Beethoven's Fourth Symphony is hardly obscure concert fare. Even so, Mark Elder introduced it to the audience as "one of Beethoven's most life-affirming works - I wish it were played more often and much better known". Conducting the entire symphony without a score, Elder drew from the Hallé the perfect blend of grit and poise.
The slow introduction is difficult to balance, yet Elder captured its mysterious, unresolved direction with effortless delicacy, initiating some seamless phrasing from the cellos and inquisitive work from the flutes, clarinets and bassoons. The introduction became more resolved and majestic, before suddenly bursting into a vibrant allegro vivace that possessed such fizz, it seemed Beethoven had suddenly discovered a resounding answer to a troubling philosophical question.
Occasionally the abrasive, daring contours were surprisingly close to the fashionable early music approach to Beethoven. Yet the pace and atmosphere was safe and steady, the Hallé melding modern taste to their tradition of solid timbres and grandeur. Elder's coaxing of reflective slower music was too short on sentimentality, and at times the performance was too earnest to bring out the humour one finds all too rarely in Beethoven's grander symphonies. Even so, the Hallé's emphatic vitality revealed a glimpse of Beethoven at his happiest and most flamboyant.
Beethoven's optimism was contrasted against two smaller-scale works by dissimilar composers. William Walton's introspective Viola Concerto juxtaposes extrovert technical virtuosity with a moderate and unemotional dynamic. Soloist Timothy Pooley displayed flawless intonation, and the Hallé's accompaniment maximised the uneasy escapism of Walton's score.
Dvorak's seldom-heard Serenade in D minor, unusually scored for oboes, clarinets, horns, bassoons, double bassoon, cello and double bass, radiates extrovert charm. Such a chamber ensemble could become lost in the acoustic of the Bridgewater Hall, yet the crisply articulated cello and double bass in the martial music prevented the texture from becoming mushy. The tender elements of Dvorak's score encouraged ravishing playing from the clarinets, oboes and horns; the sonorous textures were a Mozartian blend of elegance and longing.
