CBSO/Nelsons at Symphony Hall
Jun 26 2009 By Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post
It didn’t look promising: a huge CBS Chorus ranged behind and dwarfing an appropriately tiny CBSO, scaled-down for Wednesday’s performance of Haydn’s Nelsons Mass.
Yet it worked brilliantly, thanks to the effective training of chorus master David Lawrence, to the sensitivity of the choristers themselves and, above all, to the well-shaped, baton-less conducting of Andris Nelsons, a prize-winning singer himself and someone who begged us not to find any links between his own surname and that of the subject of this great composition.
Balances between chorus and orchestra were superb. Within this pared-down instrumental ensemble, natural trumpets rasped with significance, timpani rattled now triumphantly, now ominously, and the strings varied their tone to convey moments of utmost reflectiveness and then utmost jauntiness, so characteristic of this beloved composer.
The quartet of soloists, Hilary Summers a genuine Elgarian contralto (perhaps too weighty here), tenor Ed Lyon and sonorous bass Graeme Broadbent, headed by soprano Claire Booth, perceptibly suffering from a throat infection but in radiant voice, was generally well-blended in this performance which emphasised the symphonic team-work of Haydn’s conception, wonderfully delivered.
A very different kind of hero is the subject of Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, none other than the composer himself and doesn’t he emblazon it?
Tactfully, Nelsons was able to slip the self-aggrandisement into the background, focusing our attention instead onto the genuine organic growth and development of this teeming, busy score.
He was assisted by the quietly spectacular violin solos of CBSO concertmaster Laurence Jackson, not half as petulant as the composer’s wife they are meant to represent, but here a seamless, unifying presence.
The entire orchestra was equally magnificent, sealing this final concert of Nelsons’ first year as CBSO music director with tremendous aplomb.
Rating: 4/5
* Repeated tomorrow (7pm).
