NCH, Dublin
Bach
– Concerto in D minor BWV1052.
Mahler– Symphony No 5
Manchester's Hallé Orchestra is one of a number of orchestras involved in a Mahler cycle at the English city's Bridgewater Hall. Each work in the cycle is being coupled with the première of a newly commissioned piece, and earlier, Mahler's Fifth was programmed with Uri Caine's Scenes from Childhood.
The Mahler then came to the National Concert Hall, but in different company, with Bach’s best-known keyboard concerto, in D minor BWV1052, played, and directed from the keyboard, by pianist Joanna MacGregor.
MacGregor is one of those players who shies away from purism. She crosses over with dizzying enthusiasm, and her approach to playing a harpsichord concerto on the piano was to treat the work as if it were written for the piano in the first place, with fluid dynamics and all manner of shaping that is effectively denied to the harpsichordist.
Sadly, the arresting dynamism of her approach was not reflected in the routine contributions of the orchestra, and her own passivity in the slow movement, where she didn’t seem much concerned to intervene and influence the orchestra’s playing, was a contributory factor.
The Mahler symphony, conducted by the orchestra’s music director Mark Elder, was somewhat underplayed too, with too much comfortable-sounding music-making in the storm and stress of the opening two movements.
The central scherzo was captured with the right sort of lumpy energy, the famous adagietto for strings and harp was shaped with beautifully poignant reserve, and the upbeat finale showed signs of the expressive freedom that had been lacking earlier on.
