Mozart Overture: The Marriage of Figaro
Richard Strauss Horn Concerto No 2 Soloist: Ben Goldscheider
Bruckner Symphony No 4 ‘Romantic’

It would be difficult to find a programme which demonstrates more effectively the variety of the Austro-German musical tradition, with the delicate but infectious energy of Mozart’s overture, Strauss’s lush lyricism, melodic genius and joie-de-vivre and the whole panoply of emotion unleashed by Bruckner within a tightly controlled structure. With so many exposed passages and frequent transitions of mood and texture, these are works which are technically demanding and require extraordinary levels of skill, discipline, musicality, confidence and sheer endurance from all sections of the orchestra – and the members of the MSO responded triumphantly to the challenge with as fine a performance as you will ever hear of all three works.

Conductor Brian Wright set a brisk tempo for the overture in which the strong, accurate, well-articulated string-playing produced a real sense of excitement and anticipation for the shenanigans of the opera itself. There was great rhythmic definition and some wonderfully soft passages while the ensemble playing was absolutely precise but dramatic, with some thrilling crescendos and tutti interjections.

Composed by Strauss when in his late 70s, his 2nd Horn Concerto has all the liveliness of his first, composed when he was just 18, but with perhaps greater nostalgic lyricism and even a sense of escape from what was happening in the world when it was written in 1942, though this is not the place to discuss Strauss and politics – and I wonder if cancel-culture has yet entered the concert-hall. Ben Goldscheider’s mastery of this notoriously difficult and unpredictable instrument was simply extraordinary. He produced a wide variety of tonal colour – more than I have ever heard from a horn – and the more lyrical sections were utterly compelling in the gentle sensitivity with which he played sensual melodic lines. The crisp runs, changes of speed and more playful passages showed his technical dexterity, but at no point was technique sacrificed to letting the music speak for itself. In its scale, this is almost a chamber-work, and Ben’s subtle and emotionally-intelligent approach was exactly right. There was measured, balanced, but richly textured accompaniment and interaction from the orchestra, with some particularly fine wind passages, horn and string-playing; at several points, the solo horn part was able to emerge wonderfully from the orchestral ensemble. Overall, this was a nuanced performance of inspired exuberance and melodic delight. By contrast, Ben played as an encore Bernhard Krol’s ‘Laudatio’ of 1966 which, despite its name, provides a hauntingly poignant counterweight to the Strauss. Ben’s controlled performance, with some amazing pianissimo playing and an ability to evoke both melancholy and peaceful resignation, made this one of the highlights of the evening.

Bruckner’s hour-long 4th Symphony ranges across the emotions, but requires strict discipline. Brian Wright’s elegant. efficient and unobtrusive style of conducting coped brilliantly with the frequent changes of mood and tempo; the balance between different sections of the orchestra was superb and the sound was never ponderous The brass in particular played with real sensitivity and were at no point overwhelming. The lower strings and violas produced a fullness of sound in their melodic passages, which often had an engagingly dark quality, while the upper strings, when not playing a punishing tremolando, were serene in their tone and tuning especially in the more chromatic passages and fiendish runs. There were some thrilling crescendos and full ensemble sections, interspersed with some exquisite wind and string playing. I was also impressed by the subtle drama added to this work (and to the Strauss) by the excellent timpanist. This symphony provides an emotional journey and the MSO’s performance was positively uplifting. The evening certainly left me exhilarated.

Jonathan Watts