Magnus Lindberg’s formidable first violin concerto, premiered in 2006, is written for Mozartian forces. But it is Sibelius who haunts this compelling piece, sometimes almost explicitly. It is as though Lindberg is constantly asking how a Finnish composer can be truly himself in a violin concerto when that other Finnish composer’s concerto is always there in the collective memory. Next month brings the world premiere of Lindberg’s second: the question may still be bugging him.
Christian Tetzlaff’s imperious playing of the piece was edge-of-the-seat compelling from first to last, brushing all uncertainty aside. From the high, rapt opening to the scintillatingly vigorous finale, Tetzlaff played with a vehement authority that never wavered, and at times was almost overwhelming. Once again, he showed why he is one of the unmissable artists of our era. Hats off to him for not playing an encore, either; a great concerto performance needs no afterword.
In the surrounding all-French programme, Robin Ticciati proved his own points. In Fauré’s orchestral suite for Pelléas et Mélisande, which predates Debussy’s opera, Ticciati immediately announced his quality by drawing refined and restrained playing from the London Philharmonic. Yet he never allowed the music to lose its inner pulse, with the rippling violin figurations of the second movement beautifully integrated with the pizzicato cellos and the sinuous flute solo.
Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales revealed a similar attention to clarity of texture and well-paced rhythmic grace. These waltzes really danced. But it was in Debussy’s La Mer, a symphony in all but name, that Ticciati displayed a sense of structure to go with his manifest ability to manage orchestral sound. The opening movement had a particularly firm sense of evolution as well as an ear for instrumental balance and effect, while the second movement play of waves was ideally impulsive and the final maritime surges were so atmospheric that one could almost feel the spray.
