Saturday, March 15, 2025

Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin

Fate dealt a hand to open the concert, a twenty-minute Suite from Janáček’s Osud arranged by František Jílek who knew the opera from the inside having conducted staged performances (including the belated premiere) – dramatic, dark and edgy music, played vividly/tremendously involving rhythmically/expressively, suggestive of circumstances, volatile emotions, delirious dancing, and, at the close, despite glimpses of a brighter future, the powerful impression that the characters have no way out of their dilemmas. Jakub Hrůša led a pristine incident-packed account, as he did the Bartók, clear-sighted if just a little neutral, objective as befits the title, if keeping the composer’s feelings secondary to the printed page being explored. Between the two, Seong-Jin Cho gave a technically impressive account of the ‘Emperor’, notable for his subtly dynamic ‘first among equals’ approach, yet with no need for Hrůša to restrict the orchestra. Following a purposeful first movement, given with a militaristic step, the Adagio filled a sublime but not static space, an invitation to an inner sanctum, and the Finale proceeded in joyous leaps. As as encore, Cho strikingly jumped into the twentieth-century with ‘The Chase’ from Bartók’s Out of Doors, the pianist, following Ravel, showing a hitherto unsuspected willingness to be uncompromising.