YESTERDAY afternoon's BBC SSO concert with Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu making his debut with the orchestra, was a display of what can be achieved at the 11th hour.
On Monday the SSO learned Swedish clarinettist Martin Frost, due to play two works yesterday, was injured and out of action. Lintu, as yet untested in rehearsal, was consulted on programme changes. He suggested substituting the clarinet works with Haydn's 98th Symphony, which he had conducted elsewhere recently.
A trawl of the library revealed they had the parts, because the SSO happens to have played it once, 41 years ago, with a young Andrew Davis (now Sir Andrew) playing the tinkly harpsichord arpeggios in the finale. By first rehearsal Tuesday morning, it was ready to go.
And what was achieved in two days, with all the character, energy and hilarious timing from the composer, and a performance by the SSO of idiomatic expertise, technical applomb and sheer wit, was a testament to the assured confidence of the orchestra under the command of this big, interesting Finn.
Though the concert had begun with a fast-ish version of Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin, from less than one minute into Sibelius's Fifth Symphony, it was clear we were in for something special. But it was more than that: it was devastating as Lintu and the SSO, locked together, produced a Sibelius Five that was the full long-range Sibelius, seething with intensity, volcanic surges of speed, huge, controlled dynamics that gripped and built remorselessly to that great release of the Crane theme, which pinned me to my seat with the tears coursing down my cheeks. Awe-inspiring.
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