By WILLIAM DART
Berlioz' Le Corsaire proved a dashing curtain-raiser for Thursday night's concert. Under the baton of Werner Andreas Albert, the Philharmonia swashbuckled with the best of them.
Indeed, with a little historical licence (Berlioz' inspiration was Byronic), it wouldn't have been too difficult to imagine Errol Flynn up there in
the rigging.
The orchestra were on form in Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante, one of the supreme challenges of the cellist's repertoire, a challenge that Torleif Thedeen was mostly able to rise to. The Swedish cellist certainly offered fire and dramatic presence, packing an unbelievable fury into the merest up-bow.
The cantabile passages were unimpeachable, Thedeen's David Techler instrument singing its heart out. In virtuoso passages, however, lines did not always fully register and chords, though exhilarating in their energy, were sometimes rough-edged.
Nevertheless, Thedeen was an inspiration to the orchestra alongside him. The violins soared with fervour, the woodwind fired Prokofiev's barbs with a marksman's precision.
After the interval, Jack Body gave us a five-minute "Swinging Safari" with his Homage to Bert - Bert Kaempfert's Afrikaan Beat reworked with skill and affection.
Paring down woodwind (flutes and piccolo alone are permitted to party) and enlisting drum-kit and electronic keyboard, Body played an engaging game of ring-around-a-rosy with Kaempfert's four-chord lounge mantra.
It's in between the cracks that Body's real mastery shows, bouncing motifs around the brass or scoring on a knife edge.
Kaempfert's trademark cracking bass worked well on tuba, although the violins' stratospheric descant needed a wee bit of sweetening.
After such flamboyance, Schumann's Third Symphony might have seemed stolid and dull. But the first movement boasted buoyancy and verve, magnificent horns at the ready and a conductor who knows the secrets of nuance and phrasing.
The Scherzo balanced humour and grace (no mean achievement this) and there were only occasional tremors in the third movement, the most testing of the five.
One marvelled at the light and shade that Albert extracted from the chorales of the fourth, and, when the conductor and players were so obviously enjoying the dance-like Finale, who were we - mere audience - to disagree?
