Two concerts packed with thorny repertoire playing to large and enthusiastic audiences of all ages: the London Philharmonic Orchestra is cresting a tricky wave right now. A fortnight ago Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski held us spellbound with mechanistic Mosolov and Prokofiev (the insanely difficult Second Symphony); last night Principal Conductor Edward Gardner served up Czech and Polish rarities, drawing equal fire from the players. Proof indeed that the successor was the right choice.
There were canny links in the programming, not that you'd know it from the notes. The exultant cadence played over and over again in the peroration of Janáček's Taras Bulba - the bloody Cossack protagonist pressed into service with a prophecy of freedom actually forecasting Czech liberation three years after the composer began work on his three-movement symphonic poem in 1915 - was adopted by his natural successor Martinu from 1938 onwards. Known somewhat restrictingly as the "Juletta chords" due to passionate iteration in that operatic masterpiece, it may stand for love of homeland, or memorial to the young genius composer and conductor he loved, Vítězslava Kaprálová, who died tragically young at the age of 25. She will be represented in the second of Gardner's two concerts this week, in Polish and Hungarian company
Any mention of the memorial was out during Martinů's lifetime - he remained a married man up to his own death in 1959 - but whatever the cadence represents, it offers powerful moments of release in the first of his magnificent six symphonies, espoused by Koussevitzky in the exile composer's new American home in 1942, and in the equally masterly - but how many knew? - Second Violin Concerto of the following year (the composer's own note is characteristically unrevealing about the concerto's essence). After a fierce, aggressive orchestral introduction, Martinů threads it into a singing, dancing, syncopated line for the soloist. This and all else were perfectly articulated with seeming ease in the face of bewildering difficulties by Josef Špaček, former leader of the Czech Philharmonic and already established as an outstanding soloist (get hold of his outstanding recording of works by Dvořák, Suk and Janáček).
The orchestral punctuations are fierce and embattled in the first movement; eventually woodwind provide bucolic counterpoint and contrast in the central Andante moderato, though there's also eventual strangeness here and one of many levitational, spectral passages in Martinů's music (being born and growing up high in a room in a church tower surely has something to do with it). Co-ordination between violinist, conductor and orchestra was fantastical and exhilarating in the finale. Any instant groan at Špaček announcing the Dvořák Humoresque as his encore was exquisitely brushed aside in an aerial arrangement for string quartet.
Gardner (pictured above by Mark Allan) established high orchestral energy levels at the start with Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz's Overture - a bagatelle compared to her usual high levels of expression, but deliciously off-kilter - and made a uniquely compelling argument for Lutosławski's Fourth Symphony of 1993 after the interval. The contrasts of the opening lament for clarinet above a pulsing bass and restless skeeterings soon give way to labyrinthine paths that are difficult to trace, but collective string lines were superbly shaped and for once the work didn't outstay its curious 22-minute span.
Emotional exhaustion might have been setting in for the audience, but the orchestra didn't flag in the sparer lines and more arresting instrumental combinations of Taras Bulba, where the Poles - another fascinating link - are the enemy with their fatuous mazurkas. Sue Böhling's plangent cor anglais solo for the younger of Taras's two ill-fated sons put us off our guard for the abrasions to follow. And finally there was that glorious apotheosis, organ and all: an exultant end to a rich and rare concert.
- This concert on the BBC iPlayer
- Next concert by Edward Gardner and the LPO is on Saturday, 7 February at the Royal Festival Hall
- More classical reviews on theartsdesk
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