Review: Northern Sinfonia and Freddy Kempf, The Sage Gateshead

Mar 25 2008 by Thomas Hall, The Journal

THE Polish conductor Michal Dworzynski will have had a few days to reacquaint himself with the finer points of music that has no doubt crossed his path before, after being called upon to replace the Northern Sinfonia’s indisposed music director Thomas Zehetmair.

The Sinfonia has no trouble packing them in with these popular classics programmes.

This was one of those concerts where everything just seemed to fall into place. I say ‘seemed’, but there was a good deal more than luck propelling Dworzynski and soloist Freddy Kempf’s breathtaking performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no.2.

It begins with top flight musicianship – in the technical sense, that is. The pair barely broke eye contact for moment, signalling a push or a pull in tempo, or a rise or fall in intensity.

From that came the artistry, the thunderous introductory piano chords opening out into spontaneous sounding roulades with Kempf on exhilarating form. But he’s not all dash and exuberance; the slow movement came with heart-winning tenderness.

Dworzynski, too, is a dynamic performer, his physical approach reflected the music’s sense of immediacy. Sibelius’ Finlandia came with a bigger sound than a chamber orchestra ought by rights to be able to produce.

Dvorak’s New World Symphony had a similarly epic feel, even with the urgent tempo of the first movement. You began to see the plan, though, when the second was played with such a light touch. Dworzynski has a way of pointing up contrasts, the scherzo an unstoppable force and the finale building wave upon wave of energy towards a glorious ending.