MiV HomeBy Deryk Barker
As his fame and success as a composer grew, Brahms apparently devoted less and less time to the piano, his own instrument. In 1876, the year of the completion of his Symphony No.1, George Henschel discovered him in Koblenz desperately practising for that evening's concert - at which he was to play the Schumann Concerto and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy.
Brahms was red in the face, having difficulty with even simple scales, and kept muttering to himself: "But, Johannes, pull yourself together. Do play decently!"
If his neglect of playing the piano was the price posterity had to pay for Brahms's concentration on composition then I would venture to suggest that it was more than worth it.
And Saturday's night's thrilling performance of the First Symphony by the Civic Orchestra and George Corwin only reinforced that opinion.
Despite occasional infelicities (less-than-100%-accurate intonation, sometimes scrappy ensemble in faster passages) it was a reading which gripped from beginning to end.
And that famous opening! Where others choose to grab the audience by the throat to get their attention, Corwin and his players, while the initial impact of their first chords may have been less, achieved a longer-lasting effect by ratcheting up the tension inexorably during the introduction, so that I (for one) was on the edge of my seat by the time the main allegro (exposition repeat included - many thanks) began and stayed there for the remainder of the performance.
The gentle opening of the second movement showed the Civic's strings at their best - producing a full-bodied sound, well-tuned. Corwin's observance to the letter of Brahms's score made the movement (marked andante sostenuto) flow more naturally than one often hears, even though his tempo made no concessions to his players and phrasing occasionally suffered.
The charming third movement intermezzo was beautifully contoured and prepared us admirably for the maelstrom of the finale. The introduction was again pregnant with possibilities, the famous theme nobly played at its first appearance; and, as I had anticipated, Corwin eschewed the "gear change" in which so many conductors indulge, simply, I suspect, to whip up a fake excitement.
There was, however, nothing fake about the excitement and sheer physicality of the Civic's Brahms 1. I don't think I have ever heard them sound better.
According to Kevin Copps, Carl (or Karl) Reinecke "has been variously described as an influential pedagogue, a fine musical craftsman, an all-round musician and a prolific composer capable of expression in all media." And if that's not damning with faint praise, I don't know what is.
Reinecke's Harp Concerto may well be the rule-proving exception in his output: it is fresh, tuneful, well-constructed and suitably virtuosic without ever being merely showy.
Josh Layne has always had an excellent technique; to this he brings an increasing maturity (most readily apparent in his phrasing) which made his performance of the Reinecke a delight.
One of the problems of a concerto for harp is getting the balance between soloist and orchestra right. Much of this is the composer's responsibility, but there is still plenty of scope for conductor and orchestra to get things wrong. On this occasion, though, they got nearly everything right. Very occasionally what seemed to be important material in the solo part was submerged; but mostly when Layne sounded as if he was accompanying, that was precisely what he was supposed to be doing.
The cadenza in the opening movement was exceptionally well moulded by Lane, and the orchestral pickup excellent, leading to a thoroughly determined-sounding coda.
The atmospheric slow movement began with a fine duet between Layne and principal horn Amy Sandford, featured some dubious string intonation at its heart, but closed well.
The finale, with its playful pizzicato opening, was great fun - and the crispness of the pizzicatos particularly commendable.
A most enjoyable performance.
The evening opened with Weber's overture Der Freischütz, a challenging work (especially for the horns, poor souls) with which to begin the evening. But one could hear the improvement in the playing almost from bar to bar and the tricky coda was well done.
An auspicious start to the new season.
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