Andris Nelsons/CBSO - Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
If you share the view that Beethoven’s greatest works are a fusion of opposing forces – namely revolutionary fervour and personal angst – then Andris Nelsons’ interpretation of the Eroica Symphony hit every mark.
Its musical contours were stunningly shaped and presented. After an opening Allegro, so lithe and dancing, yet with dramatically etched syncopations propelled by fluent energy and economically pointed dynamics, Nelsons gave us a superbly judged Funeral March that, while full of lamentation and a fugato section of wrenching emotional darkness, sang rather than trudged.
His crisply executed Scherzo (with a deliciously rasping horn trio) was in every way the life-affirming romp it should be, in preparation for the wondrous Finale and its arsenal of compositional devices.
Here Nelsons made every manifestation of the main theme (we heard its embryo in a selection from The Creatures of Prometheus at the start of the concert) sound like a freshly minted discovery, each variation individually characterised by beautifully observed detail from the woodwind principals.
In between these examples of first and, in the case of the ballet music, third league Beethoven Jennifer Pike’s account of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending provided an enchanting display of lustrous tonal plumage and effortless flight, supported by a magically expressive, nuanced CBSO.
