Victoria Hall in Geneva had a sold-out crowd for a performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra and Bruckner Symphony 2, performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Jonathan Nott.
It began with the Mozart Concerto, with Martin Fröst as the soloist. It’s a special one as it was Mozart’s final major piece before he died.
Fröst is a wonderful clarinettist but when he wasn’t playing during the concerto, especially during the first movement, he was leaning his head and body, seemingly trying to lead the orchestra, doing what he thought should be happening which was both a bit distracting and a bit disrespectful towards the conductor I thought.
As for the piece itself, Nott conducted it at a brisk pace which I appreciated, it fit the music wonderfully. The first movement had this beauty in the briskness but then as it moved to the second movement it was much slower, more luxuriously led, with the strings in particular shining. The final movement moving back to more upbeat, and sweet. It’s a lovely final piece by Mozart and a lovely showcase for the solo clarinettist.
After the conclusion of the Mozart, Fröst returned with an encore on his standard clarinet this time, and in a lovely touch, he performed an improvisation, mixture of, according to Fröst, Mozart, Stravinsky, Peter Pan and more! It was a lovely little piece that he had created, full of swerves here and there, nice embellishments, and totally his own.
The major piece of the night was Bruckner Symphony No.2, the 1877 edition. Bruckner is the only composer I know of who has several different variations of his symphonies in use. Bruckner 2 (which was actually his fourth symphony) has two standard variations performed, the original and the revised 1877. This performance was the revised. I do agree with others that, whilst people may have their own opinions, the only one whose opinion should matter is Bruckner. Bruckner chose to revise and we as the audience should accept that he made that choice. Obviously from a musicological perspective it’s fascinating to be able to see Bruckner’s process and evolution throughout the years but still, I think it can be disrespectful when alternate versions are used.
They call Symphony 2 the symphony of pauses and they were definitely right there! It’s a very experimental symphony, each movement featuring pauses with the music feeling different after each pause, it felt to me like lots of vignettes, each telling a story, contributing to the whole. It felt like the spiritual predecessor to Bruckner’s fifth symphony which was Bruckner at his most Brucknerian. I’ve not heard music from Bruckner like this before but even though it’s different, it was still unmistakably Brucknerian music.
The conductor was brilliant here, leading the orchestra wonderfully, controlling well. The first movement was the one that to me definitely had Bruckner 5 vibes which I found fascinating. It was a very quiet start and built and built with lots of pauses, the strings, in particular the double bass and celli were brilliant here. The second movement continued with the great double bass, elements felt a bit like a lullaby. The finale was Bruckner at his most epic and powerful, the orchestra and conductor are brilliant. The third movement continued with great strings and that feeling at points of a lullaby and almost achingly sweet. The power definitely returned in the final movement after the more sweet third movement. This was quite a pick’n’mix movement, lots of vignettes and different styles of music.
Bruckner is always Bruckner but always a bit different each time, bringing excitement and experimentation. Here in his ‘second’ symphony he really excelled, especially with the brilliant performances by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and conductor Jonathan Nott, a phenomenal performance. Very much hope they both return for more Bruckner very soon.
The Stuart Review 