As special relationships go, that of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the Japanese conductor Tadaaki Otaka is particularly special, forged during the years when he was principal conductor from 1987 to 1995. He subsequently became their conductor laureate and, whenever he returns, his ability to inspire these players to give their utmost is evident both from the lustrous sound and their total commitment.
This concert’s all-English programme opened with Elizabeth Maconchy’s 1950 Nocturne for Orchestra, certainly not a gentle goodnight given its periodic sense of a disquieting turbulence, with insistent brass and occasional bite to the textures. The intimacy of Maconchy’s string writing is all of a piece with her many string quartets and Otaka’s blending of this with the different colours of the wind instruments was always evocative.
That contrast of moods and ultimate absence of any comfortable resolution made it a fascinating counterpart to the main work, Elgar’s Second Symphony, and its fluctuation between joy and regret. At the present time of disillusion and disaffection, it’s perhaps no coincidence that this work seems to speak anew over a century later, with the apparent conviction of the assertive elements embraced in the first movement’s title Allegro vivace e nobilmente, and in the long noble lines of the Larghetto, so often ceding to a deeply ruminative quality. Otaka has an instinctive way with Elgar – he was a recipient of the Elgar Medal back in 2000 – and his control of the sweeping surges of feeling with the more melancholic vein and, notably, the poised transitions from one to another, together with the infinite range of tonal inflection, was achieved with the quiet authority that is his remarkable gift.
Between the Machonchy and Elgar had come Britten’s Violin Concerto, in which the soloist was Simone Lamsma. Her eloquent performance suggested an artist in complete possession of everything about this work, living every moment of the solo part while also connecting closely with her fellow instrumentalists. Perhaps most striking was the way that Lamsma and Otaka together underlined the essential theatricality of Britten’s utterances, not only the virtuosic but the quietly intense too, in an implicit vindication of a concerto now more properly appreciated than in the past.
• This concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 4 April
