Saturday, September 21, 2024

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

A well-balanced programme of two roughly forty-minute pieces. The Prokofiev, his Opus 125, written for Rostropovich, designed with shortish outer movements bookending one much-longer than either, was crisp and purposeful from the off, expressive too, Alisa Weilerstein very intense, the orchestra vividly detailed, cellist and ensemble as-one, as befits this hybrid work. Wherever it goes, which is to many places in the second movement, there were to be no longueurs from these performers – for the middle tableau was fed by adrenalin, whether great attack from Weilerstein or punchy accents from the Berliners, and when the music slows it was like a rapt meditation, the range encompassing rapid scurrying to nostalgic melodies, all-belonging, further quick-changes of mood and tempo deftly accommodated. The cellist’s cadenza was stupendous, leading to further high-wire acts, musings, and boldly-drawn characterisations, the coda scintillating, leading to some in the audience to maybe think the Sym-Con was finished. The final movement, an ingenious set of variations, here lifted playfully off the page, alive to humour, ended with a demonic flourish, cueing an encore, a slow confiding ‘Sarabande’ (from one of Bach’s Suites), given by Weilerstein (not afraid to couple Elliott Carter and Elgar) with infinite meaning.

Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande, Opus 5, after Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande, is a tragic tale of doomed lovers – with music that is late-Romantic in style, the orchestra huge (including eight horns, five trombones, piccolo to contrabassoon, and here with four harps rather than the score’s two) – played luxuriously without glossing over details. Indeed it was scrupulous yet also graphically suggestive of characters and circumstances, Lahav Shani (who waited to start due to a ringing mobile), and conducting such continuous complexities from memory, ensured symphonic direction while being flexible, transparent tuttis yet with no lack of heft, and some memorable solos, such as concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley’s interplay with his first-desk colleague.

All in all, an impressive and compelling concert, presented with superb sound and picture.

https://www.classicalsource.com/cd/alisa-weilerstein-plays-cello-concertos-by-elgar-and-carter-with-staatskapelle-berlin-and-daniel-barenboim-decca