Returning to the UK for the first time in 27 years, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra began its three-venue tour with blistering performances of two Western classics and music by the largely self-taught Akira Ifukube (1914-2006). The orchestra was founded in 1962 and since 2019 its principal conductor is Sebastian Weigle, following such as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
Weigle favours a big sound, and from his 80-plus musicians drew a full-bodied tone; strings richly unanimous, woodwind clean and tangy, and brass fulsome without rasping. It was a perfect fit for the Tchaikovsky, less so for the Beethoven despite reduced string numbers.
Proceedings began with Ifukube’s Dance of the Seven Veils, one of seven episodes belonging to his ballet score Salome composed in 1947. Its ten-minute span unfolded from alto flute and harp sonorities to evoke colourful portraits of Herod, Jokanaan and Salome in story-telling detail and closing in a dramatic climax, a concoction of Western-style music sprinkled with exotic influences. Albeit handsomely played, there was little to grip the imagination in the music’s rather ordinary traversal of now dated procedures.
Enter a more compelling presence in Christian Tetzlaff for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. His virtuosity and ability to communicate remain peerless, here embracing the Concerto with an expressive spontaneity and a remarkable dynamic range. It’s just as well his tone had carrying power for the orchestra rarely held back, those opening bars seemingly ‘jumpstarted’ and lacking any sense of poise. Thereafter, Weigle and his players took the first movement’s symphonic structure by the scruff of the neck, preferring a confrontational manner to grandeur and serenity. That said, there were some fine woodwind contributions and much polished string playing. Lyricism found its way into the rapt slow movement where Tetzlaff eventually tamed the accompaniment with confiding tone. Dance elements emerged in the Finale, but again emphatic direction produced laboured results. Tenderness arrived in an encore: the Larghetto from Bach’s C-major Sonata, BWV1005.
After the interval Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony bristled with unbuttoned passion. If a sense of fate was not integral to this interpretation, there was a tremendous fervour from Weigle’s forthright tempos. At times, it was difficult to tell if Tchaikovsky’s emotional turmoil was driving this performance or the excitement of an orchestra on tour. The Andante’s tragic vein was partially glimpsed, initiated by an eloquent oboe solo, and perky woodwinds brought pre-echoes of the Scherzo’s playful mood, pizzicatos strings now rigorously taut and bringing some stunning pianissimos. No less compelling was the Finale, given an electrical charge from the brass, its closing furlong blazing with conviction – triumph over tribulation never more exhilarating.
Two encores: the Waltz from The Face of Another by Tōru Takemitsu, and the Hungarian Dance No.1 by Brahms.
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