United Kingdom Janáček, Bruch, Dvořák: Jennifer Pike (violin), Czech Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra / Daniel Raiskin (conductor). Cadogan Hall, London. 18.2.2026. (AV-E)
Janáček – Prelude & Pantomime from The Cunning Little Vixen
Bruch – Violin Concerto No.1
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 10
As part of the Zurich International Orchestra Series 2025-2026, Cadogan Hall welcomed the world-class Czech Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, and their distinguished chief conductor and artistic director, Daniel Raiskin.
As an appealingly auspicious and appropriate appetiser, the august audience were treated to Janáček’s Prelude and Pantomime from Act I of The Cunning Little Vixen. Here we could hear why we were here: to listen to the unique ‘soundworld’ of the composer: rich, harsh, dark, deep, grainy and caustic which so embodies these exceptional players.
I know I am in the minority in saying that I find Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 trite and tedious and boring beyond belief. The orchestration is far too thick textured and cloyingly claustrophobic, totally lacking in invention and imagination. Yet Jennifer Pike’s vivacious virtuosity somehow made it sound far better than it actually is and her rather rustic tone was aptly attuned to the earthy tone of the orchestra which gave her succulent support.
In the Adagio she played the Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony quote without sounding kitsch; a feat in itself. For they say that ‘On The Summit’ was borrowed or plagiarised from the lyrical theme that begins the Adagio. Indeed: during rehearsals of the Alpine Symphony, Strauss was known to tell the orchestra, ‘Let’s go back to the Bruch section’ when referring to this part of the score.
In the Finale, Pike’s peasant-like playing possessed an astonishing aplomb, navigating the double-stops and soaring melodic leaps with a breezy technical security which allowed the movement’s ‘Hungarian Spirit’ to dance with her earthbound rhythms reaching soaring heights. She maintained a bright, burnished tone even in the most breathless of passages whilst balancing bravura pyrotechnics with a lyrical delicacy. She held me on tenterhooks.
For an encore, Pike teamed up with the first violin and first viola of the orchestra in Dvořák’s Cavatina, Op.75a: this was sheer bliss and enthusiastically received by a packed house.
In the Shostakovich 10th Symphony, Daniel Raiskin meticulously and broadly paced the massive ‘arc’ of the Moderato first movement, ever so slowly building up a cumulative tension so preventing this 27-minute opening from sounding fragmentary and episodic (as is often the case). Raiskin perfectly judged the tempo so it never sounded too slow or too swift.
I imagined that this was how Otto Klemperer would have conducted it: stern and solid as a granite monument in sound with an architectural sense of form. Whilst the performance was around 58 minutes long it never once felt ‘over long’ or ‘dragged out’ such was the concentrated intensity of the conducting and playing throughout (with all four movements incisively integrated into one organic whole as if it were composed in one sweeping movement).
The Allegro was extremely savage and brutal with the aggressive percussion in particularly playing in-your-face with no-holds-barred; for this movement is often played far too tamely and too tastefully by our ‘streamlined’ symphony orchestras.
Under Raiskin, the Allegretto moved from a lingering malevolence to a spine-tingling summoning of ghosts; whilst beautifully balancing the sardonic wit of the wooing woodwinds against horrific horn solos that rung out like a midnight chime; the strings sounded like stabbing knives, stabbing us in the back and front. The solitary gong, ‘planishly’ played by Lenka Škrlová, had an eerie evanescence which was chillingly ghostly.
In the concluding Andante – Allegro, Raiskin brought the symphony’s monumental ‘architectural journey’ to a shattering and triumphant climax (masterfully handling the movement’s abrupt shift in temperament, moving from a state of mournful isolation into a manic, high-voltage finale). And, importantly, by maintaining lean textures even at maximum volume, Raiskin ensured the timpani’s final, obsessive pounding of the composer’s initials feels like a ‘hard-won victory.’
This was by far the most ‘authentic’ sounding Shostakovich 10th that I have ever heard in concert with its wide dynamic range whilst never sounding ‘loud’; and it was carefully calibrated to the crystalline clarity of the Cadogan Hall’s acoustics (which are far superior to the acoustics of the Barbican Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall).
The Czech Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra ‘embodied’ the Shostakovich ‘soundworld’ which is: raw, rude, rough, gross, coarse, caustic, harsh, vulgar, uncouth, unrefined, unreserved, uncivilised: all in ‘bad taste’.
Thus, antithetical to the way in which the Boston Symphony Orchestra played Shostakovich under Andris Nelsons: polished, pristine, refined, civilised: all in ‘good taste’. For it must be remembered that the great Shostakovich conductors such as Kondrashin, Mravinsky, Rozhdestvensky and Svetlanov demanded raw ‘unpolished’ brass that feels ‘industrial’ rather than ‘beautiful’. The Boston Symphony brass play Shostakovich symphonies far too ‘beautifully’.
For an encore, the audience were awarded with one of Janáček’s Lachian Dances: ‘Pilky’ which brought the house down.
Alexander Verney-Elliott