Playing within itself

Academic Festival Overture - Brahms

Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor - Bruch

Manfred Symphony - Tchaikovsky

What has happened to the Oslo Philharmonic, an orchestra I enjoyed hearing live in Oslo several times in the 1970s and whose stellar progress I have all followed since? When did it acquire this strident, out-of-tune brass section? But if this concert disappointed, a lot of the blame must be due to the conducting of Alexander Lazarev, which seemed to aim more for efficiency than sympathetic understanding.

Brahms has little appeal for him, to judge from the clipped run-through of the overture. Tchaikovsky's strange, uneven Manfred Symphony, on the other hand, gives ample scope for vehemence in the outer movements, but one is not persuaded that taking advantage of this is necessarily a good idea. Virtuosity in the finale and delicacy in the second movement showed that the orchestra is capable of better things, and the playing was certainly committed.

Perhaps the balance and overall sound would have been better in the Ulster Hall, where, apart from anything else, there's a real organ for the end of the symphony. One's fondest memories of the concert will be of the playing of the young Norwegian violinist, Henning Kraggerud, in the Bruch concerto. The opening gives the soloist a wonderful opportunity to display really seductive tone and phrasing, and he made the most of it.