I have heard countless performances of Elgar’s First Symphony over nearly half a century, with conductors including Boult, Elder, and that great Elgar advocate Sakari Oramo. But none of those could match what a packed Symphony Hall heard on Wednesday afternoon from Gardner and his willing orchestra.
Here was structural cogency and expressive communication; dark soul-searching and pastoral escapism; passing detail melded by Gardner into a wonderful arch of musical line. In other words, an account which thrust to the heart of this complex music and revealed every aspect of its message.
The orchestral sound leapt at us, basses ranged across the back underpinning all of Elgar’s textures, and building an almost organ-like sonority for the big tune on its first airing.
Pastoral interludes were smilingly harp-fuelled, and the CBSO strings really sang under Gardner’s direction (interesting how many great opera conductors have revealed all of Elgar’s secrets: Hans Richter, Colin Davis, Paul Daniel, and now Edward Gardner).
CBSO winds were to the fore in Mozart’s C minor piano concerto, eloquent, well-blended, and a wonderful foil to soloist Steven Osborne’s unobtrusively direct reading.
Osborne was content merely to be a channel for this amazing music, his keyboard colourings matching those of the orchestra, his discreet right-hand additions entirely appropriate, his phrasing and articulation natural and communicative.
And Mozart’s Magic Flute overture was a splendid pipe-opener, its fugue delivered at a speed not even many world-class orchestras could cope with, its trombone utterances stentorian from the instruments, centrally placed.
