BRAHMS Violin Concerto
RESPIGHI Fountains of Rome
RESPIGHI Pines of Rome
Leonidas Kavakos (violin)
Filarmonica della Scala
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)
If I have to pick a favourite living conductor, it would be without doubt Riccardo Chailly. I can't think of other active big names who consistently maintains that seemingly impossible fine balance of youthful freshness, textural transparency and sophisticated rigour, and he can draw that gravitational sound from almost any orchestra - I think it has something to do with his treatment of the lower register instruments. His latest Brahms cycle on Decca is revelatory, and so is the recording of the "Violin Concerto" with Leonidas Kavakos and the Leipzig force. It was with this high expectation that I turned up to this Prom, which involved Kavakos with Chailly's new band, the Filarmonica della Scala. The concert was delayed by 15 minutes as apparently the instruments were stranded at Stansted and only arrived as the audience took their seats, which was totally forgivable except it sent the message out that they did not rehearse the works on site, and it showed. It was a massive shame that the quorum only reached their full potential after exploring the acoustics for most of the first two movements of the Brahms VC. But they are very sensitive musicians, and quickly adapted to the scene, so by the end of the second movement we had that magical sound finally. The brilliant thing about this pairing, on recording or live here, is that they play the concerto with such chamber-like elegance, intimacy and warmth, where every pianissimo sings effortlessly, within that full overwhelming Romantic architecture. Kavakos visually displayed his commitment to the inner workings by actually playing to the orchestra sometimes, and the synergetic conversations flourished. The bigger impact came after the interval when the Italian force played Respighi's "Fountains of Rome" and "Pines of Rome". It was glittering and sumptuous, and the mercurial music (no pun intended) glowed to a triumphant close. Surprisingly, this was only the Italians' Proms debut. We need to hear more from them, let's hope they record more.
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