Page 371 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Midlands Music Reviews

8 February 2023

A majestic ‘Alpine’ Symphony from the RLPO –

shame about the slide-show

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at Symphony Hall ★★★★

Near the end of his epic musical traversal of a mountain peak Richard Strauss launches
a storm. It’s the only genuinely pictorial effect in this huge tone poem which is, as
Beethoven said about his ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, "more the expression of feeling than
painting". There are none of Don Quixote’s bleating sheep, Beethoven’s cuckoos and
quails or Mahler’s alpine cowbells. The storm is Strauss’s set piece and even the most
innocent listener is left in no doubt about what’s happening; the plink-plonk string
pizzicati of the first raindrops, ominous rumbles of approaching thunder from the basses
and bass drum and then the apocalyptic eruption complete with wind-machine going full
pelt. The RLPO under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider did it complete justice; I’d have donned a
souwester if there’d been one handy.This was exactly as it should be – so why spoil it by
projecting a slide of forked lightning in the night sky? It added nothing and annoyingly
distracted attention away from the musical experience.

The Alpine landscape photographs by Ben Tibbetts were there to “create an experience
to remember”, which they did but not in the way intended. A couple of them were
spectacular with the metaphysical menace of a Romantic landscape by John Martin, but
Strauss was giving us all the aesthetic sublimity we needed, leaving us free to create our
own images if desired. Keeping the overhead lights on full and using a relatively tiny
screen also vitiated the planned visual impact. If you want an audio-visual spectacular
don’t do it on a shoestring budget. At one point the LPO’s excellent oboe had a crucial
solo, an isolated moment of sudden stillness before the storm’s frenzy – the lone
individual dwarfed by Nature’s immensity. What was the visual analogue for this emotion
of existential doubt? Another slide of another mountain. The power of the orchestra’s
performance – every section at the top of their game – deserved our undivided attention
which this “concept” concert impeded us from doing.

Before taking up the baton Szeps-Znaider was one of the world’s top violin virtuosos.
He’s not lost his touch and his warm full-toned Guarneri “del Gesu” violin was a delight in
Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1. The LPO’s strings, with Szeps-Znaider rightly using
antiphonally divided fiddles for extra clarity, provided some luscious support with the
soloist ensuring that Bruch’s hyper-romantic slow movement weaved its familiar but
always welcome magic.

Norman Stinchcombe