United Kingdom R. Strauss, Mozart: Lisa Batiashvili (violin), London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor), Barbican Hall, London 25.5.2025. (JR)
R. Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel, Op.28; Ein Heldenleben, Op.40
Mozart – Violin Concerto No.5, K.219 ‘Turkish’
Yet another hugely enjoyable concert as SirAntonio Pappano comes towards the end of his first year as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Pappano is ending his first season with a mini-Richard Strauss festival, two tone poems in this concert and then two concert performances of Salome in mid-July.
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks opened the evening in rousing, raucous fashion. Pappano accentuated the rough edges in the score to great effect, with chirpy, shrieking woodwind and all the ‘ugly’ notes to the fore. Pappano, the storyteller, was in his element and the orchestra played ball. Principal horn in this work, Timothy Jones, was secure: the strings on the last page were sinuously silken. It was uproarious fun, just as it should be.
To follow, I would perhaps have liked something meatier and challenging for both audience and soloist than a Mozart violin concerto, truth be told, but sandwiched between two tone Strauss tone poems I guess something more restful was the thought behind the programming. Batiashvili scampered through the outer movements with ease, the audience transfixed by the beauty of tone of her instrument (Guarneri del Gesu from 1739). I was, however, surprised that Batiashvili needed a score, especially as she never glanced at it – until, that is, her cadenza, I believe by Emile Sauret, with virtuosic demands absent from the Mozart. Pappano, arms flailing, had managed to knock the score off its music stand, Batiashvili deftly picking it up just before her complex cadenza.
The most enjoyable and playful movement of the concerto was the final ‘Turkish’ movement (‘turquerie’ was in fashion in the eighteenth century), with its percussive effects in the strings and a heavy drone figure in the cellos and double basses. Batiashvili played it fast and furious. By way of encore, if I am not mistaken, was ‘Doluri’ by Aleksandre Machavariani, a splendidly spirited Georgian dance as a tribute to Batiashvili’s homeland.
The best, to my mind, was left to last. Ein Heldenleben is possibly Strauss’s finest tone poem: it has the length to fill a second half and is full of orchestral excitement and beauty. The opening thrusting theme was truly exhilarating, played in perfect blend by the LSO’s eight horns, now led by Principal Diego Incertis Sánchez. The critics round me duly cringed when the woodwind ‘attacked’ them with their weird chattering and lumpen tubas, but the real highlight was the wondrous, sensitive playing of Leader Roman Simovic, evoking Strauss’s wife Pauline with exact harmonics and richness of tone on the lower strings.
Pappano brought out all the layers and revelled in the sumptuousness and grandeur of the piece; he did not rest for a moment. The exciting battle scene drew vehement, thrilling contributions from the percussion. Jeremy Sassano excelled with his cor anglais cameo. The final honours went rightly to Simovic, a giant of a man, whom Pappano managed to hug whilst remaining on the podium!
John Rhodes