Page 400 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

much of the weightier parts to the orchestra, leaving the organ to revel in the fanfares and
complicated fingerwork. As an encore, Tracey played Garth Edmundson’s Toccata from ‘Vom
Himmel Hoch’, with its dazzling carillon like scales accompanied by the glorious indulgence
of heavyweight pedals.

It’s in pieces like these where it would be nice to follow the modern trend for training a

camera on the organist to enable the audience to see the soloist at work, rather than just the
top of their head behind the console – a note for future concerts perhaps?

Mozart’s Paris Symphony (No.31 in D Major) is perhaps one of his most popular but for some
reason not that frequently performed nowadays, and its little sister (No.32 in G Major) is even
less frequently heard. Not much longer than many concert overtures, they provided sprightly

openers for Thursday and Sunday’s programmes, and Manze gave them as much attention to
detail as all the other music on display. Light on their feet and bubbling with energy, the
symphonies got both concerts off to a refreshingly cheerful start.

Then to Sibelius’ Symphony No.1 in E Minor which formed the second half of each
programme. Sibelius is one of Manze’s specialities, and his performances aim at authenticity
and getting to the heart of the composer’s intentions. Much like Bruckner (another favourite

of Manze) Sibelius frequently revised his scores after their first performances, resulting in
more than one known, if not published, version. He was also known to praise performances
which deviated greatly from his own markings, which has led to wide variation in
performance styles.

The first symphony is widely thought of as one of Sibelius’ works to show the greatest

influence of Tchaikovsky, and many performers tend to emphasise the similarities. Manze,
however, has clearly aimed to focus more on the emergence of Sibelius’ own unmistakable
and unique voice, which is already well formed in this work, composed in his early thirties.
Unusually, Manze chose to ask clarinettist Victor de la Rosa to play the opening clarinet solo
in an extended version, believed to be as it was in the original, unpublished score. This
longer, slower introduction set a tone for the entire first movement that felt much darker and
more emotionally charged than usual, and when its theme returned at the orchestral opening

of the final movement it seemed to have gained more dramatic weight than usual. After the
continued simmering emotions throughout the two central movements, this finale is often
played with exaggerated romantic expression, but Manze maintained the tension to the final
pair of pizzicato chords. This was met with an appropriately stunned silence in the hall before
the rapturous applause at both performances, during which Manze, who was entirely focused

on acknowledging the work of the players, was finally cajoled into taking a brief solo bow.