Royal Northern Sinfonia – Beethoven 1, Sage Gateshead

AS WITH the other concerts in the Sinfonia’s cycle of Beethoven Symphonies, the programme also included a significant concerto and some less familiar music.

Conducted by Olli Mustonen they opened with the Incidental Music to Pelléas et Mélisande by Sibelius, the opening movement of which, At The Castle Gate, is familiar as the theme for the BBC series, The Sky at Night

The remaining eight sections are less well known and are largely moody and evocative. Many of the softer passages, especially for woodwind, were very sensitively played with the cor anglais, representing Mélisande, particularly moving.

Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for piano, orchestra and strings featured Mustonen as both conductor and pianist and the Sinfonia’s principal trumpeter, Richard Martin.

Mustonen’s conducting had already seemed flamboyant in the Sibelius and his piano playing here was even more so.

Where the strings and often the trumpet as well seemed more restrained the piano playing was often too emphatic.

However in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 there was more contrast with a lively, positive performance of the first movement with strings and wind well balanced followed by a beautifully light and dancing build up to the coda in the second.

The next concert in this cycle on Thursday, April 2, features Beethoven’s Choral Symphony together with a selection from Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn. Box office 0191 443 4661, details at sagegateshead.com.

Peter Bevan