NCH, Dublin
Beethoven – Symphony No 3 (Eroica); Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor).
What does Chinese megastar pianist Lang Lang have in common with certain RTÉ hosts and presenters? Well, it's all a matter of emphasis. You know the score on RTÉ. Normal inflection goes out the window. You hear of another victim ofthe property crash or of someone going toa conference.
The natural rise and fall of musical discourse can similarly be in short supply, when Lang teases his listeners by highlighting the unexpected, shining a spotlight on something that’s usually kept in the background, or, contrari- wise, playing a passage so spectac- ularly softly that you just have to sit up and take notice.
In Beethoven's EmperorPiano Concerto with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the effect was to create a sense of musical discontinuity.
To be sure, Lang’s playing was always technically impressive, even if moments like the famous flourishes of the opening were unnecessarily forced.
But his high-contrast music-making effectively segmented the music into sections that didn’t always connect as they should.
The real spotlight was on Lang himself rather than Beethoven, and conductor David Brophy and the players of the RTÉCO were effective servants in getting across the vision that Lang had chosen to commun- icate. The flow in his encore, a whispered account of a Consolation by Liszt, was altogether more persuasive.
The concerto came in the second half of the programme, putting Beethoven's EroicaSymphony in the unusual role of functioning as an outsize warm-up.
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is smaller in number than the NSO, and its sound in the Eroicawas correspondingly leaner and edgier than is normally heard in this symphony.
Brophys speeds, which were on the fast side, accentuated the effect of lightness, and sometimes also sounded a little too brusque.
The funeral march of the second movement really does need rather more gravitas than he allowed, and neither the energetic Scherzo nor the busy Finale came across with the necessary sense of traction.
That traction was best delivered in the opening movement, which was presented with impressive momentum and thrust.
