Variations. Despite recent commentators trying to discredit Tchaikovsky's personal programme for his Fourth Symphony as confided to his patron Nadezha von Meck, there's no doubt that the first movement, at least, expresses his overwrought state of mind in 1878. Kirill Petrenko, magician whose thought and feeling still communicate mesmerisingly to his Berlin Philharmonic, found an ideal balance between passion and precision in both works.
The question of how deep these performances went, though, is probably subjective. I missed something, but nothing tangible, so let's praise the insights instead. Elgar had the ideal flexibility writ large, Petrenko emphasising the seriousness of the theme itself with loving portamenti (carrying from one note to another), and headed towards a passionate cry at the heart of the first variation, an oddly sad one given that the composer's wife Alice is the subject. The wit in the lighter portraits of "friends picture within" fell mostly to the woodwind, the lghening of Richard Arnold's serious mood and the tittering of the genteel ladies of Sherridge House delightfully led by veteran Berlin Philharmonic oboist Albrecht Mayer. And yes, "Nimrod" was as finely shaped from softest beginnings as anyone can make it.
The blusterers were exhilaratingly characterised, albeit with a shade too much timpani volume from Vincent Vogel, a brilliant artist, no doubt, but could do with some reining in - absolutely the only caveat I'd have about the playing. And there could have been a touch more distance to the throb of the ocean liner lamenting a loved one on the high seas (take your pick between Lady Mary Lygon or Elgar's youthful "Braut", Mendelssohn or Schumann as the source of the quotation so senstiviely delivered). Petrenko's panache never spills over into brashness, which gave us a uniquely springy self-portrait finale.
Horns came into their resplendent own with the fateful polonaise rhythms which launch Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Petrenko never let us forget that all three themes are dances, albeit a limping one in the case of the main waltz subject. Here an often plainer palette than Elgar's and endless sequences building to explosive climaxes had the benefit of Petrenko's ability to call up the celebrated Berlin nuancing. Meyer triumphed again giving us the most poetic phrasing of the second movement's melancholy canzona, the evening picture shading into darkness at the end. Pizzicato strings crept out of it in Tchaikovsky's tour de force of original scoring, and the drive of the finale never had us in any doubt that fate would shatter the merriment, after which the coda was frenetic. Much as I remember it being when a predecessor of Petrenko at the Berlin Phil, Claudio Abbado, made it in his inaugural concert with the London Symphony Orchestra. There's no doubt that this MD in Berlin is his equal.
- Second Berlin Philharmonic Prom this evening (3 September)
- Listen to this Prom on BBC Sounds
- More classical music reviews on theartsdesk
