With only a week to go before Andris Nelsons’ departure from the CBSO, it was hardly surprising that last Thursday’s concert, albeit a repeat of one heard in February, attracted such a large crowd of loyal supporters. And not even the announcement that an acute ear infection had forced the maestro to withdraw (“We apologise for any disappointment this may cause”) seemed to dampen their enthusiasm.
But it provided an enviable eleventh-hour opportunity for Alpesh Chauhan, the CBSO’s young Assistant Conductor – a near-capacity audience, an orchestra on top form (with the added incentive of being broadcast live on Radio 3) and a tried-and-tested programme.
Chauhan has absorbed much from Nelsons, notably his fluid and expressive beat, excellent eye contact with the players, and an almost balletic body language, all of which he employed to give a finely manicured account of Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony. Although spread on a very broad emotional canvas for its simple charm, it was a distinctive reading nevertheless.
So, too, was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, if in a somewhat self-propelled kind of way. We were given many glimpses of the opening Allegro’s bleak undertones, and Chauhan made sure the ostensibly tuneful horn and woodwind exchanges in the Adagio suggested darker forces. He also showed an appreciation of the finale’s threatening storm (the secret is not to be waylaid by the optimistic second subject), although this could have been more fully developed.
Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 was one of those rare occasions when the soloist – here, CBSO principal Elspeth Dutch, displaying effortless virtuosity and glowing elegance – was never overwhelmed. Nelsons would have been very proud.
