Originally this LSO date was to have been conducted by Colin Davis, the ensemble's president and former long-term principal conductor, but following his death in April, it turned into a memorial tribute by the orchestra with which he was most closely associated over his long career. Violinist Nikolaj Znaider, due to perform the Mendelssohn concerto under Davis, became both soloist and director of the replacement piece, Mozart's Third Concerto.
While Znaider's solo playing was as measured and stylish as usual, his direction of the orchestra could have done with the perceptive eye for detail of a master Mozartian such as Davis. His later conducting of Brahms' funerary Nänie, which the London Symphony Chorus flooded with resplendent tone, also took a while to cohere before rising steadily in an increasingly grand arc.
Opening the programme and recalling Davis's commitment to teaching young musicians, brass players from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School delivered a rousing account of Strauss's Festmusik der Stadt Wien under Patrick Harrild, its shining fanfares emphasising that the concert was as much celebration as memorial.
Davis's son, Joseph Wolfe, conducted a blazing interpretation of Berlioz's Corsair overture, in which the LSO strings were at their silkiest, notably representing the composer whose reputation Davis did more than anyone to raise to its current height; and a piercingly tender interpretation of Elgar's Sospiri, a work Davis wanted to conduct but never got around to.
Yet the item that left the greatest impression was Beethoven's Symphony No 8 – the piece that inspired the teenage Davis to take up music as a profession – which the LSO's leader, Gordan Nikolitch, directed with the odd nod and a wink while seated. It took off instantly, and remained exhilaratingly airborne throughout.
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