Review: Cornelius Meister/CBSO,at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Weber thought Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony revealed that the composer was "ripe for the madhouse".

Despite the hyperbole there is a nugget of truth as regards the performance of this symphony – the final movement must be manic.

Players in Beethoven’s time found the music almost impossible to play.

Not so now, but for a really effective performance there must still be an impression that players are being pushed right to the edge.

The young German conductor Cornelius Meister obtained the desired effect in a fast and furious finale.

What a shame that he did not divide the violins left and right so that we could appreciate the antiphonal play that Beethoven makes so much of.

Meister was more effective in Beethoven than in the overture and incidental music from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream which remained resolutely earthbound and needed a generous sprinkling of fairy dust.

Arabella Steinbacher’s performance of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto was very different – with all the sparkle one could wish for.

Steinbacher emphasized the work’s lyricism and was most effective in the tender andante and quicksilver finale, after a slightly cool opening movement.

In her encore, the first movement of Ysaÿe’s Bach-inspired first sonata, she was dazzlingly dextrous.