EIF music reviews: Berlin Philharmoniker: Elgar & Tchaikovsky | Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker

Berliner Philharmoniker: Elgar & Tchaikovsky | Edinburgh International Festival

Berliner Philharmoniker: Elgar & Tchaikovsky ★★★★★

Usher Hall

In the first of the two orchestral concerts in their weekend residency, the Berlin Philharmonic’s second half of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 blazed its way to a triumphant finale and much-deserved standing ovation from a packed house at the Usher Hall on Saturday.

With chief conductor, Russian born Kirill Petrenko, this was everything that makes the Berlin Phil renowned the world over: full and lustrous strings, silken sounding winds, a brass section with impeccable precision and, centre stage on the highest riser, a timpanist whose prominence was very much a bonus.

Economic in gesture, Petrenko’s every beat and quietly expressive direction are laden with meaningful intent. The Symphony’s pervading Fate motif was stated, restated and powerfully unleashed with the electrifying intensity of unceasingly incisive string playing as the music builds to intoxicating full pelt. In contrast, the Fate theme keeps out of the way in the third movement Scherzo, where pizzicato strings throughout kept exacting momentum with impeccable control of dynamics.

As concert partner piece, Elgar’s Enigma Variations is another popular crowd-puller with a recurring theme, albeit not quite as dark as Tchaikovsky’s. From the exquisitely beautiful, if slightly slow, presentation of the theme, the thirteen variations gracefully unfolded with each one taking on the different personalities of the characters which inspired them. First up, Elgar’s wife Caroline Alice, was sweet and tender, but not without romantic passion before ending quietly and passing on to the first of Elgar’s several friends to be featured in variations along the way.

Particularly telling were those for amateur musicians, such as Ysobel, written for viola player Isobel Fitton, with the viola section to the fore in the main tune. The famous Nimrod, for Elgar’s close friend and collaborator, was aptly reverential and stately as it crescendoed to full orchestral climax. Carol Main

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Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker ★★★★

Queen’s Hall

There is no question that the five men who opened Saturday’s morning concert at the Queen’s Hall are highly distinguished soloists and orchestral players as principals of the Berlin Philharmonic. As a chamber ensemble, however, coming together in the unusual instrumental palette of violin, cello, horn, clarinet and piano for Zdeněk Fibich’s Quintet in D major, made for an unsettled start to the orchestra’s EIF residency over the Festival’s closing weekend.

Balance took the first movement to sort itself out but, once found, it was sunny disposition all the way in this tuneful, if lengthy, Czech rarity. With viola added for Dohnányi’s Sextet the enhanced tonal texture was more satisfyingly replete in confident cohesion across the group.

Its four movements bring a wealth of melodic invention in rises and falls, the closing Allegro vivace, giocoso a fun romp through syncopated jazzy rhythms alternating with a traditional waltz all in brilliant and robust synchronisation.

Paring back, and in well placed overall balance for Brahms’ A minor Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, the three players were immediately engaging in its sumptuous lyricism, Brahmsian broodiness and mimicking scale-based conversations between clarinet and cello. Carol Main

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