Shaham, Minnesota Orchestra, Vänskä, Royal Albert Hall

Vänskä works magic in Beethoven's Ninth and Shaham nearly matches in Berg

by Igor ToronyilalicSunday, 29 August 2010

Osmo Vänskä, whose 'opening pianissimo in the Ninth flirted with that extremity, walked the tightrope of audibility, and fizzed with a desire to become audible'.

A great deal of scepticism greeted the release of a new Beethoven symphony cycle from Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra in the mid-2000s. Would this lot really be able say anything that hadn't already been said by the hundred or so other cycles? Could anyone really find anything very new or fresh to say about these warhorses? The answer then was yes. And the answer last night in their Prom's performance of Beethoven's Ninth was also a resounding yes. Hardly surprising if you'd heard Vänskä's Bruckner the night before or his Sibelius cycle earlier this year. In Vänskä-land even stale buns come fresh.

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