Musical icons are treacherous things. They guarantee a good audience but can easily disappoint. When the work in question is Strauss's Four Last Songs, the stakes are very high indeed. Part of the problem is that live performance is no longer the chief medium for acquaintance with standard repertoire, and the intimacy of home listening can become a barrier to our appreciation of live music-making. A rustle here and an insensitively timed cough there conspire to invade our private listening space.
All these factors may help explain why an apparently respectable performance of the Four Last Songs failed to strike home. Gabriele Fontana's mellow soprano had the sweetness and strength to deliver, and the Hallé's playing could not be faulted. But Mark Elder's tendency to focus on detail rather than line spoiled the flow in some crucial places, and contributed to a lack of warmth and intimacy.
Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony is another work with iconic status, as Elder acknowledged in his spoken introduction. His fine understanding of dramatic pacing helped create an expertly judged account of the first movement, which never lost momentum. It was exciting rather than gut-wrenching, though, going for volume rather than passion. The other movements, notoriously difficult to sustain, sagged despite sublime playing from the wind soloists. A peculiar emotional emptiness characterised the whole performance; the heart of this flawed but tragic masterpiece remained elusive.
On a brighter note, Colin Matthews's orchestration of three Debussy Preludes - here receiving its world premiere - was wonderful, beautifully played, and an enticing start to Matthews's tenure as the Hallé's associate composer. This was an orchestration in the richest sense, going far beyond the confines of piano texture to produce a stunning new work. The virtuosic Ce qu'a Vu le Vent d'Ouest received especially extravagant treatment, with vivid colouring that never became eccentric. The result was so effective it is only surprising that Debussy did not think of it first.
