Bavarian RSO/Jansons review – a brilliantly engineered affair

Barbican Hall, London
Like a sleekly upholstered car, the Munich orchestra toured an all-Russian programme with exquisite ease, but only their reading of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances was truly authoritative

London’s own top orchestras are on a high at the moment. So the old implicit idea that visiting orchestras, especially from Germany, provide an opportunity to hear how the core repertoire really ought to be done no longer washes. Mariss Jansons’ Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican underlined the point.

Don’t get me wrong. The Munich-based orchestra is a band of fabulous quality. The weight of their sound, the sheen of the strings and the technical ability of their principals are all beyond question, as is Jansons’s famous control and touch. But this all-Russian programme, with one wonderful exception, was not revelatory, let alone definitive. The Bavarians gave us one way of doing these pieces – a very good way and always exceptionally well played – but it’s not the only way.

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