United Kingdom R. Schumann, Mahler: Francesco Piemontesi (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Robin Ticciati (conductor). Royal Festival Hall, London, 19.3.2025. (CC)
R. Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54 (1841/25)
Mahler – Symphony No.5 in C-sharp minor (1901/2)
The young pianist Francesco Piemontesi rarely fails to impress. In May last year, it was Beethoven and Debussy in Dresden (review here); previously, in 2018, he revealed himself as eloquent in words as well as poetic in playing in an interview for International Piano.
Piemontesi is a lyricist at heart; his sensitivity was everywhere in evidence. His range of articulation is huge, his command of the piano’s tone complete (particularly sweet treble was especially notable). Ticciati drew detail and emotion from the London Philharmonic Orchestra: caressing string lines, and a clarinet solo (Benjamin Mellefont) that for once enabled the listener to relish the closing arpeggio. Piemontesi’s achievement was to give the Robert Schumann’s music all the space it needed but without distending either phrase or movement structure. Cadenza ruminations were maximally involving. How delicious, too, the piano/string dialogue that opens the central Intermezzo (marked Andantino grazioso). Lush cello lines and well-balanced textures (antiphonal violins, violas next to firsts, cellos next to seconds). If gentile conversation was the basis here, the finale, gently and seamlessly ushered in, was more muscular, Allegro vivace as marked, but with Schwung. Piemontesi is not one to over-pedal, he allows Schumann’s lines to come through clearly; similarly, the LPO string fugato was a joy. The three-against-two extended passages succeeded so well because we felt them as just that, cutting against the central beat. A fabulous performance.
An encore, and rightly so: a dreamy performance of Schubert’s Impromptu in G-flat, D 899/3.
And so to Mahler, the tortured Fifth Symphony. A mere eleven days ago, Semyon Bychkov conducted the work with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the Barbican (review here). It was a momentous occasion, almost but not quite erasing memories of Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic at the BBC Proms many years ago. Ticciati’s approach was different to both, intermittently impressive and puzzling. One has to acknowledge the superb trumpet player Paul Beniston, who not only opened the symphony impeccably but who led the brass with supreme confidence. Ticciati rightly saw the first movement as an unrelenting funeral march, any moments of consolation mere pockets of optimism within the ongoing trudge. But not all detail worked: a tame horn trill, and, despite hard sticks, the timpani seemed to lack bite.
The second movement is fascinating in and of itself, an Ivesian melange that needs a master conductor to bring it off. Bychkov succeeded; Ticciati less so. At times, I wondered if this was a deliberate Deconstructionist approach (think Giuseppe Sinopoli in Mahler), but Sinopoli made it work; less so Ticciati, where fragmentation lost any power or mystery.
The Scherzo, fairly low voltage, seemed to emphasise the spirit of the dance. But after Lukáš Besuch’s faultless account of the part at the Barbican recently, John Ryan horn solos seemed underpowered (as did the horn section’s ricocheting notes). There was much enjoyment in the Adagietto, however, the LPO strings superb in their control against Tamara Young (a Guest Principal) on perfectly-placed harp. The clarinet’s dialogue with the horn (Benjamin Mellefont on clarinet) brought a feeling of bonhomie to the symphony’s palette of emotions. But that feeling of fragmentation returned; it could have been pulled back by careful approach to the final peroration of the brass, but somehow the Great Moment felt undervalued.
For all the obvious expertise of the LPO, this was a compromised Mahler Fifth. Lean Mahler certainly has its place, but the end result was unsatisfying. Great Schumann, though.
Colin Clarke