Richard Wagner added themes from his opera Siegfried, the third in the Ring cycle, to his Siegfried Idyll in 1870. Only recently had Cosima been able to marry him and now they also had the longed-for son. Siegfried Idyll was his thank you and was first performed for Cosima that Christmas morning on the staircase of their Lake Lucerne home in Switzerland. Unusually, at its end the violin bows are up at the top. For us in the Usher Hall it was an extraordinarily delicate and romantic beginning to what was to be a memorable concert.
The Steinway piano was moved into place - hiding for a while the hideous white conductor’s plinth - for the playing of one of Mozart’s middle-period Vienna concertos, number 17, composed in 1784. The soloist was the highly regarded, much travelled and much recorded Maria João Pires who born in Lisbon in 1944. She seemed entirely comfortable in her relationship with the conductor and orchestra and, leaning pretty close to the keyboard, showed us how to play Mozart. The audience loved her performance.
Robin Ticciati is well established now with his Scottish Chamber Orchestra and his control of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, No 6, demonstrated that, under his baton, they were to play at his mid-speed pace. The outcome was for very happy listening. Natural horn, trumpet, trombone and timpani matched the period in which the music was written. There was many a contented smile as we all departed an almost full Usher Hall.
Event: Thursday 15 November 2012 at 7.30pm