Concerts rarely begin with a concerto. But the London Symphony Orchestra’s programme with conductor Duncan Ward opened with the unaccompanied silvery sound of soloist Isabelle Faust’s violin, the “Sleeping Beauty” Stradivarius, as she elegantly unfolded the first of the melodies that thread through the opening movement of Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, progressively joined by the strings.
Faust’s performance, overlooking nothing and inimitably characterising every expressive morsel, but resisting every temptation for flashy indulgence even in the more animated second movement, was wonderfully accomplished. It was hard to imagine a better, more truthful performance of this rather curious bipartite concerto, which was completed in 1908 but only performed for the first time in 1958, 13 years after Bartók’s death. And when Faust returned after the interval to play one of the understated masterpieces of late 19th-century French music, Ernest Chausson’s Poème, there was that same, infinitely supple control of every phrase with just the occasional touch of portamento, as her violin soared over the orchestral cushions that Ward organised so sympathetically around her.
Each of the concertos was followed by an orchestral showpiece. If Ward didn’t make a totally convincing case for Janáček’s unruly three-movement rhapsody Taras Bulba, he did project a decent sense of its episodic structure, and prevented the piece turning into an orchestral free-for-all. There were some superbly focussed solo contributions while the LSO brass, who never need much encouragement to let rip, were always kept in line. The affinity for the French repertoire that Ward had already shown in the Chausson was underlined in the fine performance of Debussy’s La Mer that closed the concert. That work’s central Jeux de Vagues can perhaps flicker and glitter more than it did here, but the first movement’s dawn-to-noon progression was superbly paced, and the final movement was equally convincing, every fleck of orchestral colour perfectly touched in.
