IN a funny way, Steven Osborne's long-awaited performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, which the pianist played on Thursday night with the BBC SSO and conductor Andrew Manze, was a thought-provoking experience, but not, perhaps, in the way you might expect.
It did strike me that the powerhouse Osborne was being particularly unbuttoned and liberated in his Emperor performance; that he was taking risks and having a bit of a flier; in short, that he was having a damn good time with the music. And that is what was so interesting, and so infectious.
There is so much reverence poured on Beethoven and his music (and that admission from a full-time professional pourer) that we can miss the wit, the mischief and the sheer brio that Beethoven invested in his music. And remember that Beethoven the genius was also a bloke who went to the pub, enjoyed a good drink, a night out, a bit of fun, and occasionally getting himself into a bit of bother. Osborne brought all that character back into the music in this seriously good-time performance of the Emperor, which was packed with energy and life as much as physical power and strength of mind and spirit. And the spell-binding slow movement lost nothing: it just, for once, didn't feel like we were in church. Lovely stuff.
As for Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony, all I can do is be honest. I think it's an absolutely dreadful piece, packed with pointless pastoralisms, daft fanfares, cruddy chorales, stupid marches and jagged dissonances that meant something in the Fourth Symphony, but had no context here. Probably the worst symphony I've heard. Ever.
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