BSO, Lighthouse, Poole
From the stirring brass fanfare that opens and quickly melts in whimpering distress, Alsop's cogent direction had the quieter episodes of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4's first movement prolonging the despair. Fate dominates Tchaikovsky's musical expression with the oboe's melancholy mood in the second movement, and countered by the Scherzo's positive pizzicato creating fleeting consolation. The finale's red-hot pace drew rather more than hollow cheer from a packed house.
Three cheers too for Tasmin Little, bringing Bruch's rarely heard Violin Concerto No.2 into the concert hall, before the world premiere of Stephen McNeff's Sinfonia succeeded in its direct appeal with ear tingling scoring and amusing textures in the finale.
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