Brazilian Impressions - Respighi

Cello Concerto - Elgar

Symphony No 2 - Brahms

Respighi's Brazilian Impressions is not one of the Italian master's better works. True, his orchestral craft is as finely-tuned as ever. But the music, composed on a trip to Brazil in the late 1920s, comes across as if written almost idly, without the point or immediacy of his best work. At least, that's how it sounded in a very civilised reading from the NSO under Colman Pearce on Friday. Maria Kliegel was a strong, forthright soloist in Elgar's Cello Concerto. She makes a ripe and full sound and she makes it with apparent ease. Tone seems to be bursting to be released from her cello. She played the Elgar in the grand manner, with rhetorical sweep and public emotion. The music's inwardness, and therefore its true heart, was but little shown, and the support from the conductor seemed less than sympathetic.

Colman Pearce conducted Brahms's Second Symphony in a manner that aimed to be warm and ready. The warmth was secure, the readiness not so reliable. Brahms is a composer whose symphonies this conductor usually serves well. This time, in spite of the improved burnish to the tone of the violins with Elaine Clark in the leader's chair, he sounded less convincing than previous experience had led me to expect.