Daniel Barenboim’s talents and confidence are so prodigious that sometimes he can seem happier just to wing it. In this performance with his Berlin orchestra of Elgar’s second symphony, however, that was never the case for a single moment. Barenboim has said recently that Elgar’s credentials are universal. And, right from the first bar, with the crescendo thrillingly elongated, Barenboim seemed on a mission to prove the point.
It was a mission in which the Staatskapelle were equal partners. Their playing was luxuriant, whether in the surging tuttis of the opening statement, or the hushed intimacies that are such an essential recurring part of this symphony’s texture. Brass and woodwind were outstanding, while the string playing, audibly urged on by Barenboim at times, was richly committed in quiet and loud passages alike.
Perhaps, in his already celebrated recent recording, Barenboim achieves a balance that allows moments like the oboe solo in the first movement development to shine forth even more eloquently than they did in the hall. Yet the commitment and quality gave the whole of this performance a very special sense of occasion and affirmation, never more poignantly than in the long, dying glow of the finale.
Presented with the Elgar Society’s medal at the end of the performance, Barenboim gave a rare public hint of one private reason for the evening’s intensity. He had, he said, though without naming her, been thinking about the great Elgarian who, if she had lived, would have been 70 this year. He will not have been the only one.
It is a tribute to Barenboim, and particularly to the musicianship of Lisa Batiashvili, that the excellence of her performance of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto was far from overshadowed by the Elgar that followed. Batiashvili’s playing had all the mix of gutsy grandeur and soaring lines the piece demands, with the details never blurred even in the tearaway finale, while the interplay between soloist and orchestra was of a very special order.
Until 2 June. Box office: 0844 875 0073. Venue: Royal Festival Hall.
