It’s six years since Osmo Vänskä last conducted a complete cycle of the Sibelius symphonies in London. That was with the London Philharmonic too, and this reprise is following the same chronological four-concert plan. So the third concert paired the fourth and fifth symphonies and, like the rest of the series, also included a British concerto; here it was Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with Raphael Wallfisch as the disappointingly prosaic soloist.
Yet Vänskä’s peerless Sibelius still sweeps all before it. His interpretations have continued to evolve over the years; phrases are more moulded now, textures more homogenised, while instead of the music being allowed to speak starkly for itself, its course is clearly signposted. But what remains as powerfully impressive as ever is the sense of shape that informs everything – of how every particle in each score contributes to the whole symphonic organism.
There are new details too. Pizzicatos snapping on to the fingerboards of the cellos and basses in the central movement of the fifth symphony was the most striking of them, while Vänskä’s approach to the chilly severities of the fourth seemed much more expansive than it used to be, so that the whole work emerged more than ever as a Pathétique-like testament of introspection and self-doubt, wonderfully conveyed by the LPO’s strings and woodwind especially. The orchestra’s brass section got their chance to shine in the fifth, and though that was not quite the overwhelming experience it can be, this was still a performance of remarkable clarity and perfectly measured weight.
- Royal Festival Hall, London, until 28 October.
