FOR once, a large-scale Brahms work, his First Symphony, that didn't sound tiresomely involved.
With the Hallé in fine fettle and fully responsive, Romanian conductor Cristian Mandeal drove it with purpose and intent, letting the work unfold without philosophic-laden rumination and reverence.
Hence, with passages of genuine beauty in the and
ante, instead of being an epic bore, it was heroic and dramatic which an overblown horn raspberry in the first movement couldn't destroy.
A fabulous account of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto from Rotherham-born Lynsey Marsh on a basset clarinet (about a third longer than normal) had exceptional fluency, unforced beauty, especially in the magical adagio, and nimble dexterity in the rondo finale, the basset clarinet's extended 'basement' range pointing up its latent melancholy.
Smetana's musical picture of bloodthirsty Sárka was suitably warlike and impassioned when it had to be.
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