Prom 47 – Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano), Les Siècles / François-Xavier Roth
Ligeti Concert Românesc (1951)
Ligeti Violin Concerto (1989-93)
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K488 (1786)
Mozart Symphony No. 41 in C, K551, ‘Jupiter (1788)
Royal Albert Hall, London
Sunday 20 August 2023
by Richard Whitehouse photos by Sisi Burn / BBC
A major step in the evolution of musical ‘authenticity’ or vanity project of its artistic director? Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Paris-based Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth tonight made their third appearance at the Proms in a programme divided between Ligeti and Mozart.
Long in limbo as with most works of Ligeti’s early years, Concert Românesc now ranks as its composer’s primary crowd-pleaser – a ‘concerto for orchestra’ compact yet entertaining. Roth drew winsome charm from its initial Andantino and no mean impetus from its scherzo, before an Adagio whose dialogue of two horns (one high in the gallery) prefigures those intonational experiments three decades on. The finale did not lack verve, but anyone having heard Jonathan Nott give this piece for a Proms encore will recall just how much more scintillating it can be.
It may have had a long gestation, but Ligeti’s Violin Concerto is now established as the most recent such piece to have entered the repertoire. Technically assured but never merely showy, Isabelle Faust is a fine exponent, and it was not her fault if a lengthy platform reset made for a restive audience response in the teasingly understated Praeludium or plangent fervency of Aria, Hoquetus, Chorale which is one of the composer’s most potent inspirations. Diversely yet modestly scored, this work needs to be projected for its emotional impact to be felt and a certain bemusement met its coruscating Intermezzo and anguished Passacaglia, but not its engaging Appassionato in which Faust’s methodical cadenza fitted seamlessly into context. As, also, did the sparse Andante of Erwin Schulhoff’s Solo Violin Sonata given as an encore.
There was a similar sense of ends not always equating with means in Mozart’s Twenty-Third Piano Concerto after the interval. Playing a (Graf?) fortepiano from deep within the orchestra, Alexander Melnikov summoned playing of admirable dynamic subtlety and emotional poise – notably an Adagio whose bittersweet fatalism was consummately rendered. Just how much detail and articulation could be heard in the farther reaches of this acoustic was uncertain, but the rapport between soloist and orchestra in a sparkling final Allegro could hardly be gainsaid.
Playing to period-pitch in the second half (just occasionally offset by vagaries of intonation), Les Siècles came into its collective own with an engrossing account of Mozart’s Forty-First Symphony, its Jupiterian connotations evident from the outset of an opening Allegro whose distinction between (relative) dynamism and stasis was thrown into relief with Roth’s use of pause for expressive punctuation. Best here were an Andante whose muted while often dense textures were precisely articulated, then a Menuetto whose sweeping gait found contrast in a quizzical trio whose closing phrase was pointedly curtailed. Not that Roth had other than the measure of the finale, fully integrating its thematic unity into a powerfully controlled overall structure, but its underlying progress felt just a shade dogged in the light of what preceded it. That said, there was no lack of impetus when, after the longest of those pauses, Roth led his forces through the magisterial coda; duly setting the seal on a programme that played to this orchestra’s strengths if not always having been designed with the Royal Albert Hall in mind.
For more on the 2023 BBC Proms, visit the festival’s website at the BBC. Meanwhile click on the names for more information on artists Les Siècles, conductor François-Xavier Roth, violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov. You can discover more about Ligeti at this dedicated website
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