Maestro Blacher's Two Fine Hats

Kolja Blacher's debut with the MPO presented the usual and the unusual in the form of pieces of the core violin repertoire (Mozart's Fifth Concerto and Beethoven's Romance No 1 in G major) on the one hand and Britten's Frank Bridge Variations, which preceded the Mozart and Beethoven in the first half and Mendelssohn's rarely played First Symphony which ended the concert, on the other. It was wonderful to have Blacher (an ex-Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster) lead the MPO from the leader's chair in both the Britten and Mendelssohn. Since the MPO was formed, our orchestral string players have come from various countries and different conservatoires and have not really gelled together in many of their concerts. There was a unity of string playing not often seen at DFP in the Britten and Mendelssohn. In the Mozart and Beethoven, Blacher led from his soloist position. He performed the Mozart in a brisk manner, but full of felicitous touches and lovely tones from his 1730 ex-Tritton Stradivarius violin. The Beethoven Romance was also gracefully done. After the interval, Blacher and the MPO gave a suitably inspired performance of the Mendelssohn Symphony. They played it as if they believed in it and did not treat it like a poorer cousin of the more famous Third and Fourth symphonies. It would be excellent to have maestro Blacher back with the MPO in future seasons to play more chamber orchestral music and he would certainly improve our MPO string sections.