Review: CBSO/Andrew Grams, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Apr 15 2010 by Christopher Morley

  CBSO/Andrew Grams, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
 
Wednesday's concert got off to an unpromising start, Andrew Grams presiding over a clattery, noisy Dvorak Carnival Overture.
 
But, wow, didn't the young American conductor earn his spurs through the rest of the evening, ending with an account of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition which was both confidently flowing and dramatically paced - the whip-crack during "Gnomus" came as a thunderbolt out of the ether, for example.
 
Every detail of Ravel's virtuoso orchestration was brilliantly articulated, Grams wisely liberating the orchestra to play to its many strengths, Jonathan Holland, to single out one, magnificent in all the varying demands for the principal trumpet.
 
But even better than this was the compact accompaniment Grams secured for Isabelle Faust's searching, brave reading of Beethoven's Violin Concerto.

The soloist's trust in her on-loan 1704 Strad allowed her to reduce dynamic levels to a minimum at appropriate points: it also permitted a multitude of colourings and voices from one single line, and everything in this interpretation was understatedly eloquent -- all matched by Grams and the orchestra.
 
And the cadenzas were a fine exemplar of Faust's thoughtful approach. These were edited from Beethoven's own subsequent arrangement (he needed the money) of the concerto for piano, and spectacularly exploit the work's original recourse to important timpani contributions: Peter Hill responded magnificently.