Conductor Marin Alsop cites Leonard Bernstein as her mentor, and she showed distinct elements of his flair in this concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Berstein's influence is perceptible - and not only in the easy control she exerts. Alsop is also concerned with opening audiences' minds and ears.
Last year, the BSO appointed Stephen McNeff as composer-in-the-house, and Alsop's request for a piece to precede Beethoven's Fifth Symphony happened to dovetail with an ongoing theatre project of McNeff's. The resulting Heiligenstadt was unadvertised, its premiere packaged shrewdly as an unexpected goodie in an already big programme. The reference to Beethoven's Heiligenstadt testament - the revelation that, in utter despair at his increasing deafness, only art had kept him from suicide - was key. For McNeff, the Fifth is about succeeding in the face of adversity and the quotation from the song Sehsucht (Longing) offered the contemplative starting point for an exploration of something angrier but no less profound, with the transitions from Beethoven into his own terse language artfully wrought.
Heiligenstadt did not come off as successfully as it might, with momentum lost though eventually regained. Nevertheless, by attuning the ear through its process of deconstruction, reconstruction and refining, it achieved something rather remarkable in encouraging the listener to listen to the Fifth Symphony afresh. Alsop's approach here was brisk and taut, but it permitted her to shape certain crucial phrases with a relaxed, though never indulgent hand. In this context, the third movement emerged as particularly daring, with the triumph of the finale vigorously reinforced.
This Beethoven complemented the opening work, Brahms' Variations on the St Anthoni Chorale, given a rather classically orientated performance. That, too, served its purpose, underlining the boundary-breaking nature of Lizst's first Piano Concerto, with its diabolic theatricality and exquisite lyricism. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the stunning soloist, but Alsop can take the credit for masterminding such a fascinating evening.
