Review: CBSO at the Town Hall

Oct 29 2009 By Norman Stinchcombe

The claim that Haydn’s best symphonies are the ones with nicknames was again shown to be a myth with a dashing and witty performance of the plain No 102 in B flat major.

It provided a splendid start to the CBSO’s series of concerts marking the 200th anniversary of Haydn’s death, revealing his ability to combine the catchy and instantly approachable with music of substance, all leavened with his genial humour and delight in wrong-footing the listener.

The conductor Giovanni Antonini had a mix-and-match performance approach: modern instruments played at modern pitch but with a period flavour provided by whooping narrow bore trumpets which were excitingly raucous but whose intonation was hit and miss.

The slow hushed opening was played so beautifully by the strings that one wished it could have lasted longer. Sweet-toned flutes and a romantic cello solo gave variety to the central movements and the finale whirled itself joyfully away.

The work was a clear influence on Beethoven’s second symphony but this performance was far less satisfying with Antonini pressing ahead so fast that violins and violas were scurrying rather than articulating in the opening movement’s transformation from adagio to allegro. Played at such a relentless tempo too much orchestral detail simply whizzed past.

The focus in Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D is almost entirely on the soloist and the young Croatian Dejan Lazic deserved our undivided attention. His performance combined technical brilliance with an obvious relish for the work’s musical wit.

It lacks the rich musical textures of Mozart’s concertos – the oboes and horns are just supporting players – but Lazic revealed the poignant slow movement’s gentle melancholy and revelled in the Hungarian-flavoured finale’s high jinks.