Disciplined display
York Symphony Orchestra;
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall.
THE last shall be first, mainly because it was best. Beethoven’s Pastoral
Symphony was kept until the end of Saturday’s concert, conducted by Paul
Mann. It provided by far the tastiest wine.
It is not long since a work of such magnitude would have tested this orchestra
beyond its natural limits. But in re. cent years it has considerably raised
its sights (and the size of its audience).
What distinguished this performance, however, from what the York Symphony Orchestra
was able to achieve only a year ago was the new self-discipline of its conductor.
Gone are the flowery excesses of yesteryear. In their place has appeared an
altogether tighter beat, whose inevitable result is firmer control.
Mr Mann made only one concession to histrionics: an enormous stomp on the podium
that anticipated the thunderclap in the timpani by half a beat.
But the rest of the Storm was genuinely and impressively frightening, with the
strings in remarkable unanimity. It inspired the most blended playing of the
evening by the woodwinds, who were chiefly responsible for the pastoral repose
of the final Shepherd’s Song.
They had been less at ease in carrying the lion’s share of the accompaniment
in Mahler’s five settings of love-songs by Friedrich Ruckert, in which
the rich-toned soloist was the mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Edwards.
Here Mr Mann just managed to sustain a balance between luxuriance and intimacy,
allowing the voice to float a clear, if not always very intense, message.
Mozart’s later symphonies are not easy meat for string players, least
of all the Haffner, with its huge leaps in the first movement and the unnerving
tempo of its finale. It was not a wise choice of opener. But there was plenty
of compensation later on.
Martin Dryer