The full-capacity concert hall sparked to life as Ray Chen returned to the DFP to present Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole. Chen's tone had plenty of weight in the opening movement that was full of dark and sultry utterances on passages that were high up the mellow G-string of his superb Kurt Widenhouse violin of 2008. His softer playing in the second subject radiated a hushed intensity which entranced the audience. Chen spun a silky cantabile line for the opening and central sections of the second Scherzando movement, whilst maintaining taut rhythms in the swift linking triplet passages. The MPO, Kamu and Chen established the ideal mood for the Spanish-Moorish influenced habanera rhythms of the Intermezzo third movement.
Chen’s soft dynamics captured a mood of repose and found the emotional heart of the concerto in the lovely Andante which gained an elegiac wistfulness as he ascended to the high D, in a hushed but magical transformation to the tonic major. Chen’s impeccable technique carried off the final Rondo with abundant panache and aplomb as the lightness of his touch on his lovely spiccato bowing, his nimble runs and arpeggios, impeccable broken octaves and laughing trills brought Lalo's magnificent opus to a rousing conclusion.
After tumultuous applause, Chen presented the audience with two encores. The first was the opening movement of Ysaye's Solo Sonata Op 27 No 2 (Obsession), which was dedicated to Ysaye's violinist friend, Jacques Thibaud. Chen's favourite Paganini Caprice No 21, with its singing double-stops and fiendish up-bow staccato was his second coruscating encore.
Kamu and the MPO treated us to a lovely performance of Dvorak's genial Eighth Symphony after the interval. From the melancholic opening tune of the MPO cellos and the lovely flute solo by Dakota Martin, there was subtlety of dynamics and phrasing and drama in the gloriously melodious first movement. Charm characterized the pastoral second movement, with appealing dialogue passages from the principal flute, oboe and clarinet players and a luscious violin solo from Peter Danis.
Kamu caught the third movement's lilting mood and melodic lines impeccably, with the MPO violins coaxing a most alluring portamento and a well-played Trio from the woodwinds of idyllic grace. Almost without a break, an energetic trumpet fanfare heralded the fourth movement. The cellos recollected the material from the first movement, before Kamu built the symphony to a boisterous and exciting conclusion replete with folksy abandon.
