Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are shortly embarking on a European tour marking the last weeks of Gražinytė-Tyla’s tenure as their principal guest conductor. Four of the ten concerts will feature the Norwegian Vilde Frang in Elgar’s Violin Concerto: this performance at St David’s Hall suggested that they will be remarkable occasions. Such richly expressive music-making evoked the CBSO’s long tradition of Elgar, the alchemy of soloist and players implicit.
It is five years since Frang first played the concerto with these forces: what has changed since then is her instrument. She now plays a Guarneri del Gesù of a similar vintage to that on which Fritz Kreisler – at whose behest Elgar wrote the work – gave the 1910 premiere. Not only did Frang deal with its virtuoso demands as though they barely existed, but her extraordinarily beautiful tone – not just on the lower strings but in the refulgent glow right to the top – seemed to honour the source of Elgar’s inspiration with a startling immediacy.
Her balancing of the virtuosic elements with the music’s hushed intimacy was always instinctive, there was a sense of communing with her fellow musicians, while Gražinytė-Tyla’s conducting ensured moments of febrility as well as Elgarian nobility. It’s the third movement, architecturally the crux of the work as well as its emotional heart which seals the concerto’s place in the repertoire and it was delivered with an impassioned clarity by Frang here, the reflective vein of its extended cadenza deeply moving and in its way unforgettable.
After such a powerful experience, Schumann’s Spring Symphony, written only 70 years earlier came as a breath of fresh air. Gražinytė-Tyla brought a transparency to Schumann’s orchestral palette allowing it to speak anew, with tonal colours in the burnished brass, elegant string lines and woodwind solos that underlined its essential lyrical Romanticism. Not only did this make it an unexpectedly good companion piece to Elgar, but, at a time when its future as Wales’s national concert hall risks being compromised, it was a reminder of how fine the St David’s acoustic is and what an important asset it is to the city.
• The CBSO and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla will be at the Barbican, London on 16 March
