11th May 2024
- Strauss: Suite for Winds
- Dvorak: Cello Concerto
- Brahms: Symphony No. 4
- Conductor: Hitoshi Suzuki
- Cello Soloist: Gerard Flotats
While BBC audiences journeyed to Malmo for the Eurovision Song Contest, patrons of the Strode Theatre and the MSO were suffused in a more mellow glow on this, the second night of the appearance of the Aurora Borealis across Somerset skies. The mood and beauty seemed to flow from astrosphere, to weather, to music.
The programme, of works written in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, was nicely conceived, capped by the beautiful cello concerto in the hands of an exceptional young talent.
A gossamer curtain lifted onto the 1884 Suite for 13 Winds, by a very young Richard Strauss. The oboe introduced the principal theme with bassoons and clarinets, opening into a lovely, lyrical melody, which was performed by some of the MSO’s finest players. This calm was soon shot through with moments of dissonance, the ensemble increasing in volume and texture, with delicate flute notes and rich horns, then clarinets, played with colour. A balmy summer evening seemed interrupted by a thunder storm; but we returned to the calm beauty of the early theme. No work could better showcase the excellence of the MSO woodwinds.
The second piece, the Dvorak Cello Concerto, was sublime. With a confidence that belies his youthfulness, Gerard Flotats – whose performance was kindly supported by Making Music’s Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists’ scheme – took the audience into an intensely shared experience. Dvorak’s work is full of light and shade, richness and delicacy, emotional longing and quiet philosophy. Flotats expressed the music’s emotional depth, but without a hint of romantic heavy-handedness. We listened to the interplay with the orchestra: a joyful partnership with the first fiddle, other strings, at times the beautiful flute, and principally of course with Hitoshi Suzuki.
The pleasure of the performance was in the way the cello became part of the wider conversation with each player. It was collaborative, and embracing. Yet, Flotats managed to show just how much command he has over the range and subtlety of the instrument. I wondered if I were listening to a Stradivarius! – only to learn in the interval that it was, indeed, a “rather special instrument” from Francesco Rugeri, made in 1689. It is in great hands. Flotats held the audience spellbound with the beauty, clarity and depth of its voice.
The recital rounded out magnificently with Brahms Symphony 4. The performance was disciplined, full of vivacity and energy, and yet (like the Cello Concerto) not too heart-worn-on-the-sleeve. I enjoyed it the better for this. An ambitious work, Suzuki drew complete commitment from the players. The horns called, the flute graced, the strings lifted us, and the timpani and brass swelled the colours as the piece unfolded into the final movement passacaglia.
And then, on such an evening, we were ready for the Northern Lights to perform again …
Deborah Losey