Sunday, May 25, 2025
Barbican Hall, London
Unable to watch the live relay I had to wait until Stage+ archived this concert. (Patience is not my virtue!)
Merry Pranks continue to be copyright Till Eulenspiegel, Richard Strauss’s orchestral scherzo animated here by the LSO and Antonio Pappano to an aural cartoon bursting with brilliance, corners effortlessly turned as adventures followed one another with wit, vividness and zeal, the tempos measured if flexible, the whole affectionate, yet, whether intended or not, curiously X-rated at times (interestingly novel), so no bedtime story, more a cue for nightmares. Maybe the real Till – and this prankster did exist – would have approved.
Strauss as self-composed Hero, even if his Life up to that point was still young. Sir Antonio led a glorious account, the LSO continuing to be on its mettle, for a spacious reading, glowing and incident-packed, often subtle (especially in the strings, violins antiphonal) and down the quiet end of the dynamic scale, Leader Roman Simovic superb as the Companion (Frau Strauss), virtuosity and characterisation (flirtatious, feisty) entwined, and including a Battle as percussive and cacophonous as you like (up the scale), and then with reflections, sublimities and sunsets drawing the listener in to very particular sentiments. A hug for Simovic.
Between Straussian extravaganza, an intimate K219 (A-major Violin Concerto; No.5) found Lisa Batiashvili in stylish and expressive form, accompanied collegiately, the slow movement flowing without compromising its soulful eloquence. Not sure though about the cadenzas by Tsotne Zedginidze – let’s call them wide-ranging (if not quite Schnittke for Beethoven) – for all Batiashvili’s conviction, and she certainly fired into the ‘Turkish’ episode of the Finale, her violin sizzling.
https://www.stage-plus.com/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSS32D8?player=true&trackId=performance_work_A1IN4PJFE9MM2RJ3CLBMUSJBBSPJ8C1O [subscription needed]
Recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast