Philharmonia/ Karl-Heinz Steffens **
Royal Festival Hall, 2nd November 2017
Eduard Hanslick had a sharp tongue and an even sharper pen. The critic savagely dismissed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto as “music that stinks”, while his verdict on a two-piano play-through of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony was “I had the feeling throughout that I was being beaten up by two incredible, intelligent people”. Harsh first verdicts indeed on two masterpieces, so I dread to think what Hanslick would have made of last night’s Philharmonia programme where these works were given variable performances under Karl-Heinz Steffens.
Esther Yoo
© Marco Borggreve
Read the full review on Bachtrack.