A conductor observed, Sheffield, 16 March 2018 -CBSO/MGT

Mirga Gražinyté Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Last Friday night the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra were in Sheffield for a concert in the City Hall.  They brought with them Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist and conductor Mirga Gražinyté Tyla, their Music Director.

I have over the nearly 40 years watched a lot of conductors and watched how orchestras react to them. I wanted to see how this conductor got this orchestra to play out of their skins in Beethoven 5 at last year's Proms: without seeing them I was really impressed as I wrote here.  Having seen it now, I'd say her style is unique.  It looks simple but it's very subtle and spare, until the orchestra needs something, and at that point she can supercharge their response.

I'd say Ms Gražinyté-Tyla has a very keen sense of the shape of the melody, her hands and arms carve out the lines sometimes long legato and other times shorter stabbing and punchier movements.  Sometimes she uses a baton but to broadly the same effect.  She indicates where she wants changes in dynamics with hands and body.  She also has a very clear downbeat when it's needed,  But much of the orchestra for much of the time - she hardly seems to conducts at all.  These gestures are not with self-aggrandising either.  She seems almost to invite the soloists to play and she is marvellously unfussy when things are going well.  The end of the Stravinsky or Debussy's engulfed cathedral were very still and so was she, but she was precise and so was the orchestra - not all top orchestras get that right.

When the music reaches a pivotal point and the emotional energy is charged she embodies completely the music.  The baton and indeed her whole body move with great energy, incisiveness and athleticism and the players respond accordingly.  It's an injection of fire - this is quite special and not confined to the great endings but whenever the music provides for it.  It is mesmeric and infectious, at the end of the Schumann and La Mer - the audience erupted too. Some ladies around me let out involuntary cries out with the emotional release of La Mer - I haven't heard that in Sheffield in along time.  It is quite clear that this band gets Mirga, and they watch her hawkishly and with great affection.  The glowing smiles on amongst the players tell a lot. I liked her interpretations too - novel ideas but finely judged.

I last heard CBSO in Sheffield City Hall a long time ago - Simon Rattle was conducting.  The place has had a revamp since then and it's a great hall now.  I've grown accustomed to it's acoustics, there are no echoing timpani nowadays.  It was good to be back hearing such a finely judged programme. The concert hall audience in Sheffield is now mostly made up of the over 60s - much like Manchester, though there were noticeably more young people on this evening than last time I was at the City Hall.

The concert started with four of Colin Matthews orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes.  The group ended with La Catherale Engloutie - it is a show stopper but had been originally programmed first.  Matthew's gives it a whiff of Elgar in the blazing climax but also a great deal of wonderful colour as the ghostly building sinks under the sea. The three other preludes -  Minstrels, La puerta del vino and General Lavine - l'eccentrique retained their variety, economy and wit.

As mentioned the great German pianist Rudolph Buchbinder - deeply seeped in the great Romantic repertoire played the Schumann Piano Concerto with fluency, great timing and a board smile.  I must confess I've never really enjoyed the first two movements - I last heard it live with Martha Argerich and was still left puzzled by the appeal of the work.  Buchbinder and Gražinyté Tyla caught the elation and electricity in the finale so that will do for me, but the first movement still eludes me.

After the interval Mirga and the massed winds of CBSO gave us Stravinsky's masterpiece Symphonies of Wind Instruments - a tribute to Debussy written after his death in 1919 and we heard the 1947 revision.  This isn't easy Stravinsky - it is superbly written.  It's an angular and episodic piece and seldom comfortable journey at times, but purposeful.  The solo players were marvellous and it was as instructive to watch the conductor's hands carving out these uneasy episodes from all manner of idioms, with a confident élan.  I was reminded of Mirga's background in choral conducting as the complex lines were layered and teased out.  Marvellous piece for the youngsters in the audience and those episodes really set the scene for one of Debussy's masterpiece

La Mer one of my favourite works and I yearn to hear new approaches to it.  My wish was fulfilled - though I'm not entirely sure how they conjured up such magic.  I need to hear it again.  In part it was by use of sparing but dramatic changes of the usual pace.  Also there was clever balancing of orchestral groups - giving percussion and harps more of a voice.  There was also very fine playing by the orchestra.  It was thrilling, spine tingling stuff, played with pinpoint accuracy.  There were two or three moments where Mirga held onto to the spectacular beauty of this piece - stopping time but never for too long.  The ending was not just about a race to the tape after the flute and high strings. It seemed to me to have an extra frisson not least because there was much more transparency and interplay between instrumental groups.  For the record there was no trumpet or horn motifs (at Fig 59 in my score) in the last movement - which I think helps hold the tension.

A fine end to a marvellous concert.  I'm pretty convinced Ms Gražinyté Tyla is the real deal and will be interested to see her progress in this post, I'm sure she will get some invitations from equally good orchestras.  For now she has a Debussy Festival in Birmingham under way, the remainder of the season with this busy orchestra before maternity leave kicks in, so next time these wonderful people are in your town - go see them, it's a real treat to hear music making of this intensity completely without artifice.