Review: From Classical to Romantic at the Tung Auditorium ****

There’s a scene in Amadeus where the impish composer and musician is welcomed by Emperor Joseph II who plays a somewhat ponderous little piece composed specially by Salieri.

A giggling Mozart (Tom Hulce) proceeds to take the melody and improvise wildly and gleefully, showcasing his genius but guilelessly ridiculing the furious court composer’s effort at the same time.

It was an era when soloists were expected to extemporise and ornament their performances. Mozart is said to have improvised in well over half his own music, and the score of his popular Piano Concerto No.21 leaves gaps for that very reason.

So, who better to perform it in this March concert from the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra than Wirral’s William Bracken, currently working at London Guildhall’s Centre for Creative Performance and Classical Improvisation?

The multi-award-winning young pianist revealed in a pre-concert talk what a personable, engaging, erudite and thoughtful practitioner he is, and that was mirrored in a performance which was composed rather than flashy, and which was notable for its crystalline clarity married with a warmth of tone and a lovely (easy) fluidity of movement across the keys.

Perched on a low piano stool especially made for him - the theory being it changes the angle of elbow to keyboard, in the process reducing tension and improving technical control – Bracken skilfully added his own improvisations to Mozart’s skeleton solo part, with conductor Robin Wallington watching for his subtle nod then bringing the LMO back in in seamless fashion.

The improvisation didn’t end with the concerto’s two official cadenzas, the sympathetically shaped augmentation and ornamentation Bracken brought to the work’s famous andante, or indeed the ‘eingänge’ (entrances) in the first and final movements. He also ‘noodled’ away alongside orchestral passages, although whatever he was playing was far too soft to pick up over the LMO’s bright playing.

Mozart was the concerto filling in a symphonic sandwich, one side slight, the other lengthy.

Edmund Rubbra is a name which is likely to be unfamiliar to a lot of contemporary concert goers, but he was one of the leading British symphonists – in fact he was prolific in many musical forms – of the 20^th Century. Sadly neglected three decades after his death, in life Rubbra composed no fewer than 11 symphonies, his late career Tenth Symphony (Sinfonia da Camera) getting a rare outing here.

Like Sibelius, as he aged Rubbra’s distinctive musical style became more distilled and concentrated.

Above: Liverpool Mozart Orchestra at the Tung Auditorium. Top: Pianist William Bracken.

And indeed, there was a distinct hint of Sibelius about this meditative, chamber-sized symphony, scored as a single continuous movement and built around fifth intervals, particularly in the opening solemn and introspective section which moved through basses, cellos, violas and bassoons before being taken up by the violins, and with melodic writing for the winds.

Packed with orchestral texture and colour (albeit it occasionally felt a little aurally muddy), the middle scherzando-style section swirled like an off-kilter dance, while there was a lovely Cor Anglais passage from Howard Rogers and later, a brief, sweet-toned violin solo from leader Ellie Gaynard.

After the interval Wallington steered the orchestra through a deftly paced - and dynamically expansive - performance of Schubert’s Symphony No.9 ('the Great'), the work that, although its composer didn’t live to see it, freed the new generation from the shadow of Beethoven and helped usher in the Romantic era.

Following a resonant solo horn the orchestra crafted a rich unified sound, while the woodwind interrupted the andante’s rolling drama – great swells of music delivered with real lyricism - with a lovely song-like theme.

The second movement came with a delightful plaintive oboe winding over pulsing strings at the start and later, following the pianissimo introduction of the second theme and a series of subtle variations, an equally delightful melody introduced by the cellos.

A big, boisterous and nicely rounded scherzo was punctuated with effervescent waltz-like themes, with Wallington swaying at the front, and a charming flute solo.

Schubert’s symphony is a challenge, being ‘great’ both in terms of length and in depth of sound, and it requires plenty of stamina from players.

Happily, the LMO appeared to still have some gas in the tank as it launched into the crisp opening bars of the allegro vivace finale, sweeping along with powerful orchestral force through a series of melodic and harmonic iterations, and with Wallington maintaining excellent propulsive motion right to the end of the movement’s mighty coda. Bravo.