The juxtaposition of Mozart, Webern, Messiaen and Scriabin may have been a shock to some of Mitsuko Uchida's regular fans, but for those willing to embrace a challenge this CBSO: 2020 programme was intensely thrilling.
It began with Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, a work often dismissed as an arid exercise in note-manipulation and orchestral pointillism. Andris Nelsons, however, is a conductor who always goes further, and here created a sound canvas so tantalisingly complex it seemed almost romantic in nature.
A lesser composer would probably have flogged such exquisitely short-lived material to death, which in a way is what Scriabin does in his gargantuan Poem of Ecstasy. Nelsons, though, went beyond Scriabin’s gushing Expressionism and big climaxes – all delivered by a supercharged orchestra in dazzling form – to explore the more subtle aspects of the score and its indebtedness to French impressionism.
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His support for Mitsuko Uchida in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 was equally well considered, with elegant phrasing and a wide dynamic spectrum complementing the soloist’s crisp articulation and pellucid runs. Although in many ways a ‘polished jewel’ reading it was utterly transfixing, with an Andante of beautifully formed conversations between piano and woodwind, and a liberating finale so good you felt like squeaking with pleasure.
Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques offered a totally different side to the pianist’s talent, one in which colour and attack dominated. Nevertheless, despite the glittering cadenzas – especially the awesome fourth – it’s more of an expanded concertante role for the soloist. Mitsuko Uchida fulfilled it magnificently of course, at the end generously giving her bouquet to flautist Marie-Christine Zupancic to acknowledge the brilliance of all the players.