Page 186 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

jinks of the waltzing Superman. An Alpine Symphony was vivid from first to last, even with the
horns across the valley actually accommodated within the hall; that brought the number of
players in front of us and to one side to 134 (by no mens the full complement pictured below by
Mark Allan).

Ian Julier, new to the roster of theartsdesk’s classical music/opera critics, also chose this as his
highlight, while Jessica Duchen picked a second Philharmonia/Rouvali special we didn’t get to
review here, praising a “fresh, ravishing, insightful performances of the Sibelius Violin Concerto
[with another Finn, Pekka Kuusisto, which sounded like second nature to all concerned, and a
Beethoven ‘Pastoral’ Symphony that went at quite a lickety-split but breathed new and wondrous
life into its teeming sonic scenery.”

The end of what would have been the previous Philharmonia season saw a farewell to Rouvali’s
questing predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and two concerts emblematic of his original
programming over the years; the first worked even better than the second.” For me, the most
sumptuous and electrifying orchestral concert of the year came from John Wilson’s hand-
picked Sinfonia of London at Snape Maltings, rising to two British masterpieces of international
brilliance, Britten’s Piano Concerto (with the ever-unpredictable Pavel Kolesnikov) and Vaughan
Williams’s A London Symphony. Richard Bratby loved their Prom, “the verve, the finesse, the
endlessly expressive voicing and phrasing - all topped off with probably the greatest live
performance of the Korngold Symphony that anyone present will ever have heard….it felt like
being in love”.