Ida Moberg (1859-1947)
Friday, November 7, 2025
Concert Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
What a long word the Finnish language has for ‘sunrise’. By contrast, Ida Moberg’s work of that name is short, and while pleasant enough, quietly spoken, it is also rather samey if enjoying a responsive performance. Andrew Manze and FRSO were equally attentive to Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Senja Rummukainen’s sensitive, heartfelt and intensive account of it, of direct communication, and (gratefully) without false sentiment. For an encore, a Bach ‘Sarabande’ from Bach’s G-major Suite (BWV1007). The Brahms was given a bracing outing, the outer movements fleet and incisive (the first with the repeat observed), Classical rather than Romantic, yet the slow movement was spacious and warmly expressive, and, in the concluding bars of the Finale, no crude broadening to return the chorale but a glorious uninterrupted romp. This really is how this music should go, without bombast.