Uchida, London Symphony Orchestra, Ticciati, Barbican

Yes, indeed! David, sincere thanks for your thoughtful review. How right you are to refer to Mitsuko Uchida’s performance of Mozart’s A minor Rondo K511 as a ‘miracle’. The opening bars were an exquisite utterance of such tender sadness that it spoke profoundly to all of us for whom Sir Colin’s loss still leaves an aching void. Short though this masterpiece is, Uchida’s performance was freighted not only with pathos but also worlds of human experience. It was almost unbearable to be returned to the dying iterations of the opening refrain and to have to leave the intimacy of the moment and the memory. The miracle continued into the G major Piano Concerto K453, and again you are absolutely correct in describing the partnership of Uchida and Ticciati as ‘wonderful’. I was sitting close enough to see how completely engaged the pianist was with her accompanists, and the dialogues between woodwinds and soloist in particular, whether in the yearning minor of the second movement or the Papageno frolics of the third, were exemplary. Ticciati’s conducting was both lean and lithe, and propulsive energy matched melodic flow. Frankly, few pianists today can equal Mitsuko Uchida. The range and refinement of her tone are extraordinary, at one moment floating an exquisitely moulded phrase, at the next throwing off a bravura riot in a cadenza and ending with a cheeky quip. Her sensitivity to harmonic nuance and phrase is breath-taking, and her Mozart playing on this evening was nothing short of sublime. The LSO has a nasty habit of hijacking audiences by introducing, unannounced, some short new commission. My heart sinks when I see a battery of percussion ranged behind the orchestra. We know what’s coming, and I was not disabused by Kaner’s piece. How brave of you to reveal the Emperor’s new clothes! ‘Twitterings’ and ‘doodles’ is about right, and the hesitant revelation of melodic fragments seemed wholly undistinguished. Robin Ticciati’s performance of Dvořák’s lovely 5th Symphony was an utter delight. Your appreciative and perceptive review is refreshingly free of that ‘the kid done good’ tone of which some other commentators appear unable to rid themselves when referring to him. This patronising nonsense is hopelessly misjudged. As you say, he has a superb sense of phrase, line and rubato; the first movement, with its welcome exposition repeat, breathed both energy and radiance, while the cellos’ gorgeous opening to the second heralded an exalted song from the whole orchestra. A beautifully handled transition led to an energised Scherzando and a lovely, lilting Trio. Ticciati brought the same skills to the somewhat over-argued last movement, maintaining both lyrical line and dynamic energy; he perfectly understands how Dvořák’s inimitable string melodies have to be floated over palpitating woodwinds. The LSO played superbly in all sections, producing depth and weight of string tone in the symphony and a rare mellowness and refulgence in the brass. The LSO’s wind section took wonderful solos throughout, but I would have to single out John Anderson’s ravishing oboe playing. This is the kind of sound that Sir Colin and Bernard Haitink have regularly generated, despite the incremental damage sustained under Gergiev’s regime whereby performances are sometimes scarred by the screaming coarseness that led to me abandon the latter’s concerts way back in September 2008; i.e. before the Ossetian and homophobic Russian law scandals. After the crass promotional fanfares of Gergiev’s arrival in 2007, a truly brutalised Mahler 5th and an ear-splitting Rachmaninov 2nd finished me off. So, top marks, David, for your proposal that the LSO should appoint Robin Ticciati as next Principal Conductor rather than Sir Simon Rattle. I suppose we have Tom Service and Richard Morrison to blame for the Rattle rumour, but if you read the many comments on Service’s piece (27-06-203) you will find many arguing cogently against it on the grounds of weaknesses in core repertory, and, a view I share, micro-managing music until the life is sucked out of it. When I’ve travelled to Berlin in recent years, it’s been to hear Haitink with the BPO (Bruckner 8th!) or Barenboim and his great Staatskapelle. Morrison cites insider knowledge, and why should he not have, since he has written a fine book on the LSO? However, I spoke to an insider on Thursday, and I was led to believe that Rattle is not a done deal, although talks are ‘ongoing’. I suggested that the LSO should follow the LPO’s lead when they took a risk with Jurowski. If I understood it properly, the discreet response suggested that while the LSO was in a sound financial position, the LPO had the regular Glyndebourne slot to buttress its finances. Meaning, I suppose, that the LSO has a ‘prestige’ problem, hankers for knock-out appointments and can afford them. But do we really need the BPO’s ex? I warned from the outset that the LSO would simply be another notch on Gergiev’s bedpost, and so it has proved to be. What does Rattle offer? For purely musical reasons I am not inclined to welcome Rattle, but we might need to remind ourselves of his apocalyptic and patronizing anti-British rant in the Times of March 1st 2010: “If I were not British,” says Britain’s most celebrated conductor, “I would say that this old country of ours is going through a kind of endgame.” My riposte cited four days of music from February 17th during which I heard LPO/Jurowski in exhilerating Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, Perahia’s sublime Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, BBCSO/Bĕlohlávek’s benchmark Janáček and Martinů and LPO/Jurowski in magnificent Janáček and Suk. I was also awaiting ENO’s marvellous ‘Satyagraha’ revival and Mackerras’s definitive ROH ‘Vixen’. Rattle’s bragging about outreach did not impress either, since numerous organisations do it here without so much noise. It would seem that Sir Simon did not follow up my suggestion of returning his knighthood and taking on German nationality, and now he wants to come home. Well, not in my back yard, thanks. If the LSO cannot see just how progressive and exciting Jurowski’s appointment has been for musical life in the capital – programming is beyond anything that the LSO could envisage – then they will be perpetually stuck in a self-defining rut with a big-name Principal and prestigious one-offs. If LSO members had witnessed Ticciati’s extraordinary Bruckner 4th at this year’s Snape Proms, they would be heading the stampede to nab him. But they won’t!