I went to the Barbican tonight for Classical Concertos, which included Wolf’s Italian Serenade, Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 (which my mother, and my friend Jennifer ‘s mother, who very kindly invited me along with, loved), Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major and Mozart’s Symphony No 25 (that one in G Minor).
Natalie Clein was the soloist for the Haydn. Everyone made such a big kafuffle over her, I expected to be amazed. I just wasn’t. Reviews I’ve read of her say she ‘gets out of the way of the music’. I think it was quite the opposite. You expect soloists to do a certain amount of flopping about and silly head movements, etc, but she was distracting, and really just over dramatic. I felt like she wasn’t technically as accurate as she should be for all the playing up to it. I just wasn’t very impressed – she sounded tired, slightly bored and not at all present.
The orchestra, the Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields, however, was incredible. They were truly faultless and engaged. I had never heard any Hugo Wolf, and I’m not a huge Lieder fan, but that serenade was such a beautiful piece of music. Unfortunately it sounds like he was a Lieder fanatic and didn’t really write any other instrumental pieces.
