Streamed online yesterday evening, The London Symphony Orchestra performed one of classical music's best known and most loved symphonies; Antonin Dvorak's 9th symphony "From The New World". The concert was performed live in September of this year to a small COVID-safe audience with the orchestra arranged with socially distanced spacing and screens.
Performing at LSO's small performance venue, usually only used for chamber recitals, St Luke's Church had its rafters raised with the wonderful sounds of American folk music-influenced Romantic orchestral music.
Perhaps it was the intimacy of the setting, perhaps the fact that I was watching a live recording, perhaps because it was Remembrance Sunday; but to me, this symphony had never sounded better.
Jonathan Heyward (last seen in the flesh by this reviewer waving his baton with The Halle Orchestra in Manchester) had done much research and hard work with the orchestra to bring about this subtle and meticulous performance. Considering how famous this music is, Heyward could easily have cut corners and used broad brush strokes with the orchestra; but that simply wasn't the case, he had obviously started from a blank canvas and made a complete and intellectual piece of music as if from scratch.
The second movement - adagio- was particularly effective; again perhaps because it was Remembrance Sunday, but I could feel myself welling up during it. Poignant, precise and the whole symphony a pure delight. Thank you.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8/11/20
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