The Dome, Brighton
12 January 2014
The first concert of the New Year – assuming that the glories of the New Year concert itself was technically in last year! – brought a real rarity in the form of Beethoven’s piano concerto no 6. No this is not a misprint, it really does exist. What is more this is not an attempt to reconstruct a new concerto from the 182 bars the composer actual drafted of a new concerto. The 6th piano concerto is actually Beethoven’s own arrangement of his violin concerto for piano.
For those of us who know the violin concerto well, it was the clarity of the melodic line which impressed in pianist Andrejs Osokins’ performance. While the piano obviously has extra weight, a fact used more substantially in the militaristic cadenzas, there is never any sense that Beethoven is padding out the writing for the large scale of the piano. If anything he scales back the left hand writing to allow the right to sing more freely.
It may not be a regular part of the familiar canon but it was certainly worth hearing, and very well received.
The concerto was book-ended by Dvorak, opening with three Slavonic dances. Solo work here was particularly impressive, with fine flute playing from Christine Messiter.
Dvorak’s 9th symphony may be very familiar but its superb writing more than justifies its regular appearance on our concert platforms. Barry Wordswoth brought elan and passion to the work, moulding the long paragraphs with ease, creating a fine sense of fluidity.
The next concert on 9 February includes the Mendelssohn violin concerto with works by Prokofiev and Haydn. BH