Sibelius/Berlioz: LSO/Heras-Casado ***
Pablo Heras-Casado
© Fernando Sancho
Barbican, 28th June 2015
Fire and ice. When the cool, steely tone of Joshua Bell’s ‘Huberman’ Stradivarius met the feverish impetuosity of Pablo Heras-Casado at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra for the final leg of its International Violin Festival, it wasn’t always a case of opposites attracting. Sibelius’ Violin Concerto emerged as something of a tussle between soloist and orchestra which, although very much in the traditional nature of a concerto, sometimes felt uneasy. It was followed by a stop-start, slow-burner of a performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique that didn’t ignite until late.
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