‘Tis Nature’s Voice
Academy of Ancient Music
Bojan Čičić, Laurence Cummings
Barbican Hall, 30 June 2023

Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture Op.26;
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’

The Academy of Ancient Music concluded its 2022/3 season, ‘Tis Nature’s Voice, with a venture into the early Romantic era, a suitable continuation of the theme of their opening concert, Hadyn’s The Seasons. They promised “thunderstorms, sea spray, nightingales and country dances and other beauties of nature as interpreted romantic style”. For those not used to music of the romantic era played on period instruments, this must have been a revelation. Indeed, it might also have been a revelation for some in the AAM as most of their repertoire stops before Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

Nature was key to the Romantic era in all its various art forms, and nature had to be experienced and felt in person. Mendelssohn wrote the initial motif of his Hebrides Overture after a trip to the Hebrides while Beethoven referred to his Pastoral symphony as ‘more an impression of feelings than a painting’. It took a while for the Hebrides Overture as we know it today to reach completion, following the premiere of an early version and subsequent changes. But its position in the mainstream of the romantic repertoire remains undiminished today. And given the fresh and clearly defined colours of the AAM instrumentalists, particularly apparent in the extended section when the brass and woodwind throw little ideas back and forth to each other as the strings murmured, it took on a new impetus for those in the hall.

The same sense of instrumental colour permeated Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto, not least from the delicate tones of the inspirational soloist Bojan Čičić’s gut-strung violin. Gently emerging from the sound of the orchestra and blending perfectly with the background sound, his control of the tone and his absorption of the early romantic style, with its use of portamento and gentle finger vibrato, was outstanding. Bojan Čičić is the AAM’s leader since 1998, and it was entirely appropriate that he should be the soloist. The respect that his fellow musicians felt for him was apparent from the moment he first walked on stage. Using fingerings that survive from the first 1845 Leipzig performance to aid his interpretation, Čičić and conductor Laurence Cummings approached the work as chamber music, relishing the delicate nature of much of the musical textures. This made absolute musical sense, even though, as in the Hebrides Overture, the crescendos and louder passages were relished. Abrupt changes of mood and texture, of a type not usually found in the pre-romantic era, were given appropriate emphasis. The concluding movement was almost pixy-like in its flightiness.

Bojan Čičić returned to his position as AAM leader for the concluding Beethoven Pastoral Symphony, again given a chamber-like performance by Laurence Cummings. Perhaps the best known of all the romantic era’s hymns to nature, this is another piece that demands the use of period instruments. The violins, playing with early romantic era bows with a slightly concave arc, rather than the convex shape of the baroque bow, and holding the bow towards the end to give more power, rather than part way along, produced a superb sound, but it was the woodwind where the sound of period instruments really came into its own. With excellent solos from all the principals, and Laurence Cummings’ control of dynamics, this was one of those performances where it felt as though we were listening for the first time, such was level of detail that the clarity of the playing revealed.

If there was a moment in the entire concert when you wouldn’t want a mobile phone to sound, it would be that magical moment towards the end when, after a moment of silence, a solo flute sounds the song of a nightingale. And yes, that was the moment when a phone in the front row not only rang but appeared to have been answered, or at least started broadcasting a voice. This disturbance continued until the guilty party left the hall. Tempting, and understandable, as it must have been to stop the performance, Laurence Cummings gamely carried on to the completion, only to return for an encore that repeated the end from the sound of the nightingale. Excellent!

The AAM celebrate their 50th anniversary during the next season.

Performance photos © Mark Allan