With London spoilt for period instrument ensembles well-versed in baroque music, you might think the mainstream orchestras would leave well alone. But not the London Philharmonic. Eighteen of its string players formed the ensemble for this programme; with the baroque specialist Andrew Manze hired as guest leader and John Constable on harpsichord, it was obvious the LPO was taking things seriously. And the presence of Vivaldi's Four Seasons ensured an audience, especially as the soloist was Anne-Sophie Mutter.
But anyone who had come solely for Mutter, or for the Vivaldi, had to wait. The first two works were directed by Manze, diligently and energetically, from the leader's chair. The Sonata for Bowed Instruments by Dario Castello was a little gem, full of tricksy, foot-stomping rhythms. With Manze encouraged a baroque style of playing, the violins buzzed with the sound of the open stringsthey would usually be trying to avoid. But the lack of comforting cover-all vibrato made lapses of tuning obvious, especially during the most exposed passages of the second work, the Balletto secondo by Biagio Marini.
Mutter took the stage for the Devil's Trill Sonata by Tartini; and if those first pieces had been meant to set the scene, they didn't. The Tartini was presented in a lush 1940 arrangement by Riccardo Zandonai, an anachronism almost whichever way you look at it. Mutter's playing was firmly un-baroque, using an intense vibrato and initially avoiding the brightness of the upper strings.
In the devilishly difficult last movement, the one that gave the sonata its name, Zandonai's orchestration actually had the effect of hiding some of her most impressive feats. But there was no missing the continuous, thrumming trills in her cadenza - another addition, this time by Kreisler.
And so to the Vivaldi. These concertos form part of a set that he entitled The Trial of Harmony and Invention, and you can picture how he must have chuckled at the knowledge that he'd set a test only he could pass.
Yet Mutter managed to take these portraits of tweety birds and sozzled peasants and make them sound deadly serious. Constable provided some extra cheeps in the first movement of Spring which, from the look of amused surprise Mutter shot him, had perhaps not been there in rehearsal. And that was about as light as it got. This was a competent, solid performance, but also a mismatch which showedneither the LPO, nor Mutter, nor even Vivaldi at their best.
