On a cold, cold night the warmth of the cello's tone in Haydn's Concerto in D was welcome. Haydn is here as unperturbed as usual as well as adding some dazzle, at which Isserlis excels, especially through the happy last movement.At first I thought the Isserlis manner was a practiced smile on another routine evening but by the end, and especially in his encore, a piece of pizzicato Pablo Casals, I was convinced that he was enjoying it as much as us.
beethoven's Seventh Symphony was called by Wagner, 'the apotheosis of the dance' which, if he had been able to wait for Stravinsky, he might have saved for The Rite of Spring. But this, with its four various movements of rhythmic adventure, is plenty for me and, in this performance especilally, exhilarating. As the final movement races towards its finish at full tilt, you hear it shift up a further two gears. While in the slow, 'Dance of the Catacombs' movement, it is the longing in the violins that is so moving above the sinister tread of the bass. I thought how right I was to have had Beethoven as my favourite composer when I was 14 or 15 and what a shame it is I can't still do now.
If Prokofiev had given himself the day off rather than writing the Sinfonietta then it wouldn't have worried me. It passed the first twenty minutes without stirring me very much but, given what was to follow, that didn't matter at all.
Excellent, as ever.
