BBC SSO/Manze review – sparkling rendition of two London symphonies

Royal Albert Hall, London
After some initial hesitancy, Andrew Manze drew out delicate phrasing and fine detail in this pairing of Haydn and Vaughan Williams

Orchestral music’s two “London” symphonies make for a neat and interesting concert pairing. It’s true that, unlike the symphony “by a Londoner” that Vaughan Williams wrote just before the first world war, Haydn’s 1795 symphony has little to do with the capital city beyond having been written and first performed here. But no matter. This was a programme ideally suited to the wide and enthusiastic conducting talents of Andrew Manze, who started out as an early music specialist before building a second career as a symphony orchestra conductor, not least with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has worked extensively on Vaughan Williams.

There was some hesitancy in the slow introduction to the opening of Haydn’s final, 104th, Symphony in D major, and the players seemed to take a few pages before adjusting their Haydn sound to the demands of the Albert Hall acoustic. But they found their stride in the adagio and never looked back thereafter. Here, as in the final two movements, Manze’s expertise as a string player ensured much delicate phrasing and well-contrasted dynamics, and the performance sparkled with Haydn’s wit and invention.

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