Appearances by visiting ensembles are already fewer and fewer, and this opening night of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra’s five-date British tour saw them rapturously received by the Beacon audience, as though appreciating the administrative hoops negotiated as much as the generous warmth of their playing. The Strasbourg has a longstanding dual French and German tradition, but this was a predominantly French programme, with the appearance of Nikolai Lugansky as soloist in Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto adding to its appeal.
It’s a characteristic of orchestras for whom opera is a big part of their performing – in this instance with the Opéra National du Rhin – that they listen with particular acuity both to soloists and to each other: the rapport here between Lugansky, conductor Marko Letonja and the players ensured deeply sensitive responses to the exchanges of melodic material, elegant dovetailing attuned to subtle inflections. Lugansky is known for his Rachmaninov, and his control of the gradual crescendo from pianissimo to blazing fortissimo in the opening bars was as meticulous as it was dramatic. Throughout the concerto, tenderness and power were in perfect balance, heartstrings tugged, then jolted by injections of urgent, dazzling virtuosity.
Berlioz’s overture Roman Carnival had been the lively curtain-raiser to what gradually evolved as a rewarding survey of some 80 years of French orchestral music. The febrile theatricality of César Franck’s tone-poem Le Chasseur Maudit, a concert-hall rarity and convincingly delivered, then stood in contrast to the refinement and playfulness of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, the wind players’s solo lines warmly expressive. The Strasbourg’s bassoonists deserve special mention, four of them, no less, adding to the dark tonal colouring of both the Berlioz and Franck. By the time of Ravel’s La Valse, they were two plus a contrabassoon and, as the seductive rhythm began to establish itself, so engaged that they could be seen swaying comfortably together. As the orchestra’s chief conductor from 2012-21, the Slovenian Letonja’s handling of his players showed the implicit mutual understanding, able to luxuriate in the work’s sheer sensuousness, indulge in rubato and achieve what Ravel himself called its final “paroxysm”.
They gave two more dances as encores, Fauré’s Sicilienne from Pelléas et Mélisande and Bizet’s Farandole from his L’Arlésienne suite. Having by now so endeared themselves to the Bristolians with their natural élan, all would have been happy with even more.
• At Cadogan Hall, London, 13 February; Anvil, Basingstoke, 14 February; Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 15 February; Llandaff Cathedral, 16 February, details here.
